ART: 21
Episode 2: Protest
Legion Arts and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art have teamed up to present free local screenings of the new season of this acclaimed PBS series. Each episode lasts an hour. The second installment (shown at the Museum of Art) examines the ways in which four artists use their work to picture war, express outrage, and empathize with the suffering of others.

Politics and the brutality of war underscore many of Nancy Spero’s paintings. A pioneer of feminist art, she creates easily-read yet complicated work that makes an unapologetic statement against, and generates discussion about, the abuse of power, privilege and male dominance. Landscape photographer An-My Lê's black and white images examine the impact, representation and meaning of war, as well as the relationship between military activity and the surrounding terrain. Lê draws on her own childhood experience as a refugee of the Vietnam War to capture compelling photographs reflecting our present-day involvement in the Middle East. Basing his work on research, reflection, and response to horrific events, Alfredo Jaar’s installations, films and community based projects communicate a specific experience to his audience, capturing beauty, but also confronting horror. Jaar identifies the gap between reality and its representation, and his work explores the limits of art to accurately represent tragic world events, from genocide to poverty and famine. Jenny Holzer, well-known for her subversive use of text and poetry, focuses on cruelty, devastation, consumerist impulses, death and disease in order to provoke a critical response from the viewer. Whether in an installation of declassified war documents or a large-scale projection of text from provocative essays, Holzer presents words in ways that are overwhelming, exacting, and illustrate the power of language to harm or heal, expose or conceal.
Thu Oct 25 | 7 pm
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art | Cedar Rapids
Free | donations welcome

See all four episodes of Art:21: Romance Oct 18 at CSPS; Protest Oct 25 at the Museum of Art; Ecology Nov 1 at CSPS; and Paradox Nov 8 at the Museum of Art.

Ticket info
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Visit the official PBS Art:21 Web site
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