It was vulgar & it was beautiful : how AIDS activists used art to fight a pandemic

Course: ARTHIST-466A -- Blackness/Gender/Sexuality & Dis-ease: HIV/AIDS Art History
Instructor(s): Batts, Jamal

At the library

Find it On reserve: Ask at circulation desk

Items in On reserve: Ask at circulation desk
Call number	Note	Status
RA643.75 .L69 2022		2-hour loan

Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index
Summary: "By the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic was deeply impacting gay and lesbian communities in America, and disinformation about the disease was running rampant. Out of the activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an art collective that called itself Gran Fury was formed, to create graphics and media that campaigned against corporate greed, government inaction, and public indifference to AIDS. In It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful, writer Jack Lowery examines Gran Fury's art and activism, from the iconic images like the SILENCE = DEATH graphic and the Kissing Doesn't Kill poster, to the act of dropping thousands of fake bills onto the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lowery offers a complex, moving portrait of a group that expressed through art the profound trauma of surviving the AIDS crisis and formed essential solidarities between gays and lesbians in the activist community. Gran Fury and ACT UP's strategies are today employed by a variety of activist groups, including survivors of school shootings, harm reduction organizers, and activists for universal healthcare. Their belief in the power of art to create social change and drive political movements is illuminating in this era when violence and unending structural racism continue to target the most vulnerable"-- Provided by publisher

Subjects: Gran Fury (Artists' collective); AIDS (Disease); AIDS activists; Communication in art.; Art > Political aspects.; Sida.; Communication dans l'art.; Art > Aspect politique.

Publication date: 2022
Title variation: It was vulgar and it was beautiful; How AIDS activists used art to fight a pandemic
ISBN: 9781645036586 hardcover; 1645036588 hardcover; 9781645036593 electronic book