Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement, November 20, 2005 - March 5, 2006, New Wing, First Floor, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, San José Museum of Art. Circulated to: Katzen Art Center at American University, Washington, DC, April 9-July 29, 2006, Washington, DC, April 9-July 29, 2006.

Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement (2005-2006)

During the Vietnam War, artists continued to confront the strict censorship policies first enacted during the conformist McCarthy era of the late 1940s and 50s. Among these artists was Connor Everts, whose series Studies in Desperation violated the state’s anti-obscenity law when it was exhibited at the Zora Gallery in Los Angeles in 1964. Because of the content of this work and others, Everts was arrested and endured two trials before he was eventually exonerated.

Cry from the Womb (1964) was created in response to the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby. “The idea is that assassination is the ultimate censorship,” according to Everts. “The image used was a face peering out of a vaginal orifice from time to time seeing if the world was a safe place to be born into.”

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement , 11/20/2005 - 7/29/2006

• Image Dimensions: 24 x 32 in. (60.96 x 81.28 cm)

This object has the following bibliographic references:

• Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond. Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond San Jose Museum of Art and University of California Press. Berkeley California, 2006
  Page Number: 93

This object is a member of the following portfolios: