All Nations Have Their Moments Of Foolishness Summary

Richard Notkin’s “All Nations Have Their Moments of Foolishness” Artist Statement. In Richard Notkin’s “ Artist Statement” about the piece “All Nations Have Their Moments of Foolishness”, Notkins chooses to embrace the role of an artist as a social critic. His work, alike Picasso’s greatest piece Guernica, protest against war. The artist’s ceramic sculptures and sculptural teapots, explore the complex environmental, political and economic impacts of the contemporary human civilization. Notkin expresses throughout “All Nations Have Their Moments of Foolishness”, by visual manipulation and the juxtaposing of various objects, images and symbols, a narrative sculptural work to stimulate the viewer to examine their own feeling. The piece “All Nations Have Their Moments of Foolishness”, is a wall mural that consists of separate tiles, each achieving different shades of gray which helps depict the image in the mural of …show more content…
At first, when looking at the piece, I felt as if the author wanted to ridicule George W. Bush by putting together the tiles capturing the failures and wrongdoings that took place during his term in presidency. When first looking at the piece, it made me feel uncomfortable and a little rattled and emotional because flashbacks of the horrible actions that took place during his eight years of presidency. Many soldiers were sent to war, at least 145,000 troops, almost triple than the ones sent during Barack Obama’s presidency. Many lives were lost and many innocent people died because of his actions. When first looking at this piece, it made me also feel a little good because I felt as if Bush was being ridiculed to the public and whoever saw the piece which felt amazing.However, after reading Notkin's Artist Statement I truly understand the meaning of the piece. It's created in order to capture and show the outcomes of his actions but not to ridicule him to