9/11 Art Theory
“Most artists have shied away from 9/11 as a theme in recent years, and who can blame them?” Art critic Richard Woodward says artists should again take on the events of 9/11.
“The horrific event has been covered and analyzed so exhaustively by the media since 2001 that the chance of recasting that day in a new light that honors the scale of the original disaster seems remote, at least for now. How do you make art about mass murder anyway? Whether the day is recalled graphically or symbolically, someone is bound to be offended. The outrage that greeted Eric Fischl’s ‘Tumbling Woman’ when that sculpture of a naked, somersaulting figure was exhibited at Rockefeller Center in September 2002 must have registered with artists: Beware of depicting bodies of the victims.”