A mural painted in Avondale, Chicago, that was later censored or whitewashed after a city official met with the owner of the building. by Corey Lewis
* The following article is inspired by Chris Hedges' recent book "Death of the Liberal Class." Hedges' detailing of how art has been dismantled by the elites and how liberals have, in the past century, helped elites turn art and culture into something that is sterile and commercial--something used to suppress thought and prevent people from taking on injustice in their communities--should be considered further in a contemporary context. This will be the first in a long-running series of articles on art and culture in America.
In the first part of December, an Italian
street artist known as Blu painted an anti-war mural on the wall of the Geffen
Contemporary Art building in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. The museum
commissioned the work but then whitewashed it because it wanted to be "sensitive" to
the nearby Veterans Affairs hospital or the Japanese American war memorial
nearby. The mural was a painting of coffins draped in dollar bills.
Similarly, Chicago artist Victor M. Montanez, a lifelong
artist who specializes in creating art that can create a context for culture
and empower the masses, has faced whitewashing or outright censorship of art in
Chicago that he has produced or created through collaboration with other
artists. I spoke to him about the whitewashing of art that carries messages, which might be offensive to those in power.
"It's a systemic attack," explains Montanez. "[It's] an attack on the roots of creativity and self-expression. It's no coincidence that all of the educational systems across the country facing financial problem, the first thing that they do is cut art and music from the curriculum. In Chicago, four hundred art & music teachers were let go just recently."
He adds, the attacks are not just "on the surface of what we see when established artists get censored." Artists are asked to censor before they get started, while they get started (otherwise they risk losing funding), when faced with opportunities for promotion, etc.
Montanez describes a recent and key incident of censorship, when he had young up-and-coming artists cooperate with him to paint a mural on a business owner's building.
The artists made an agreement with the owner to "decorate his building in exchange for him displaying our art." The owner "was not going to provide one cent" to the artists and in return he was "going to allow the artists to paint whatever they want." The artists got together and painted a mural that said, "Power, unity, funk, hip-hop, peace," and then in the top it had a banner. The banner said "No Human is Illegal."
The completed mural, which up-and-coming artists came together to produce. by PPC Photography
The owner started "requesting that the statement about
immigration be removed as well as any kind of reference to hip-hop be removed
as well." The artists "reminded him what the agreement was and also made it
clear some of the artists -"especially the artists behind some of the portions
he wanted removed--were out of town and that he wait to let the piece be what
they want but we ourselves could whitewash the work. And then the next day he
just whitewashed the whole mural."
"We feel that was really an attack," claims Montanez. "Folks don't want us talking about immigrants as humans. And that disturbs some people, but it's also clearly censorship."
The building after the mural was censored or whitewashed. by PPC Photography
Montanez suggests this censorship reflects a "change" in art away from something that is an affirmation to or an aspiration of the community to something that more closely resembles "commercial trendy art." It's a move toward "commercialism" and art that "promotes drinking beer, drinking wine, dining out but it doesn't really speak of community issues." And, in many cases, Montanez adds, it can't because the artists coming in and creating the art are not from the community so they cannot ever speak for the community.
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