As Seen by Both Sides: American and Vietnamese Artists Look at the War

ARNOLD TRACHTMAN
Arnold Trachtman grew up during the thirties and forties in Lynn, Massachusetts, a shoe-manufacturing town with strong union affiliations and a history of radical politics. At a young age he became sensitive to injustice, both as a witness to the struggles of the working class arround him as the target of the relegious intolerance of schoolmates.

From the beginning Trachtman's paintings respond to the gross misuses of authority in government. He expresses this theme not only with satirical, blunt subject matter, but also through strident color and aggressive, disorienting compositions.

"There is a constant conspiracy to erase history. Artist should prevent that from happening in whatever way they can. All artists don't need to do political work, but they should be concious of what is going on. Politics, whether we like it or not, determines art."
From an interview with Lois Tarlow
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UNTITLED, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 inches, 1972
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THE DEFENDER, oil on canvas, 50 x 36 inches, 1965
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