About Sol Robbins:

Born in 1956, Sol was raised in the Bronx, N.Y. where he says "life was tough" and has lived in and around this area his entire life. He currently resides just outside of New York City in New Jersey with his wife and their son. He continues to show his art in galleries world wide and is currently doing illustrations he comments "just like always". When asked to describe himself in a few words aside from being a meaningful political artist he says "I am just a person who does a lot of different things, I’ve been to a lot of different places. And been involved in some activism."

Interviewing Sol was an experience all its own. As well as being a well worded individual he has opinions he does not fear expressing that would make even the strongest mind think. His art is his passion aside from his family and he shares each piece he creates with a charm and flair that speaks volumes of who he is as a person and the life he has lived up until this point.

AP: How long have you been creating political art and what made you choose the political genre for your style?

Sol: I have been doing political art since 1976.  Art became a little meaningless. Shapes forms and colors were just too simple.  My family had a political background. Mostly in participating in the formation of labor unions. My grandparents came from Europe so there was the background of the Holocaust as well. Art came easy for me. So it was up to me to make it interesting.

A.P: So you grew up with politics being sort of an asset to your family lineage?

Sol: Yes.  There was also the 1960s and the Viet Nam War.

A.P: So you use past history of the world as a type of inspiration?

Sol: Yes and no. I am very aware, or try to be, about my local environment. Once I became aware I could see everything unfold in front of me. Living in New York City for 17 years makes these types of things easily visible. The series I did on the USA's use of Nazi scientists and war criminals harks back to my grandmother's reaction to man landing on the Moon.

A.P: Care to elaborate at all on that?

Sol: She must have known about this. She turned off the TV after the first step and said couldn't watch. That got me curious.

A.P: So your grandmother's reaction to that event that might be seen by some as a sort of landmark in American history grabbed you and pulled you into understanding American events and politics more?

Sol: I could not understand that the biggest day in exploration was so distressing. Politics came later along with philosophy.

AP: What do you try and achieve with each piece you create?

Sol: A complete and plausible vision this means that the viewer can react to what art elicits without guess work. In this sense a picture is worth only a couple of well conceived sentences, if that.

A.P: So less talk on a piece to you means more understanding?

Sol: you want to pick one?

A.P: Well if I was to pick one of your pieces Id have to pick the one called "Chinatown" It is a piece that is both visually and meaningfully beautiful.

Sol: Chinatown is based on a Chinese New Years celebration which is well choreographed. The dragon parades through the neighborhood blessing local businesses. In front of each businesses threshold is lettuce tied to firecrackers. The dragon has to make its way through this…

A.P: In that piece and the description you mentioned and made the dragon from pages of the New York Times....was their any reason in particular that you did that?

Sol: Yes.  The Dragon's body is a costume that's held up by many people. I just took what was in the business section of the NY Times to say what the body of the dragon is made out of. The fierce dragon blesses the businesses. I did that piece in the format of a Bertolt Brecht play. Brecht mask appears as the figure beating the drum. Still all these levels don't take away from immediate pictorial impact. Chinatown is sort of a stage set for tourists. Chinese motifs abound in the same fake but exotic fashion.

AP: As the rhetoric increases between the United States and Iraq, it seems that a war in the Middle East is inevitable. What is your feeling on the conflict and in your opinion what are the reasons behind it?

Sol: Right now America is going to war AGAIN.  This time there is a lot of uncovered activism. Not in the news at any rate. I think most of the world thinks America is nuts. Still this president is not a creative guy. Iraq has the world's 2 largest oil reserves. This is about control of our oil being under someone else's soil.

A.P: Do you think that a good enough reason for War?

Sol: This will keep a region that's been in turmoil in continual turmoil. Theocrats will get stronger in this part of the world. It doesn't take much for an unconventional army of committed people to win. Same happened many times over.

A.P: But do you think that if America does win this war it will be the end of the tension between Iraq and the states? Or will the next generation bare the same grudge???

Sol: People who can express and articulate these kinds of events can have a small and accumulative impact here.

A.P: In your opinion do you think it possible that both side’s actions are only helping in raising new armies within our children?

Sol: The next generation will have the same situation, but with small differences. The last election in the US was a wash and obfuscated. I tend to believe that Bush was appointed rather than elected. Nowadays people organize through the web. Commercial media would otherwise marginalize conflicting points of view. Points of view can be complicated and doesn't sit well in sound bite format.

AP: With the events taking place right now in the United States do you feel any good art can come from them?

Sol: I hope so. They can if they want to, but artists need the intelligence and command of a visual vocabulary to be effective. They also need the means to distribute there work in a public arena.

A.P: So you feel that personal understanding, research and knowledge of on these events will help the artists make images that are based more on actuality rather then personal opinion or what the media might perceive these "facts" to be?

Sol: Yes. This needs a marriage of different media to give context in a meaningful way. Artists create all this through getting work out there and marketing.

AP: What do you look for as inspiration when creating?

Sol: I have been doing this for a long time. Inspiration is for armatures. A.P: Ok. So let me re-word the question then: "What was your original source of inspiration when you began creating political art?"

Sol: Mostly events and finding out what may be behind them. Making art was just a given. My struggle was the language needed to make this art.

