Exhibition Organized By Jonathan Horowitz Explores Artists' Responses To Social Injustice

The Jewish Museum will present We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz which looks at how artists have responded to intolerance and authoritarianism, and how they've addressed immigration, assimilation, and cultural identity, from March 20 through August 2, 2020. The exhibition will feature works of art primarily from the early 20th century to now. Examples of American social realism from the 1930s and 1940s, new works by Jonathan Horowitz, and newly commissioned political posters by contemporary artists are highlighted. The approximately 80 works include a range of media: sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, and video.

"The Jewish Museum invited me to develop a project responding to the recent rise of anti-Semitism," Jonathan Horowitz said. "I chose to address the subject within a broad context, looking at how artists have responded historically to the rise of authoritarianism and xenophobia, including anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry."

The exhibition's title, We Fight to Build a Free World, is adapted from a painting by Ben Shahn, We Fight for a Free World, c. 1942, which will be on view in this exhibition. Also included are works by Asco, Huma Bhabha, Enrique Chagoya, Robert Colescott, Phillip Evergood, Luis Jiménez, Rebecca Lepkoff, Glenn Ligon, Abraham Manievich, Bernard Perlin, Adrian Piper, Fritz Scholder, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Henry Sugimoto, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Max Weber, and Charles White, among others.

Horowitz's installation sets a selection of works in thought provoking contexts, offering visitors new ways to interpret the art. Evocative juxtapositions of artworks and exhibition graphics create unexpected associations and foster dialogue.

We Fight to Build a Free World will also feature an installation of newly commissioned political posters by 36 artists including Judith Bernstein, Marcel Dzama, Rico Gatson, Kim Gordon and Jason Smith, Cheyenne Julien, Christine Sun Kim, Guadalupe Maravilla, and Marilyn Minter.

The exhibition is a project by artist Jonathan Horowitz, organized in consultation with Ruth Beesch, Senior Deputy Director, and Shira Backer, Leon Levy Assistant Curator, The Jewish Museum. The exhibition and graphic design are by Topos Graphics.

Jonathan Horowitz (b. 1966, New York) has made art that combines the imagery and ambivalence of Pop art with the engaged criticality of conceptualism for three decades. Often based on both popular commercial and art historical sources, his work in video, sculpture, painting, and photography examines the deep-seated links between consumerism and political consciousness, as well as the political silences of postwar art. Recent solo exhibitions include Pre-Fall '17, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2019); Leftover Paint Abstractions, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium (2018); 1612 DOTS, Oculus World Trade Center, New York, NY (2017); and Occupy Greenwich, The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, CT (2016). Recent group exhibitions include Brainwashed, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2020), and Never Again: Art Against War and Fascism in the 20th and 21st Centuries, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2019).

The public may call 212.423.3200 or visit TheJewishMuseum.org.