Politics
The Art World Reacts to the Election—and Donald J. Trump’s Win
The former president will return to the Oval Office. Watch this space for updates.
Andrew Russeth &
Annie Armstrong &
Jo Lawson-Tancred &
Brian Boucher &
Naomi Rea &
Margaret Carrigan &
Ben Davis &
Sarah Cascone
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The mood in the United States right now? Tense, charged, and filled with dread. Election Day has arrived in a bitterly divided nation. The art world has felt quieter this election cycle than in 2020—perhaps because divisions are so deep-set, perhaps to avoid conflict (and keep business going), perhaps because of sheer fatigue. (Donald J. Trump announced his first run more than nine years ago.) Those who have been vocal largely support Vice President Kamala Harris, but there are plenty of Trump voters, particularly in the collecting class. Up to and beyond Election Day, as results come in, Artnet News will be reporting on how the art world is reacting. Stay with us for live updates and, hopefully, some enriching distractions. —The Editors
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SIGNING OFF
When we fired up this live-blog on Tuesday morning, we thought that it might run for many days, as an anxious nation waited for swing states to count their votes. Instead, Donald J. Trump quickly and handily secured a second four-year term, cementing a political comeback without parallel in modern American history. The reactions from art types are coming quickly now, and one from artist Dread Scott appears above. For now, we are signing off. Thank you for being here. —The Editors, Nov. 6, 3:50 p.m.
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‘THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION WAS INEVITABLE’
Artist Tracey Emin, never one to mince words, was quick to weigh in on Donald J. Trump‘s decisive victory: “Half the world has just collapsed to the bottom of hell and the other half is in fear. The outcome of the election was inevitable. America already had its dictator.” I have to say, though, I like this assemblage sculpture she shared on Instagram, which seems to include medical bags and urine. Concise, sharp, potent. —A.R., Nov. 6, 3:30 p.m.
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A TRANSATLANTIC PARTNERSHIP
Some commiseration for Harris supporters has come from across the pond: Katy Hessel, the author of the bestselling book The Story of Art Without Men (2022), shared Faith Ringgold‘s 1997 quilted painting The Flag is Bleeding on her popular Instagram account @thegreatwomenartists. (Yesterday, she offered the more hopeful poem “I want a president” by artist Zoe Leonard.) For a second time, American voters have declined to elect a woman to the nation’s highest office. It’s a crushing moment for feminists, not only because the people rejected a woman candidate in favor of a convicted felon and alleged rapist who incited a rebellion, but because of what Trump’s reelection will mean for reproductive healthcare and maternal mortality. Women living under abortion bans will continue to die—and those bans will spread. Ringgold’s painting, of a Black woman with blood dripping from her breasts and two small children hugging her waist, is a chilling warning of the dark days to come. —S.C., Nov. 6, 3 p.m.
AND WE HAVE A WINNER
Earlier this morning, Donald J. Trump was declared the winner of the state of Wisconsin, giving him enough votes in the Electoral College to be elected the 47th president of the United States of America. Trump becomes the first president since Grover Cleveland to win a non-consecutive second term. What now? As Brian Boucher reported in these pages last month, many in the arts sector have been bracing for a Trump victory, but given his unpredictable nature, it is hard to say precisely how his actions will affect the art industry. This much is clear, though: Given the widespread support that Vice President Kamala Harris enjoyed in the arts, many people will be waking up today disappointed. “It is generally true that our staff will have very specific views about this election,” one museum director told Boucher. “The employee side would be the thing most difficult to navigate.” Reactions to Trump’s win will follow in this post. For now, a deep-cut trivia question: Can you name the famous artist who the portrait of Cleveland that resides in the White House Collection? For the answer: click. —The Editors, Nov. 6, 8:15 a.m.
