Interview: James Panero on art and politics

Brian Sherwin interviews James Panero for Fine Art Views to discuss art, politics, and the alternative art scene.

Brian Sherwin: The problem is clear in my opinion... some art will not see the light of day in the professional art world due to the political power structure that has contained the direction of art in regards to how it is presented to the public in top art museums and galleries. How should that problem be faced? How can the art world become a more open place to ideas in general?

James Panero: The answer again is in embracing this country's alternative art scene. Some of the best art produced today is isn't being shown in the big Chelsea galleries or the contemporary art museums. It's emerging in smaller galleries and do-it-yourself venues. Again the responsibility falls to the art-buying public to put their money where their mouth is and bypass the large institutions--the art world's MSM. I would much rather support a small art non-profit like Nurtureart or Norte Maar or The New Criterion than contribute to Glenn Lowry's dry cleaning bill at MOMA.

Catch the entire interview here.

James Kalm: Ten Long Years of War

James Kalm returns to The Joe Bonham Project after his filing his Rough Cuts report with a humbling essay in The Brooklyn Rail on the exhibition and the effects of ten years of war:

It’s a delicate and discomforting aesthetic area encountered with these works, and I accept the notion expressed by curator Panero, and Project founder Fay, that the show had no intentional “political” agenda. Yet within the hyper-partisan New York art scene, any hint of “patriotism,” “nationalism,” or sympathy for the U.S. military could, in the past, rain down a screaming chorus of derision. The fact that the “Joe Bonham Project” has escaped this kind of criticism may be due to the passing of a generation, or to a community evolving a more rational view, in the aftermath of New York suffering the worst attack on American soil, of the world and its dangers. I think it also bears testament to the success of this exhibition, and to our natural, empathic identification with those heroes who chose to follow the call that few have the courage to answer. The show’s therapeutic value extends not only to the injured Marines and the artists, but to viewers dealing with ten long years of war.

Read the entire essay here.