Spencer Museum of Art The University of Kansas
detail: All American Family by Richard Mock

Printed Art and Social Radicalism

The exhibition Printed Art and Social Radicalism was on display in 2002. This website recapitulates the exhibition with a few additions. We have used quick digital snapshots to give a sense of the images. These will be replaced by higher quality images as time allows.

Here is the introductory label for the exhibition:

Printed Art and Social Radicalism

The notion of social radicalism embraces a variety of modern radical schools of thought, such as socialism, communism, and anarchism. Each of these has enlisted the arts as a means of propagating its agenda. The graphic arts, efficiently and inexpensively distributed in large numbers, lend themselves to such political image making. This small exhibition of printed art from ca. 1900 to today presents activist artists whose work often rises above the simplistic notion of propaganda, drawing on their genuine sense of commitment and engagement to find novel ways to communicate their convicitons.

Stephen Goddard
Curator of Prints and Drawings