Can the “Sistine Chapel of the New Deal” Be Saved From Trump?

Can the “Sistine Chapel of the New Deal” Be Saved From Trump?

The Trump White House’s desire that government-funded art “remove divisive or partisan narratives,” to quote a letter sent last August to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, is nothing new. At the dawn of the Cold War, that same fatuous sentiment was directed against Ben Shahn’s New Deal frescoes “The Meaning of Social Security,” the most visually arresting of many murals and sculptures decorating the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in W…

A Crafty Show About State Fairs Stares Down the White House

Last March, when the Trump administration issued an executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history,” the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) quickly became a target. Then, in August, the administration announced a comprehensive audit of all the Smithsonian’s exhibitions, didactics, and collections. Based on the executive order’s condemnation of any discussion of racism, sexism, and oppression as revisionist history, the audi…