Latest news with #politicalArt
Daily Mail
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
White House outraged by shocking new DC sculpture showing Trump 'dancing' with Jeffrey Epstein
A gaudy gold sculpture showing Donald Trump dancing alongside pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has popped up in front of the US Capitol. The anonymous artwork features a television spray-painted gold topped by a bald eagle with its wings spread. The TV sits above a plaque bearing a quote attributed to the Trump White House: 'In the United States of America you have the freedom to display your so-called "art," no matter how ugly it is.' Trump's 'dad dancing' has been parodied everywhere from TikTok to NFL touchdown celebrations, but not usually alongside his sex offender former friend. A National Parks Service permit application stated that the piece's purpose was 'to demonstrate freedom of speech and artistic expression using political imagery.' The quote accompanying the piece came from White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson in response to another, 8ft sculpture named 'Dictator Approved' that appeared in the same spot last week. The anonymous artwork features a television spray-painted gold topped by a bald eagle with its wings spread That work showed the cracked head of the Statue of Liberty crushed by a huge golden hand giving a thumbs-up. Sitting around the pillar were complimentary quotes about Trump from leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin ('a very bright and talented man') and North Korea's Kim Jong Un ('extraordinary courage'). Jackson missed the point of the artwork by adding that if the US was a dictatorship, the sculpture wouldn't be allowed. She didn't appear amused by being the butt of a new joke either. 'Wow, these liberal activists masquerading as "artists" are dumber than I thought!' she told the Washington Post. 'I've tricked them into taking down their ugly sculpture and replacing it with a beautiful video of the president's legendary dance moves that will bring joy and inspiration to all tourists traversing our National Mall. 'Maybe they will put this on their next sculpture.' Trump's relationship with Epstein was thrust back into the spotlight earlier this month during the president's spectacular falling out with Elon Musk. 'Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files,' Musk claimed on Twitter at the time. Exactly who is responsible for the artwork is a mystery as no one has publicly claimed responsibility. The name on the permit for the piece is listed as 'Mary Harris', possibly a reference to labor leader Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones from the 1890s to 1920s. The Washingtonian spoke to a man from a group calling itself 'Statues Art Project' who explained that Trump's dancing was the 'ugliest art that we could think of'. 'Even though their comment is really snarky and passive-aggressive, I think this statement is actually kind of a beautiful thing about this country that has rights and norms and other standards of American living seem to be disappearing by the day in this administration,' the man said of Jackson's 'ugly art' line. He denied the same artists were responsible for similarly styled anonymous sculptures in DC, Philadelphia and Portland last year. Those included a bronze tiki torch and a replica of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with feces on her desk, in reference to the January 6 insurrection. The sculpture, which is protected around the clock by security guards, is expected to stay up through the weekend.
Wall Street Journal
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910-1945: Masterworks From the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin' Review: Capturing Seismic Shifts
Fort Worth, Texas Contrary to much popular belief, all art is not political. But in the first half of the 20th century—when Germany was experiencing rapid industrialization and militarization; the rise of nationalism and socialism; the defeat of World War I; the creation and swift fall of the liberal Weimar Republic; and a totalitarian Nazi regime that enforced its artistic taste by persecuting, exiling, even killing artists—German art certainly was.
