Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975

The Vietnam War, a divisive and controversial conflict, had a profound impact on the art of its time. Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975 emphasizes how American artists grappled with the dilemmas of the war as it was unfolding. The exhibition makes vivid an era in which artists endeavored to respond to the turbulent times and openly questioned issues central to American civic life.

Artists Respond is unprecedented in its historical scale and depth. It brings together nearly 100 works by fifty-eight of the most visionary and provocative artists of the period. This exhibition presents both well-known and rarely discussed artworks and offers an expanded view of American art during the war, introducing a diversity of previously marginalized artistic voices, including women, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans.

Artists Respond: A Symposium
On March 15, 2019, SAAM presents a day of lectures and discussions by a distinguished group of scholars and artists who offer insight into the intersection between the Vietnam War and art practice in the United States. The program is webcast live on SAAM’s website and available for future viewing on the museum’s YouTube channel. A full program and schedule are available online. Participants include:

Melissa Ho, exhibition curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Introduction

Mignon Nixon, University College London
“What’s Love Got to Do, Got to Do With It? Feminist Politics and America’s War in Vietnam”

Chon Noriega, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
“‘People who mess up the public streets should be shot’: Protesting Vietnam on East and West Coasts”

Fred Ritchin, International Center of Photography
“Vietnam Inc.: An Excoriating Look at War”

Judith Bernstein, artist
Harry Gamboa Jr., artist
Rupert García, artist
Hans Haacke, artist
Martha Rosler, artist 

Moderators:
Julia Bryan-Wilson, University of California, Berkeley
Thomas Crow, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Katherine Markoski, independent scholar

Artists Respond is organized by Melissa Ho, curator of twentieth-century art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with an installation by internationally acclaimed artist Tiffany Chung, organized by Sarah Newman, the James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art at the museum. Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue probes the legacies of the Vietnam War and its aftermath through maps, paintings, and videos that share the stories of former Vietnamese refugees. 

Exhibition catalogue
An accompanying book features essays by Melissa Ho, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Thomas Crow, the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; Erica Levin, The Ohio State University; Katherine Markoski, independent scholar; Mignon Nixon, University College London; and Martha Rosler, artist. It is published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in association with Princeton University Press.

Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975 is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum with support from Anonymous, the Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation, Sheri and Joe Boulos, the Gene Davis Memorial Fund, the Glenstone Foundation, Norbert Hornstein and Amy Weinberg, the Henry Luce Foundation, Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman, Cindy Miscikowski, Daniel C. and Teresa Moran Schwartz, the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Awards, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.