ABSTRACT
Recently We Ve Been Experiencing A rare moment when art has become a prominent issue in national politics. I don’t think such a moment has occurred since the McCarthy era, when some American congressmen expressed the belief that abstract art was a communist plot. But today it is not abstract art that is under the light; those who oppose the arts today would welcome a return of abstract painting as something familiar and safe—something reassuringly rooted in aesthetic, rather than social, realities. Now, surprisingly, it’s various kinds of figurative art—previously regarded as safe—that seem subversive and offensive.