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THE COUNTING BEGINS
Polls are beginning to close across the United States, and we can confirm that sculptor Mark di Suvero has made his voice heard. The California resident, who is 91, recently oversaw the installation of his piece Sooner or Later (2022) at the Brooklyn Museum—a gift from fellow artist Alex Katz. It’s a stunner, raw and sophisticated, meaty and yet light. The museum was a polling location today, so many voters got to enjoy the work while going about their democratic business today. —A.R., Nov. 5, 8:35 p.m.
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‘THE SPIRIT CARRIES ON’
Artist Hank Willis Thomas made an Election Day visit to the Museum of the City of New York to check out “Changing the Face of Democracy: Shirley Chisholm at 100.” The exhibition, on view through July 20, 2025, honors what would have been the 100th birthday of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to serve in Congress and the first woman to run for a major party’s presidential nomination. “Magnificent reminder of how long this struggle has been in progress and how much has been overcome as a result of millions of people who never saw fierce adversity as a reason to quit,” Thomas wrote in an Instagram post. “The spirit carries on.” —S.C., Nov. 5, 7:50 p.m.
Photo courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery
FOLLOW THE MONEY
It might take some time for a winner to be declared. While you wait, may I suggest perusing Andrea Fraser‘s classic 2016 in Museums, Money, and Politics? Released in 2018 by Westreich Wagner Publications, the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, and the MIT Press, and running more than 900 pages, it is a compendium of the political donations made by U.S. museum board members during the 2016 election cycle. There are intriguing facts on every page. For instance, Agnes Gund, a president emerita of MoMA, gave some $1.15 million to Democratic and liberal politicians groups, according to public records. And Ken Griffin, a trustee of the Whitney Museum back then, shelled out around $8.45 to Republicans. How did moneyed art types give this time? OpenSecrets has a database with answers. —A.R., Nov. 5, 7:20 p.m.
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DRESSING FOR SUCCESS
Artist Lorraine Triolo encouraged people to vote on her account @peoplewholooklikeart, where she posts art-fairs visitors who are dressed to match the art on view. A short video she posted shows patriotically attired art lovers next to red, white, and blue works by Cay Adams, Anish Kapoor, Kristopher Raos, and Harry Fonseca—plus a woman whose flamelike hair matches a fiery piece by Enrique Martinez Celaya that has definite “this is fine” vibes. The video ends with the list of the 20 states, plus Washington, D.C., that allow new voters to register on Election Day. There’s still time, people! —S.C., Nov. 5, 6:50 p.m.
Haggis the pygmy hippo. Photo courtesy Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
LOOK OUT, MOO DENG
If it’s not too early in the day for a dose of distraction, how about the news that the Edinburgh Zoo has announced the birth of a pygmy hippopotamus called Haggis? The jury is out on whether this little sausage can unseat the internet’s reigning “it ‘po,” Moo Deng. Surely there’s room for the both of them? If another birth of an incredibly rare and exponentially adorable species does not give us hope, then I’m not sure what can… —N.R., Nov. 5, 4:30 p.m.
Adrian Piper receiving the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2015. (Photo by Awakening/Getty Images)
PUT A WOMAN IN CHARGE
Artist, philosopher, and stalwart provocateur Adrian Piper has sent an email to friends about the election that includes links to three catchy tunes. While the Berlin-based Golden Lion winner does not explicitly make an endorsement, her choice seems pretty clear. Here’s her note.
Fellow Americans, it’s time once again to put on your dancing shoes and boogie on down to your polling station to choose which tune you’d rather dance to:
*His? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BrCvZmSnKA
*or Hers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgNMW0pAqqY@Europeans, Asians and Global Southerners, please forward this message to your American friends. QUICK! Before He has another tantrum and throws more ketchup at the wall!! ;D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciQeRGYFlw
Polls in states along the Eastern Coast will be closed in just a few hours. —A.R., Nov. 5, 4:20 p.m.
A new artwork by Beeple.
IT’S ALL HAPPENING ON X
In between posts about SpaceX and how the Democrats are trying to end democracy, Elon Musk took the time to retweet an artwork by digital art superstar Beeple (a.k.a. Mike Winkelmann) titled LAST PUSH.
