Beschreibung:

silkscreen print in two parts, one with photographic vignettes applied, this work number 6 from the edition of 36 40 x 30 in., 101.6 x 76.3 cm (overall dimensions) Exhibited: New York, John Weber Gallery, Helmsboro Country, 1990. This edition was published along side the major installation 'Helmsboro Country' which the artist conceived for various institutions worldwide, in which the main sculpture was a giant packet of Marlboro cigarettes, made with silkscreen prints on wood, with the Marlboro packaging text altered and the giant cigarettes inside comprised of rolled up reproductions of the Bill of Rights. This work, of course, makes a direct reference to Jesse Helms, a conservative member of the Senate at the time, who was tied to tobacco lobbying. During his career, Helms not only wanted to close down the National Endowment for the Arts, but also censored and suppressed artists and their exhibitions. The work is a call for freedom of speech whilst simultaneously acknowledging the fact that tobacco companies had become one of the most prolific donors of museums in the 1990s. Haacke proposed, “art works are no longer private affairs,” and that art institutions and museums were “on the slippery road to becoming public relations agents for the interests of big business and its ideological allies.” For Haacke, art for art’s sake no longer existed as he saw art institutions and museums as biased political bodies. Condition report disclaimer