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artists cannot stand aside

mixed media, 35 x 20 x 20cm a man staggers across a beach with dead child in his arms. A child, a refugee, whose boat overturned on making a bid for a new life free from war, violence and death. cameras click, papers carry the pictures around the world people tut and bluster, very little changes. In the words of one of the great muralists of recent times; "I am in agitprop artist, but I do not believe that this approach is necessarily for all artists. Each artist must find his or her own voice. For some that may mean a very personal, abstract or formal type of art. However, I think that all artists, regardless of their means of expression, should be conscious of the struggle of humanity to overcome the horrors of capitalism. That is what informs all great art, whether it is overtly political in its imagery or not. In my home, I would much rather have a Cézanne hanging on my wall to look at, than one of my agitprop murals!" Mike Alwitz. Artists cannot stand aside, we are part of society, refusing to get involved means standing for the status-quo.

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