In the artist’s signature gross-out digital style, it shows a hulked-out, shirtless Musk, carrying Joe Rogan on his shoulders, who is in turn carrying a small nude baby Trump. The cartoon Musk sports a tattoo saying “#Pnut.” This is a reference to a memecoin inspired by the dead squirrel Peanut that has become a right-wing sensation, much to the excitement of crypto boosters in the mentions of the original post, which has 72 thousand likes. Beeple himself appeared on Rogan two years ago, when he gifted the podcaster a Elon Musk themed artwork.
(As my colleague Jo mentions below, Beeple himself is advertising an “Election Night Party” spectacular at his Beeple Studios in Charleston, S.C., tonight.) —B.D., Nov. 5, 3:50 p.m.
DRAWING ON THE BRINK
Artist Dan Perjovschi is live-drawing on Election Day and Wednesday at his show, “Now & Then,” at Jane Lombard Gallery in New York.
The Romanian-born artist’s latest satirical commentaries on the U.S. and current events, somewhat in the style of political cartoons, will be on view along with “Postcards from America” (1994), a series of some 500 drawings drawings from his first visit to the States some three decades ago.
Will a winner in the presidential race be declared before Perjovschi concludes his residency? Last time, news outlets did not call the election for President Biden until Saturday… —B.B., Nov. 5, 3:10 p.m.
Harry’s Bar in Paris on Election Day. Photo by Margaret Carrigan
VOTER SUPPRESSION
In town for Photo Paris, I made my way this evening to Harry’s New York Bar in the city’s Second Arrondissement for a pre-dinner cocktail. A cultural institution, having once counted Ernest Hemingway and Cole Porter among its regulars, the small, wood-paneled watering hole has also predicted the president-elect more accurately than most pollsters for the last 100 years. Only three times has Harry’s straw poll gotten it wrong, most recently in 2016, when they called it for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump.
Here we are, eight years and one Groundhog Day later, and I was ready to cast my vote for Kamala Harris. I already sent in my absentee ballot weeks ago, a right I won’t take for granted, given that Harry started its straw-poll tradition back in 1924 because Americans abroad didn’t yet have the right to participate in elections. What did I find upon arriving on Rue Daunou? An empty Harry’s cordoned off by stanchions and a velvet red rope at a side entrance guarded by event staff. Confused Americans were scattered around the street. A woman freshly in from Phoenix was on the phone near me, bemoaning the situation. She didn’t want to be alone to watch the election, I heard her say, on account of “the trauma of 2016.” Same, girl.
Immediately opposite Harry’s was another bar that was clearly expecting castoffs. It was bedecked with a red, white, and blue banner exclaiming, “AMERICAN PARTY.” An inflatable basketball hoop, a makeshift bar with a few draft beers, and towers of plastic cups stood ready. It felt like an apt metaphor for this election, in all fairness: underwhelming offerings in carnivalesque environs.
Still, with the foolishness of hope burning in my chest (after watching one too many Kamala HQ ads on TikTok over the last 24 hours), I asked a Harry’s staffer what was going on. A moustachioed man with a twang in his voice similar to mine said, “Private event tonight.” “Oh really,” I said slowly, the undemocraticness of it all washing over me, another metaphor forming quickly in my mind about the Electoral College. How dare they only let a select pool of people cast the final votes! He seemed to sense my displeasure. “Come find me later,” he said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
When I returned a couple hours later, the man was nowhere to be found—another hollow Election Day promise. The party with the kegs, however, is poppin’. —M.C., Nov. 5, 2:55 p.m.
STRONGER TOGETHER
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Waiting in line at a polling station on Election Day can be rough, and so many go to the polls with a friend that they can chat with while they wait to perform their civic duty. Here are Klaus Biesenbach, the director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, and collector-philanthropist Agnes Gund, old friends and frequent collaborators, who no doubt had much to discuss on their way to cast their ballots. Don’t they look accomplished on the other side? —A.A., Nov. 5, 1:50 p.m.
