Arnold Mesches
– Artist’s Website –
Read an interview with Mesches here.
From Weatherspoon Art Museum: The F.B.I. watched the artist Arnold Mesches for 27 years. From 1945 to 1972, they analyzed his political and social activities, and engaged friends, neighbors, and even a lover as informants, compiling a 760-page dossier on him. Eleven years ago, Mesches obtained access to the files under the Freedom of Information Act, and turned them into art. The F.B.I. Files consists of provocative, layered collages that have often been described as “contemporary illuminated manuscripts.” The exhibition at the Weatherspoon includes a selection of collages from the overall project as well as large-scale paintings inspired by the experience.
Mesches (b. 1923, Bronx, New York) attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles in the early 1940s. His work has been shown internationally and is included in major public collections, including the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo; the High Museum, Atlanta; the Denver Art Museum; the Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum. The full exhibition, The F.B.I. Files, toured nationally from 2002-2005, and it seems timely to revisit the project at this juncture in our political landscape.
