American artists have long battled injustice, believing that art can serve as a tool for effecting change. The War of Art tells the story of artist-led activism, describing political and aesthetic debates of the period from the 1960s to the present. Marking a sharp contrast to the financialized art market and the world of celebrity artists, the book explores the power of collective effort - from protesting to philanthropy, from wheat pasting to planting wheat.
Lauren O’Neill-Butler charts the postwar development of artists’ protest and connects these struggles to the American traditions of feminism and civil rights activism. The book offers portraits of prominent individuals and artists’ groups that have campaigned for arts education, housing, LGBTQ+ rights, and HIV/AIDS awareness and against injustice toward Indigenous people and the exclusion of Black and female artists by major art institutions. The subjects explored include the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC), Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), David Wojnarowicz’s work with ACT UP, Top Value Television (TVTV), Agnes Denes, Edgar Heap of Birds, Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!), fierce pussy, Project Row Houses, and Nan Goldin’s Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN).
Based on in-depth oral histories with key figures in these movements and illustrated throughout, The War of Art is an essential corrective to the idea that art history is unrelated to politics.
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