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Political Art

Political Art at Asheville Art Museum

Politics by Peter Saul

Creating Change: Political Art at Asheville Art Museum

Asheville Art Museum presents Creating Change: Political Art from the Permanent Collection through Sunday, October 30. The exhibition focuses on work with political content that speaks directly to the concerns of our society. Pieces on view are diverse in perspective as well as style and medium. They include Antonio Frasconi’s Homage to George Jackson, woodcut on paper; Peter Saul’s Politics, a lithograph; and Anne Lemanski’s DEREGULATOR, made from copper wire, novelty money, fabric and artificial sinew.

“In this presidential election season, we thought it would be important to look at how artists in the museum’s permanent collection viewed politics,” says Kenneth Betsalel, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville, who collaborated with museum curators to organize the exhibition. “What we quickly discovered was that there was no one viewpoint expressed by the artworks, but rather the artists took on the difficult subjects of war, peace, poverty, justice, economics, immigration, identity, environment, race, gender and human sexuality in ways that challenged and provoked viewers to think for themselves.”

The collection takes a historical and topical approach to art and politics that spans the 1930s through the Post September 11 era to the present. “What came through was a diversity of artistic responses to politics that we hope will serve as a catalyst for dialogue among viewers on how art can create change in how we view the world and speak directly to concerns of our society,” says Betsalel.

Asheville Art Museum, at 2 South Pack Square, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday–Saturday and 1–5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and students (K–12 and college students with college I.D.). Members and children five and under are admitted free of charge. The Holden Community Gallery, Museum Shop and Biltmore Gallery are free of charge. Learn more at ashevilleart.org.

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