"Mark Vallen - A Social Realist for the 21st Century" by Paul Von Blum

WELCOME TO MARK VALLEN'S "ART FOR A CHANGE" WEBSITE

Exhibition Catalog for
MARK VALLEN: MORE THAN A WITNESS
Text by Paul Von Blum
Illustrated 12 page booklet
Black and white 5.5 x 8.5 inches $5.00

The A Shenere Velt Gallery in Los Angeles held a retrospective exhibit of artist Mark Vallen's social realist artworks in 2004. To commemorate the occasion, respected author and Senior Lecturer in African American Studies and Communication Studies at UCLA, Paul Von Blum, wrote the text for Vallen's exhibition catalog.

Blum is a noted expert on the history of socially conscious art and has written several books on the subject, including The Critical Vision: A History of Social and Political Art in the US and Other Voices, Other Visions: Women Political Artists in Los Angeles. Blum's forthcoming book, Resistance, Dignity, and Pride: African American Art in Los Angeles, will be available in the fall of 2004.

Paul Von Blum's essay on Mark Vallen is entitled A Social Realist for the 21st Century: Mark Vallen at A Shenere Velt Gallery. Selected excerpt from the catalog follows...

"Mark Vallen proudly expresses his lifelong commitment to figurative realism. This style has dominated the entire history of socially conscious art. Equally important, it is, by clear design, far more accessible to audiences concerned more with life and its struggles than with the changing interests of elite art critics and the fleeting fashions of the art market in a capitalist society. He is a contemporary heir of the American Social Realist movement of the 1930s through the 1950s, which included artists like Ben Shahn, Raphael Soyer, Philip Evergood, Jack Levine, William Gropper, and several others. Unfashionable today among many (but not all) art historians and critics, these passionate and talented artists spent entire lives and careers calling attention to the massive political conflicts of their times.

Differing widely in their specific visual styles, they nevertheless shared a profound commitment to use art to inform the public about the problems of modern life and to offer visual suggestions for a more humane social order. Above all, the Social Realists of an earlier era were artists for life's sake, seeking moral clarity and political vision far more than critical favor and commercial success. In extending this tradition, Mark Vallen has become an accomplished Social Realist for the early 21st century. He honors his predecessors by focusing on the pressing issues of our own perilous times. Proud to embrace the same label, he does in the late 20th and early 21st centuries what generations of political artists accomplished during their own turbulent times."

Purchase this important illustrated essay by Paul Von Blum
on the artworks of Mark Vallen

More Than A Witness catalog - $5.00