Two years ago in the pages of Artforum we asked artists to create works inspired by Soviet monuments threatened with destruction. The result was an unprecedented coauthorship between East and West. For the first time, Modernism and Socialist Realism intersected: more than 200 artists from different parts of the world created their own versions of Russian Socialist Realism. But time erodes not only the memorials of totalitarianism but also the memory of the revolutionary traditions of American democracy. It’s time to take the next step—to create new and original versions of American Social Realism.
At the end of the century and the millennium, the year 1999 will mark the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s death. But revolutionaries never die! We call on everyone who believes that the revolutionary legacy of the Founding Fathers is threatened . with extinction to create work devoted to this patriotic theme. (Writer Gary Indiana and composer David Soldier have already joined us in creating an opera based on George Washington’s life.)
