Art and Nepotism

You will always find artists involved in some revolution or other. Form artists like Alsature who spent most of his life 'fighting' Gaddafi from London with his cartoons to others like Kais al-Hilali who was shot dead a few minutes after painting one of the political street murals for which he was locally famous. But even the establishment uses art, artists, art critics and curators to promote their regime. The art world, like everything else, is made up of everything. 

I came across this article on Dr. Zahi Hawass on the New York Times, his ties with the Mubaraks and the National Geographic and protests wanting him to resign his post. All this made me think. How many governments, even those elected democratically, are free from nepotism when it comes to art, artists and the art world? Maybe we just have to look a bit around us and we find the answer staring at us in the face.