STAIRWAY TO ELECTION
Vice President Kamala Harris‘s final campaign stop before Election Day was outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is home to the world’s greatest collection of Marcel Duchamp works (among many other treasures). Artnet’s Sarah Cascone has a report on the start-studded event, which included Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga. Harris spoke on a stage at the base of the famed Rocky Steps after 11 p.m., telling a crowd of some 30,000, “Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.” —The Editors, Nov. 5, 1:35 p.m.
VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN
Sometimes sarcasm is a useful tool in combating election-related angst and anxiety. Just ask artist Raymond Pettibon, who utilized his reliably kooky X account to create a character who found a way to vote seven times, against all odds. Anti-woke and anti-establishment posts on Elon Musk’s platform are a dime a dozen, but Pettibon’s missives are distinctly his own. —A.A., Nov. 6, 1:10 p.m.
HAMMERTIME
Art auction veteran Simon de Pury weighs in on the Election Day atmosphere in the latest edition of his Artnet News column, The Hammer. “Generally a diminishing tolerance for people who don’t share your political ideas has spread in the world at large and has even managed to make inroads in the art world,” he writes. De Pury recalls conducting auctions in 2008 for Barack Obama and Gagosian hosting a 2016 auction fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. The art world definitely feels bereft of a united energy behind either candidate this election cycle, and there haven’t been similar large-scale funding moments. “If voting were limited to artists there would be a very different outcome of the election, than if it was limited to the collectors of their work,” he muses. —N.R., Nov. 5, 12:36 p.m.
Pider Martin and For Freedoms, Make America Great Again, on view in Pearl, Missouri in 2016. Designed by Jon Santos. Photo: Spider Martin.
BILLBOARDS POINT THE WAY TO FREEDOMS
Voters on the way to the polls in 20 states and the District of Columbia may come across one of some 22 artist-designed billboards with thought-provoking messages, on view courtesy of the nonprofit For Freedoms. Launched in 2016 by artists Eric Gottesman, Hank Willis Thomas, and Michelle Woo, For Freedoms has erected some 550 billboards by stars like Shepard Fairey, Theaster Gates, the Guerrilla Girls, JR, Carrie Mae Weems, and Ai Weiwei, which were all compiled in a recently published book. One of the edgiest works was designed by Pider Martin and For Freedoms, and had Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” superimposed over an image of police and civil-rights demonstrators facing off on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965. —B.B., Nov. 5, 12:05 p.m.
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PARTYING IN THE PALMETTO STATE
Digital artist Beeple, who is known for absurd compositions that incorporate pop culture and politics and that heavily feature Donald J. Trump, is bringing that same spirit to a yuge election night party in his hometown of Charleston, S.C. Free to the public, the event promises true sensory overload with immersive wall-to-wall coverage from multiple news platforms. Attendees can also expect “shitloads of murica vibes!!” That includes a hot dog eating contest and various performance art pieces, including Beeple’s uncanny “living sculptures” of famous figures like Elon Musk, Andy Warhol, Kim Jong Un, and… Picasso!? —J.L-T., Nov. 5, 11:50 a.m.
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GRIN AND BEAR IT
It’s a tradition as American as apple pie to write in a fictional character on an election ballot, often as a protest agains the listed candidates. Mickey Mouse, Rick Astley, Darth Vader, and Cosmo Kramer are some of the more popular choices. This year, artist Jamian Juliano-Villani threw a new name into the ring, revealing on her Instagram account that she wrote in Ralph Lauren’s emblematic teddy, The Polo Bear, on her ballot. “It feels nice to THINK,” Juliano-Villani captioned the photo. —A.A., Nov. 5, 11:20 a.m.
