A little ahead of the power curve, I had just finished writing my entry for this week when I read something very disturbing, but not really all that surprising. So, a change of plans, and instead a different, more topical piece for your consideration.
Last March I wrote an entry called Dictatorship and Art … What’s At Stake. Well people, buckle up because it’s all starting to happen, and at breathtaking speed! This past Friday it was widely reported that our fearless leader announced he would clean out the Kennedy Center’s board, its board of trustees and chairman. He went on to state … and here’s a shocker … “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”
As Mitch McConnell once said … “elections have consequences”.
Here is what I wrote almost a year ago.
Dictatorship and Art … What’s At Stake?
Super Tuesday is now in the rear view mirror and we now know for sure who is going to be on the ballot come November. Yes it will be a rerun of 2020 and the choice we make could not be more important for our democracy and many of the other things we take for granted that are made possible by our democracy. Focusing for now on photographers and other artists, re-election of former occupant of the White House could have disastrous consequences.
We all know his infatuation with autocrats, and in particular his long running bromance with his sweetheart Vladimir Putin. So how have things worked out for Russian artists lately and is this something we should be worried about if the Orangeman and his coterie come back for the revenge tour and other fun stuff? Let’s take a look at an excerpt from a February 24, 2022 Freedom House analysis. If anything, what is described probably is much worse two years later. The full article can be found here: https://freedomhouse.org/article/cracking-down-artistic-expression-another-strike-against-russian-democracy
“There is a section of the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow where one turns a corner and the art transforms from the Soviet to post-Soviet era—an explosion of color, emotion, gore, heart, and the freedom that 1991 hearkened spreading across wall after white gallery wall. This captures the powerful mix of opportunity and possibility that defined the Russia of the 1990s. Today, the brutal persecution of the Russian artistic community has destroyed an integral piece of democracy—bringing an end to the dreams of freedom displayed on the New Tretyakov’s gallery walls.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Moscow regime has eliminated any opportunity to express independent perspectives in the country—enforcing a politically homogenous public through a potent combination of legislation and propaganda. Russian authorities have arrested and detained almost 20,000 antiwar activists and pursued more than 3,400 criminal cases against citizens for any infraction deemed to discredit Russian forces. Propaganda media guides assert stringent policies for outlets to discuss the invasion and ongoing war along government lines, helping complete a total social “purification.”
This crackdown extends to arenas of art and culture which served as important spaces in civil society throughout the 1990s and 2000s, when lines between art and activism blurred. Citizens’ ability to make sense of and express their perspectives through art is a crucial tenet of democracy in any society—only made more urgent and valuable as citizens endure personal and political crises which spur its necessity. Over the past decade, the regime has carefully lowered its tolerance for politically-provoking art, using broad legal jurisdiction to censor the arts around pro-Kremlin lines.
Since the start of the war on Ukraine, authorities have raided concerts in Moscow and fined musicians, including legendary rockstars Andrei Makarevich, Yuri Shevchuk, and Boris Grebenshchikov, over antiwar expressions. Legislation has placed dissenting filmmakers and writers on wanted lists, proposed book bans equating queerness in literature with pornography, and blatantly censored art exhibitions to comply with Russian National Security Strategy. On June 29, the Moscow Cultural Department dismissed the leaders of three prominent theaters, including the Gogol Center, a prominent, beloved oppositionist theater known for its community spirit and alternative visionary mission in Russian culture.
Refusal to cooperate under strict sociopolitical conditions means harsh consequences for dissenting artists. In March, theater management across Russia began pushing their teams to make public pro-war statements, and many fired cultural workers over their open criticism of the war. The 15th annual ArtDocFest, Russia’s largest documentary festival, was canceled after Russian nationalists attacked its director. In April, playwright Mikhail Durnenkov posted his hopes for a defeated Russia on Facebook to find his account immediately flooded with threats. Signatories of an antiwar petition quickly lost work, including director Dmitriy Krymov, whose performances were canceled in Moscow. Prior to the war, film and television management circulated stop lists of Russian actors who held dissenting views in 2021, systematically purging artists who did not politically conform.”
Then there is Trump’s soulmate and idol, Hungary’s prime minister and strong man Viktor Orban. On Friday, the two paled around at Mar-a-Lago. Great #@$%^&. Like Putin and most other autocrats, Orban came to power democratically and began to destroy democratic institutions, the rule of law and the free press. In November 2022, the Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI) released the Artistic Freedom Monitor report on Hungary – Systematic Suppression: Hungary’s Arts and Culture in Crisis. The full report can be found here: https://artisticfreedominitiative.org/projects/artistic-freedom-monitor/hungary/
A summary the report states “Over the last decade, Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has implemented constitutional, legislative, and administrative changes aimed at consolidating his party’s control over the arts. Under Orbán’s leadership, Hungary’s previously independent arts and culture sector has been refashioned as a mechanism for advancing a singular ethno-nationalist narrative. …. Systematic Suppression exposes how Orbán’s administration wields policy to limit free expression, restrict plurality in the arts, and encourage self-censorship among Hungarian artists.”
I think you get the picture.
What can we do? Whatever you can to make sure things don’t go south in November. If we don’t we only have ourselves to blame for what happens next.
Stay well,
Michael
Now, fast forward. And here we are, not even one month into his term. Yup, elections sure do have consequences. For the arts … and everything else.
On Saturday, in a must read editorial entitled Now Is Not the Time to Tune Out, the New York Times wrote:
“America faces a new reality, and it demands wisdom, endurance and courage. The United States is now led by a president who appears willing to stampede over any person, law, congressional statute or country that stands in his way. He is driven by impulse and is disinterested in rules, history or reality.
How Americans and the world handle such a president will determine much about the next four years, and it will ask much from all of us. We must meet the moment. Mr. Trump won the election fair and square, but his position is that of president, not king or god-emperor. Every time Congress allows him to exceed his constitutional role, it encourages more anti-democratic behavior and weakens the legislature’s ability to check further erosion of the norms and values that have helped make this nation the freest, richest and strongest in the world.”
We all need to take a look in the mirror and decide who we are, what we stand for and what we plan to do.
Stay well,
Michael
