ANOTHER VOICE: Political Illustration of the Late 20th Century

Press/blogs:

• Southwest Journal
• City Pages
• MinnPost
• Mostly Minnesota
• Rozwoundup

ANOTHER VOICE: Political Illustration of the Late 20th Century features over 100 artworks by many of the nation’s leading editorial illustrators. Between 1981 and 1999 the illustrations occupied the pages of the Progressive, a magazine committed to fostering advocacy and direct action in the cause of democracy, peace, social justice, and environmental awareness. During his eighteen years as art director, Patrick JB Flynn ’76 enabled the venerable magazine to become a platform for politically minded illustrators and photographers to address the heady issues of the day, unfettered and free of editorial meddling.

Curated by Flynn, Another Voice chronicles how graphic art was given an independent voice, sympathetic but not subservient to the written content of the magazine. According to writer and former New York Times art director Steven Heller, “Illustration in the Progressive was never designed to be filler.” Rather, with its range of subject matter and artistic styles, “the drawings, collages, and paintings . . . extend satiric traditions dating back to the eighteenth-century English satirists (Gilray, Hogarth, Rowlandson), nineteenth-century commentators (Daumier, Steinlen, Nast), and twentieth-century polemicists (Hoch, Heartfield, Grosz).”

The social commentary and biting satire displayed by exhibiting artists such as Melinda Beck, Roxanna Bikadoroff, Sue Coe, Henrik Drescher, Michael Duffy, Carl Dunn, Brad Holland, Jordin Isip, Stephen Kroninger, Anita Kunz, David McLimans, and Ralph Steadman—among others—deals with issues that, unfortunately, remain as relevant now as they were two decades ago. This exhibition serves as a reminder that without creative freedom we limit the possibility of knowing, learning, and ultimately understanding our place and responsibility in an increasingly complex world.