Are Seekers of Politically Autonomous Art Barking up the Wrong Tree?

With the presidential election less than a month away, it’s hard to go to a museum or gallery in the United States right now and not see art that either directly or indirectly references the election. In his essay, “Autonomy in Conservative Times,” Bret Schneider describes how the idea of autonomy has “crept into the lexicon of contemporary art,” despite the fact that the debate itself over autonomy in art is “passé.” Schneider sees the whole revisiting of political autonomy as a huge misinterpretation, but a misinterpretation that holds important implications for society today. Are people pursuing political autonomy in art, like the title pooch in Joan Miró’s Dog Barking at the Moon (from 1926, shown above), barking up the wrong tree for a reason? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Are Seekers of Politically Autonomous ArtBarking up the Wrong Tree?"

[Image: Joan Miró. Dog Barking at the Moon, 1926. Oil on canvas. Unframed: 73.03 x 92.08 cm (28 3/4 x 36 1/4 in.). Framed: 87.6 x 107 x 7 cm (34 1/2 x 42 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.). Philadelphia Museum of Art, A.E. Gallatin Collection, 1952. © 2012 Successió Miró/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.]

[Many thanks to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, for providing me with the image above and a review copy of the catalog to the exhibition Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape.]