Politics, race dominate New York's Whitney Museum art exhibit

14 March 2017 - 11:32 By Reuters
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Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
Image: Whitney Museum of American Art via Google photo

US racial tensions, economic inequities and political divisiveness are the dominate themes for art showcased at this year's Whitney Museum biennial exhibit in New York, the longest-running survey of American art.

The exhibit, which runs March 17-June 11, includes films, paintings, photographs and sculptures from dozens of artists.

One video installation, "A Very Long Line", created by a group of artists calling themselves Postcommodity, focuses on the long border between the United States and Mexico, an issue that has become politically polarizing under U.S. President Donald Trump.

Another work, a painting by Dana Schutz, focuses on Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy killed by two white men in a Mississippi Delta town in 1955.

"It's a show about people's lives, about the issues that matter to them," said Scott Rothkopf, Deputy Director for Programs at the museum.

"There's maybe not one theme, but certainly many people responding to the issues of the day ... with beauty, with grace, with metaphor," he added. 

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