{"id":4941,"date":"2025-05-26T11:38:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T18:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4941"},"modified":"2025-05-26T11:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T18:40:39","slug":"4941","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4941","title":{"rendered":"Decorating Our Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/quillette.com\/2025\/05\/19\/art-of-social-engineering-thomas-j-price-sculpture-grounded-in-the-stars\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"443\" src=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-26-at-11.30.20-AM-400x443.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4943\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-26-at-11.30.20-AM-400x443.png 400w, https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-26-at-11.30.20-AM-768x851.png 768w, https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-26-at-11.30.20-AM.png 910w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>My recent <em><a href=\"https:\/\/quillette.com\/2025\/05\/19\/art-of-social-engineering-thomas-j-price-sculpture-grounded-in-the-stars\/\">Quillette<\/a><\/em> article about Thomas J Price&#8217;s unfortunate installations in Times Square. Once again ideologically charged art produces unintended results. I explain how Price&#8217;s bronze giantess and his Orwellian &#8220;Man Series&#8221; billboards echo some cringeworthy art history. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When British sculptor Thomas J Price explains that his \u201cstrategy of inclusion\u201d will counter the \u201cendless stream of limiting tropes and identities for Black people,\u201d he is inadvertently mimicking totalitarian injunctions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[904,945],"tags":[1227,793,760,1226],"class_list":["post-4941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-criticism","category-art-history","tag-politicsandart","tag-public-art","tag-sculpture","tag-socialistrealism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Decorating Our Decline - Julia Friedman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4941\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decorating Our Decline - Julia Friedman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When British sculptor Thomas J Price explains that his \u201cstrategy of inclusion\u201d will counter the \u201cendless stream of limiting tropes and identities for Black people,\u201d he is inadvertently mimicking totalitarian injunctions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/?p=4941\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Julia Friedman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-26T18:38:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-26T18:40:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/juliafriedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-26-at-11.30.20-AM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"910\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1008\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jfriedman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jfriedman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4941#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4941\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jfriedman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9120ffb6bd1d9684130c3eed0e059423\"},\"headline\":\"Decorating Our Decline\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-26T18:38:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-26T18:40:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4941\"},\"wordCount\":43,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4941#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-26-at-11.30.20-AM-400x443.png\",\"keywords\":[\"politicsandart\",\"public art\",\"sculpture\",\"socialistrealism\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Art Criticism\",\"art history\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4941\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/juliafriedman.org\\\/?p=4941\",\"name\":\"Decorating Our Decline - 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