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PUTTING HIS MONEY WHERE HIS MOUTH IS
New York magazine’s indefatigable senior art critic, Jerry Saltz, has never been one to hold back his political opinions and prognostications, but this time he is putting his skin in the game. He has $200 on Vice President Harris winning by “one percentage point,” he said on Instagram. “Which is huge.” The Pulitzer Prize-winner’s view is that “if Harris wins it won’t be because she’s a woman or black. It’ll be because in the tiny amount of time that she had to run, she rarely stumbled.” —A.R., Nov. 5
Installation view of “Carrie Mae Weems: The Shape of Things” at the Gladstone Gallery in New York.
RELATIONAL AESTHETICS
Are you feeling anxious about Election Day? Are you thinking it might be nice to be in the company of others? That is sensible. If you are in New York, you can head to the Gladstone Gallery’s West 21st Street location, which is hosting readings and live music from 3 p.m. until midnight. The event is being organized by artist Precious Okoyomon, writer Vincent Katz, and artist-musician Brian Degraw as part of Carrie Mae Weems’s current exhibition at the gallery, which has featured a bevy of live programming.
There is more! Food will be provided by Rirkrit Tiravanija + Co. and the Spiral Theory Test Kitchen. Regardless of the outcome, you will likely eat some tasty food and perhaps make some fine memories. (On a personal note, I was at a performance of Madame Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera when Barack Obama won in in 2008. Someone shouted the news right after the opera ended, and the crowd went wild. A happy thought.)
The readers and/or performers who are booked include artist Joan Jonas, former Guggenheim chief curator Nancy Spector, Gladstone partner Gavin Brown, critic-curator Bob Nickas, and many more. If you’re a Trump voter, probably best to leave the MAGA hat at home for this one! —A.R., Nov. 5
Courtesy Earth
BACK ON PLANET EARTH
Gladstone is not alone in organizing an Election Day event. On Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Earth—an always interesting space run by artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas, curator Annika Kuhlmann, and writer Dean Kissick—will get its own festivities underway at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. “We’ll be streaming a multi-channel broadcast, a Cubist video-montage with ambient music, popcorn, and drinks,” Kissick said in an email. “Our space opens onto the street and everyone’s welcome to join us. The event ends when the result’s called—or when we decide to go to sleep.” Sounds very pleasant! Last month, artist and writer Seth Price presented a captivating reading at Earth titled Before Writing, and After. It’s up now on YouTube, and I can pretty much guarantee that you will not think about the election while watching it. —A.R., Nov. 5
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FOREIGN INTERFERENCE
In recent weeks, German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has been using tastefully designed Instagram posts to urge his 350,000 followers to support the Harris-Walz ticket and not to vote for third-party candidates Jill Stein, Cornel West, and Chase Oliver (the Libertarian candidate, who otherwise does not get a lot of play in art circles). “I can’t vote in the upcoming American elections,” Tillmans writes in one recent post. “It will have a huge impact on the entire world beyond the U.S.” He writes later, “Our future rests in your hands.” The debates in the comments of these posts are vigorous. Brace yourself.
In a remarkable coincidence, Tillmans released a song and music video early this year titled “We Are Not Going Back,” a phrase that has become something of an unofficial slogan for the Harris campaign, and he has used the track to promote her candidacy.
The photographer, who will have a show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris next June, has a long history of political activism. Perhaps most notably, he ran a campaign in 2016 to encourage voters in the United Kingdom to reject the referendum for the country to leave the European Union. —A.R., Nov. 5
IT BEGINS
Until at least Tuesday evening on the East Coast, there will be no results from voting booths. What should you do in the meantime? Read Artnet News, of course. In a recent article, reporter Brian Boucher took an expansive look at how the art sector is thinking about (and preparing for) a possible second Trump presidency. And here’s artist Brian Andrew Whiteley telling Sarah Cascone why he decided to bring back his highly controversial Trump tombstone. Oh! You want something to distract you from politics? Here’s Kate Brown on the current Tom Wesselmann show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. —The Editors
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