The War of Art

O'Neill-Butler argues that the braiding of art and politics is an essential, yet overlooked, part of America's cultural history. That artists have long fought hard against injustices; that art itself can in fact "do more."

Recent decades have seen an explosion of art activism, but little discussion of this deep history. The War of Art charts the post-war story of those who have used their artistic practise as a form of political protest. The book offers portraits of the key individuals, and groups of art activists who have campaigned for solidarity, housing, LGBTQ+, and indigenous injustice, the exclusion of women in the art world, the call for AIDS awareness. This includes: the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC), Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), David Wojnarowicz's work with ACTUP, Top Value Television (TVTV), Agnes Denes, Edgar Heap of Birds, Dyke Action Machine!, fierce pussy, the Project Row Houses, and Nan Goldin's Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (P.A.I.N.).

The book will be valuable to anyone interested in the history of artistic activism in the US and the global political and aesthetic debates of the 1960s to present. In contrast to financialised art market and mega-star artists, the book explores the power of collective efforts, and the uses of art as a means of resistance.