www.suecoe.com
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • About the Artist
  • Art
  • Books
  • Activism
  • Exhibitions
  • On View
  • Press
  • Contact
  • Video
  • Shop
Cart
0 items $
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
  • Current
  • Online
  • Past

We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz: The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

Past exhibition
1 October 2020 - 14 February 2022
  • Works
  • Overview
Authoritarians Say They Are Only Animals, 2019 Linocut with hand coloring on cream Japan paper 30 1/8 x 20 in (76.5 x 50.8 cm) Only one impression
Authoritarians Say They Are Only Animals, 2019
Linocut with hand coloring on cream Japan paper
30 1/8 x 20 in (76.5 x 50.8 cm)
Only one impression
View works

This exhibition, organized by artist Jonathan Horowitz, brings together more than 70 voices, ranging from an 18th century portraitist to contemporary artists commissioned for this exhibition, to draw connections between historical oppression and the cultural and political challenges we confront in the world today.

Originally scheduled to open in March 2020, We Fight to Build a Free World is an exhibition curated by Jonathan Horowitz, a New York-based artist who for three decades has made work that engages critically with politics and culture. Under his direction, the exhibition looks at how artists have historically responded to the rise of authoritarianism and xenophobia as well as racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry. The exhibition also addresses issues surrounding immigration, assimilation, and cultural identity. 

 

Conceived from a starting point in 2017 of addressing the resurgence of anti-Semitism, this exhibition uses a broader lens to look at oppression and bigotry. The relevance of this exhibition has become more acute as the country reels from numerous incidents of police brutality towards people of color and a reckoning with the history of systemic racism. In the organization of this project, Jonathan Horowitz has acted as curator, researcher, activist, and artist.

 

The exhibition’s title, We Fight to Build a Free World, is adapted from a painting by Ben Shahn, which will be on view.  The installation juxtaposes diverse works, making thematic connections across time and place, raising questions and fostering dialogue.

 

Featuring more than 80 works of painting, sculpture, photography, and video, the exhibition includes examples of American social realism from the 1930s and 1940s and new works by Jonathan Horowitz, as well as 36 commissioned protest posters by contemporary artists, including Judith Bernstein, Marcel Dzama, Rico Gatson, Kim Gordon and Jason Smith, Cheyenne Julien, Christine Sun Kim, Guadalupe Maravilla, and Marilyn Minter. Also included are works by Asco, Huma Bhabha, Enrique Chagoya, Robert Colescott, Philip Evergood, Luis Jiménez, Rebecca Lepkoff, Glenn Ligon, Abraham Manievich, Bernard Perlin, Adrian Piper, Fritz Scholder, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Henry Sugimoto, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Max Weber, and Charles White, among others.

#JonathanHorowitz

 

The exhibition is a project by artist Jonathan Horowitz, organized in consultation with Darsie Alexander, Susan & Elihu Rose Chief Curator, Shira Backer, Leon Levy Assistant Curator, and Ruth Beesch, Senior Deputy Director.

 

We Fight to Build a Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz is made possible by Toby Devan Lewis, the Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, and other generous donors. 

 

Additional support is provided through the Centennial Fund, the Peter Jay Sharp Fund, and the Barbara S. Horowitz Contemporary Art Fund.

  • Link to exhibition site
Back to Past exhibitions
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
© 2025 Sue Coe
Site by Artlogic
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Send an email

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Sign up!

* denotes required fields

You are receiving this message because you submitted your email address in person, in the Galerie St. Etienne’s guest book, or online, through either gseart.com or suecoe.com or by registering for a prior webinar. Your contact information will only ever be used for correspondence pertaining to Sue Coe or to the Galerie St. Etienne, and it will never be shared.