All posts tagged: Dread Scott

“White people can’t be trusted with power,” from Dread Scott on the Street in  Manhattan

“White people can’t be trusted with power,” from Dread Scott on the Street in Manhattan

Trust artist Dread Scott to perfect the provocative phrase that can raise the prickly ire of certain street passersby, simply and succinctly. And trust the self-elected censorious social media platforms like Instagram to actually ban it.

Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Scott says, “White people can’t be trusted with power” in this new public artwork at 42nd near 10th Avenue in Manhattan. It may remind you of a Jenny Holzer “Truism” that she may have wheat-pasted on the street in the past, a pertinent pique that strikes at the heart of the matter, minus the sense of irony. But in the current context of white people’s reluctant awakening, Mr. Scott writes, “When this was originally posted, Instagram banned it as ‘hate speech.’ ”

The “opening” for this piece at the Playwrights Horizons performing arts theater was this week and will be up through May 9th.

Dread Scott. White people can’t be trusted with power. Manhattan, NYC. 2021 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It remains unharmed as placed safely behind thick glass in a nondescript contemporary vacuum streetside, – leading street artist and conceptual artist Ann Lewis to compare it to a single layer stencil by Bristol’s Banksy further that lies north about 30 blocks, which is also behind protective perspex eight years after it appeared.

“Though,” she writes to us, “that was meant to protect it because people ‘loved’ it, not because its radical enough for folks to want to destroy it.” In fact, the piece she speaks of depicts a small boy in the act of destructive vandalism – hardly an act normally worth preserving for posterity, but there you have it. Speaking of Scott’s taut text, Lewis comments on his posting, “I love that it’s sitting behind glass as if to say it will likely be vandalized because we white folks can’t take this sort of blatantly obvious criticism without attempting to destroy the truth.”

While the sentiment may or may not be the artist’s, more powerful perhaps is the reaction it engenders – again providing a mirror to the viewer as much great art on the street does.

Predictably, IG commenters on his artwork run the gamut, from the hands-down agreement to the mildly put-out to the outraged and whiney. “Seems to me – “PEOPLE can’t be trusted with power,” writes a poster called Lil Oak Productions – clarifying that one shouldn’t single out the predominant race that has held power on this continent for centuries for specific criticism.  

Artist Steve Locke responds directly to this comment as if calling to a cabaret singer, “Great. Now do ‘All Lives Matter’ since you are playing the hits.”

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The New Whitney Opens May 1 – “America Is Hard To See”

The New Whitney Opens May 1 – “America Is Hard To See”

The stunning new Whitney Museum opens tomorrow, May 1st, in the Meat Packing District of lower Manhattan and you will be overwhelmed to see the last 115 years or so of artistic expression in America on display for the exhibit “America Is Hard To See”. 400 artists of every discipline and many art movements during your life and your great grandparents are here – from film and video to painting and sculpture and new media and photography, from abstract, figurative, text based, landscapes, and our own visual jazz – abstract expressionism – you’ll be exhausted when you are through with this show.

You’ll also be energized by the sense of sheer possibility presented – and the amount of space and the many outdoor plaza views. This is a new jewel in New York, and you have discovered it.

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Donal Moffett. He Kills Me, 1987. The artist printed this poster and wheat pasted it on walls across New York City as a critique of President Reagan’s silence towards the AIDS epidemic. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We don’t get a new museum every day, but tomorrow you do, and it is rather spectacular to be privileged this way in this city of constant change. No matter your perspective, you will find the inaugural show to be vast. You are certain to like or disagree or applaud or dish with someone here, and it is all strangely American – Here is just a partial sampling of names showing about 600 works that should whet your appetite; Vito Acconci, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Rory Arcangel, John Baldessari, Mathew Barney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Paul Cadmus, Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Imogen Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, Mark di Suvero, Elsie Driggs, William Eggleston, Anna Gaskell, Milton Glaser, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, George Grosz, Keith Haring, Eva Hesse, Edward Hopper, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Rober Mapplethorpe, Gordon Matta-Clark, Paul McCarthy, Joan Mitchell, Donal Moffett, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O’Keefe, Jose Clemente Orozco, Nam June Paik, Jackon Pollock, Richard Prince, Christina Ramberg, Robert Raushenberg, Hans Richter, Mark Rothko, Edward Ruscha, David Salle, Dread Scott, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Frank Stella, Hedda Sterne, Alfred Stieglitz, Rirkrit Tiravanjia, Anne Truit, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Weegee, William Wegman, Gertude Vanderbuilt Whitney, David Wojnarowicz, Francesca Woodman, Andrew Wyeth.

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Barbara Kruger. Untitled. (We Don’t Need Another Hero), 1987. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You’ll look through that list and want to add some of your own of course, everyone does. Despite the revered Biennial which periodically bowls you over with new talent, some still find that there are not enough of certain social groups represented, and that is probably fair.

We find it somewhat alarming that 50+ years of graffiti and street art is only minimally represented here –  especially when it has become one of the hugely praised cultural exports to cities around the world and it is highly collected and ever-more auctioned. Talk about American! New York is considered a birthplace for the urban art scene and we can recommend a short list of these artists who are daily defining a new contemporary art for serious consideration. Yes this show has Haring, Basquiat, Kruger – acknowledged. But a great deal has happened in the last two decades. Maybe now that formally trained artists are frequently killing it on the streets in the 2000s and 2010s we will see more of these names included as part of the American story in the future. In fact, there is no doubt.

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Glenn Ligon. Ruckenfigure, 2009 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The striking new modern home by Renzo Piano is twice the size of the old one and some of the views from the museum of this city that you love may rob your attention briefly from the art displayed inside. The inaugural show up until September is called America is Hard to See, and at $22 a ticket, so is the new Whitney Museum of American Art. That price may not seem like much when you consider it would get you four hours rent in a market rate one-bedroom in this neighborhood. But in a city where workers are fighting for a $15 minimum wage we’d like to see it accessible to more New Yorkers as it is the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States. Just had to say it. Hopefully they will find a way to institute frequent “pay what you want” nights, and to be fair, students get in FREE every day.

But this is your museum, and we hope you add your voice to the discussion.

Meanwhile, join us as we say “Welcome to the New Whitney!”

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George Segal. Walk, Don’t Walk, 1976 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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George Segal. Walk, Don’t Walk, 1976 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Christopher Wool. Untitled, 1990 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Edward Ruscha. Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, 1962 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John Baldessari. An Artist Is Not Merely the Slavish Announcer, 1966-68 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mike Kelly. More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid and The Wages of Sin, 1987 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Lee Krasner. The Seasons, 1957 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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From left to right: Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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General view of one of the galleries. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mary Heilmann. Sunset, detail. Site specific installation. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The back yard. The view from the back of the building. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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