Art & Politics Archives - Public Seminar

An Artwork Animated by Its Audience

The principles of dynamic symmetry behind José Clemente Orozco’s Call to Revolution and Table of Universal Brotherhood

June 3, 2026 • by Xavier Moyssén Álvarez

—To my father, Xavier Moyssén Lechuga When José Clemente Orozco received a commission to paint a mural cycle at the New School for Social Research in late 1930, he was told that the murals would be on the walls of the student dining room. The room would have people moving in ...

Rethinking Orozco

How Alma Reed Triumphed Over “Positively Frightened” Critics of the Orozco Room

On the woman behind the brotherhood

April 17, 2026 • by John Reed

In January 1931, journalist and art-world impresario Alma Reed attended the unveiling of A Call to Revolution and Table of Universal Brotherhood, a cycle of frescoes by José Clemente Orozco and the first mural commissioned for The New School's bespoke building in New York City's progressive haven of Greenwich Village. ...

How Alma Reed Triumphed Over “Positively Frightened” Critics of the Orozco Room

Art & Design

Rethinking Empathy

A review of Imperfect Solidarities by Aruna D’Souza

March 4, 2025 • by Elide Vincenti

A deceptively simple question animates Imperfect Solidarities (Floating Opera Press, 2024), a short new book by writer and art critic Aruna D’Souza: “What would it mean if our politics were based not on our ability to empathize with people whose experiences are distant from our own, but on our willingness ...