Shifting States: Iraq

Luis Cruz Azaceta, Shifting States: Iraq, 2011, acrylic, prisma color pencil, oil stick, and shellac on canvas, 84 × 158 in. (213.4 × 401.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2014.52, © 2011, Luis Cruz Azaceta

Artwork Details

Title: Shifting States: Iraq
Artist: Luis Cruz Azaceta
Date: 2011
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 84 × 158 in. (213.4 × 401.3 cm)
Copyright: © 2011, Luis Cruz Azaceta
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description: acrylic, prisma color pencil, oil stick, and shellac on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Highlights: Latinx Art
Object Number: 2014.52
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2014.52

Artwork Description

Luis Cruz Azaceta, who immigrated to the United States from Havana during the Cuban Revolution, began a series he called Shifting States after seeing news coverage of the uprisings in the Middle East collectively referred to as the Arab Spring. Here a central black and orange shape floating in the cloud of a smoky explosion suggests the centrality of oil to the area's political turmoil. Attached to it are elements that resemble bombs, cannons, minarets, oil rigs, and the antennae that powered social media used by both the protesters and government surveillance teams. For Azaceta, this series "maps a new terrain" of our uncertain, current times.