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Peter SaulPolitics1985
1985
About the Item
Peter Saul
Politics, 1985
Color lithograph on wove paper
Hand signed, numbered X/X (apart from the regular edition of 25), and dated on the front
Frame Included: matted and framed in a hand made wood frame
This 1985 print depicting a cartoonishly horrid Ronald Reagan was published a year after Peter Saul's painting, "Ronald Reagan in Grenada", in which the former president invades the Caribbean island with a wad of cash. Saul later told the Guardian newspaper: “Reagan suits my art style perfectly, the way he looks,” said Saul. “I’m just trying to help my art be interesting, can we have a painting that’s interesting to look at?” A 2015 Artforum Review describes President Reagan as one of the artist's biggest arch villains "who sits deep in Saul’s Dantean circles of hell."
In a quote from 1967, Peter Saul stated: "Not to be shocking means to agree to be furniture.”
Peter Saul is one of the pioneers of the Pop Art movement - especially recognized for his powerful anti-War and politically focused pieces of the early Seventies and Eighties. "Politics" was done as a protest against Ronald Reagan at the outset of his second term in office, with close up text like "Money", "Power" and "Cuba" alluding to some of his failed and controversial foreign policy escapades of the era - many of which have been conveniently forgotten. Here, a grotesque image of Ronald Reagan has a phallic telephone with the label "Hotline" dropping from his nether parts; near his gigantic feet, is the word "Art" - ready to be stomped on it seems. What we love about this work is its sheer audaciousness; nowadays it's considered sacrilege for anyone to dare to criticize one of the most popular presidents in American history who won election, and then re-election in a landslide. Indeed, since the 1980s, Democratic politicians like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have often been even more eager than their Republican counterparts to invoke the name and legacy of Ronald Reagan in order to bolster their own popularity. Reagan, the Great Communicator, has been claimed by all politicians and pundits, who are ever mindful of his enduring populist appeal: all criticism of him ends with his silver-tongued charm. But Peter Saul's 1985 "Politics" reminds us that wasn't always the case.
These days, it's easy for American Liberals to see Donald Trump as the ultimate bogeyman, but ponder this: In 1983, Donald Trump was pro-choice, whereas Ronald Reagan wrote an essay defending the life of the unborn, predicting that the nation’s opinion on abortion eventually would change and expressing his desire to see Roe v. Wade overturned: “He probably did more than any other one politician to put the pro-life agenda on the radar screen of the nation,” said Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
This Peter Saul print is only for brave collectors and institutions who are not afraid to challenge conventional wisdom, as it forces people to think beyond received narratives imposed upon us by both the Left and the Right - out of sheer expedience, even at the expense of the truth.
The present work is a rare proof - numbered X/X in Roman Numerals, apart from the regular edition of 25.
Ships framed.
Another edition of this work is in the permanent collection of the Asheville Museum of Art.
This work was also exhibited at Carl Solway Gallery, "Peter Saul Print Retrospective, 1966-2010" in 2011 (another edition).
Measurements:
Frame:
41 x 31 x 2 inches
Print:
40 x 30 inches
- Creator:Peter Saul (1934)
- Creation Year:1985
- Dimensions:Height: 41 in (104.14 cm)Width: 31 in (78.74 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Not examined outside of frame, but no apparent issues.
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1745212686342
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