Portrait of a Red Square.

Result #1

 From a double portrait of the right-wing-of-the-Republican party organization National Vanguard America, in New York.  From the same photo-based composition that, in its original form, created a starkly black and white backdrop for the title, this composite is in fact a four-part composite in which the red square on the left side of the picture is fractured into two more red squares on the right. As in the original, the red squares are arranged in a grid and the grids outlines are written out in white on black. The second composite in the show is composed of three more fragments of the same image, all in the same size, but from a different color, and all titled after the same group of people. Among them are photographs of Anthony Weiner and Nancy Reagan and, in the middle of the composite, are photographs of George W. Bush, the current president of the United States. All three works are titled after images of the right-wingers, the real victims of the Republican party. This is an illustration of the way in which the right-wing party leaders have become the real victims of their own party. The right-wing is a group of people, all of them victims of the party. If the party leaders had been killed, we would have had a moment of clarity, a moment of hope. But they are not. In fact, the party leaders are still alive, and the party continues to exist. As a result, the American people remain divided. This is not a time for reconciliation, but rather one for division, with no common ground and no common ground.

Result #2

Portrait of a Red Square. (detail, 2 x 4 3/4 x 1 1/4). The exhibition included two other paintings, one from 1962, and the other from 1963. They depict men in red squares, their faces masked or covered with hats, and with the heads turned away. The paintings were hung in a row in an incongruous arrangement; one portrait was painted in black and another in red. In one of the paintings, the men are masked and also wearing hats. The men are grouped in pairs, but the heads are not; in one painting, the mask is removed, and the head is not masked. The masks of the men in these portraits may be removed to reveal their faces. Both portraits reveal a sense of confidence and submission, which is reflected in the title. In the second portrait, the masks have been removed, and the head is now uncovered. The women have their heads and shoulders masked, and their heads are placed on the left shoulder. The mask is lifted to reveal the shoulder and neck. The men are not masked. The masks of the men in this portrait are not masks, and so the mask is not revealing any facial features, nor any features of the head. One painting in the show has no mask, but a single eye, a single mask, and one eye in both black and white. The other masks are masks, and so the mask is not revealing any facial features, nor any features of the head. One painting in the show has no mask, but a single eye, a single mask, and one eye in both black and white. The other masks are masks, and so the mask is not revealing any facial features, nor any features of the head. One painting in the show has no mask, but a single eye, a single mask, and one eye in both black and white. The other masks are masks, and so the mask is not revealing any facial features, nor any features of the head.

Result #3

Portrait of a Red Square.  A time capsule of a century of political and social activism.  Let it not be forgotten, in the late 60s and early 70s, the New York art world was full of artists in the public eye.  The New York art world of the time, as a young generation of artists was developing, was one of art that reflected the political and social zeitgeist of the day.  At that time, political and social activism was not only a means of challenging the limits of the social, but it was also a means of demonstrating the validity of the social.  To be an artist, then, was to be a part of this movement and to speak out about it.In 1972, two years after his moving statement was published, K.H. Perry, one of the New York artists in the exhibition, died.  Perrys life and work stand as a testament to the importance of the art of the day. Perry was a founding member of the Combahee River School, the student group that developed in New York during the 70s.  The first of a few artists to join the group was Alan Hesses, who was the first to embrace the idea of collective art, a concept popularized in a 1967 lecture by H.C. Westermann at the New Museum. In the book, Westermann writes, The idea of collective art has been around as long as there have been artists. . . . The idea is simple: Artists can no longer be looked at as individual, isolated individuals. . . . The idea is one that has been around for the past forty years. . . . The idea is to realize collective art, and the Combahee River School (C.R.S.) is still in its infancy. The C.R.S. is an artist-run collective that now spans several states, including New York, Colorado, California, and Texas.

Result #4

Portrait of a Red Square. ___________ (1926–1981) At the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the artist and poet John Altoon presented a panel in which he wrote,  I have never felt more at home with my work than I do in it. Thats how I like it, Altoon said in 1981, and I wouldnt trade my life for my work. Altoons self-portrait is a photograph of himself dressed in a black suit and wearing a different kind of mask. He has a chunky, gunmetal-gray beard. His features are more distinctive than the rest of his face: He has a twisted, central nose, a pronounced chin. His eyes are wide, his nose is bowed. His skin is dry, and his nose is full. His body is muscular, lean, and muscular-looking, but it doesnt look human. Altoons face is dark, hollow, and angular. He is silent, and his expression is self-consciously self-assured. His face is so full of tension that it is hard to imagine his voice without the hair on his head. The costume is thick, with a silvery, frayed-looking look: his mustache and his forehead are ragged, and his eyes are round and narrowed. The man is so quiet that his expression is so reserved that youd need a microphone to get a word out of him. Altoons body has an air of the dead. His face is so open and so hidden that its only when his expression changes and his eyes get wide and he gets into a full expression that his face and body get expressive. His body is so private and so public that he doesnt need to be seen. His body is so private, so secret, that its almost impossible to know it.His body, his body, is a body of thoughts, of thoughts and bodies, and we are all bodies of thoughts.

Result #5

—Lars-Peter E.S.