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The Art of Politics and the Personal: Looking at the Paintings of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
November 18, 2012
We are immersed in a global culture that responds to the same imperatives as all other aspects of the neo-liberal economy. Cultural production is for profit, measured in sheer numbers: the size of the audience; attendance, circulation and sales figures; YouTube hits and demographics; and, of course, price, as measured by the speculation on numerous markets and institutions that deal in rare and unique commodities. Walter Benjamin famously wrote about mass reproduction and art, arguing that as images became more ubiquitous, the "aura" of originals would decline, liberating vision to become useful to the direct cultural producers once again. Revolutionaries and socialists often look at art this way; we yearn for an authentic, political art that can resist and even stand outside such a monstrous, mimetic, commodity culture.
The Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are often called on to fill that need. Modern painters from the early 20th Century, they explored the new forms and imagery possible in painting, working in styles from surrealism to socialist realism, creating small autobiographical works for themselves and giant murals done for the wealthiest patrons in the world. Their work is rich, warm, and rewarding to look at, but it also suggests many contradictions and questions. This talk will look at some of the methods by which art is discussed from a Marxist perspective.
Time: 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Venue: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Room 7192
Location: 252 Bloor Street West Toronto, ON
Website: http://www.ago.net/frida-diego-passion-politics-and-painting
For information contact: brian.donnelly@sheridanc.on.ca
Categories: Arts & Culture
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