A.P: How so?

Sol: This language had to satisfy and be understood by others. Studying art makes visual language easier. The main was avoiding caricature.

A.P: How did you achieve that?

Sol: People of all kinds at least to me, had to be drawn or rendered naturalistically. That was hard. Political art basically has 2 manifestations. Actions you can see. Actions you can't see. Actions you can see might be called social realism. Actions you can't see require a language or rendition that's plausible and shows what is going on and what it means. Mainly, Political art shows how contradictions that co-exist in the same environment. Thus recognizing it.

AP: How do you feel your art personally effects people?

Sol: People's responses to my art say everything about the responder. They usually relate themselves to the image they look at. This is always interesting to me. By the time someone has seen my work, I have moved on. But, it does change them insofar as they have compared themselves to a particular issue that one of my images had allocated. In this sense they "picture themselves".  For people who are involved in the depicted situations, it helps validate them.

AP: Why in your opinion are we taught to perceive death as real, rather than illusory and does the bringing of death into your art have any personal meaning behind it?

Sol: It’s not about death that’s too cynical. Some people do things in remembrance of what came before like ancestors. That cuts at the sinews of trying to deal from strength. Things should be done for those coming up...after you… otherwise, why do it? We read books like Dickens. His books can tell you more about his time than any history book at least in a human sense. That's art with a capitol A. Death is real. Life holds the promise of change, betterment and possibilities in real time.

A.P: With that said do you believe their to be a heaven, a second living moment or light to follow after this life?

Sol: Life is greater than any issue. Heaven is what you make it. Life is what you make it. Here’s an old saying: "If a tree falls in a forest does it make a sound? If nobody hears it, than nobody gives a shit"

AP: Some might say your art could be classified as using a "violent political medium" what if anything do you have to say about such speculations?

Sol: Its nothing compared to the real thing. It’s a good question though. All art is barbaric after Auschwitz. Art can't really hurt anyone per se. It can only bring a point home and make it personal. Art identifies with class.

AP: Have you ever encountered hostile viewers of your art and how did you deal with them?

Sol: Yes.  I remind them that their responses say more about them than they do about me. Besides, I am the guy who made the stuff. I don't see their stuff hanging on a wall for responses. Still most folks are intelligent and I take them seriously.

A.P: Do you think your art might be a tool in changing some people that see its opinions?

Sol: Sometimes. Changes take place at different rates. I just hope I did not waste their time. If they "picture them self" they can change. All my work is researched so there's a bibliography they might want to peruse. Change starts from within and there has to be a need to do so. I don't see people charging the barricades they'll loose job security that way.

A.P: So in other words you feel that if someone WANTS to change opinions or feelings on a matter that they must truly WANT to change such in order for change to be effective?

Sol: Yes.  But they also need to make "informed" decisions. I hope my art helps with this.

AP: Of all the pieces you've created...series and singular...which of these would you say was the most meaningful to you and why?

Sol: They are all meaningful. Some are based on my real life experiences some are things I thought were important. I don't make anything to take up space in say a portfolio. I don't make throwaways.

A.P: So you've never created an image that didn’t pertain some sort of meaning to you as a person?

Sol: Not in a very long time. I do make personal pictures that I don't show to anyone. In each series, I try to push my boundaries to the edge of my capability. I did a homeless in NY series that started with one of my neighbors getting evicted. That evolved from there. The Secret Agenda series is really out there in terms of depth and craft......trying to tell a complicated story. That series took me 4 years. When it was publicized on MTV I had to talk with their legal department.

A.P: Why was that?

Sol: They demanded accuracy just in case there was any feedback they could feel confident I had it right. Andy Warhol probably never had to do that.......defending your work.

A.P: Did that bother you? That they would question your accuracy?

Sol: That never bothers me; it comes with the territory of Political Art.

A.P: So you’re saying this has happened again since then?

Sol: It happens many times to one degree or another.  Illustrating for periodicals... I scare them. They think I'm going to piss off some segment of a population. I guess people don't read the articles...they just look at the pictures.

A.P: So who now do you do illustrations for?

Sol: Over the years, many, too many. New York times Sunday magazine, the progressive, MacLean’s, Philadelphia magazine, Saturday night, New York magazine, et al ad infinitum.

AP: In some of your art I see you use mention of God and other religious attributes; do you find that the use of "God" and images of religious matter help in some of the theme's of your pieces? And have you ever received negative output from people based on this?

Sol: People assume that there would be some kind of reaction, but there really hasn't been any. Maybe I use the idea of god like others would. In political art god is something that has a judgmental power an inaccessible judgmental power. That idea just does not sit well with me. I guess there are 2 virtues connected with this: Faith-principles not based in truth & Justice-principles based in truth. There’s is also an enduring nature of god. All the connected manifestations which are visible can be eradicated and I think people should do things and act for what will be. Not what has been as I said before. In this sense god is not part of my every day life. The guy that made my wrist watch knows it works and is now involved in other things. Besides, people try to sell god and what she meant.

A.P: If you don’t mind me asking...what belief or religion do you follow if any?

Sol: none.

A.P: But do you believe in God?

Sol: not in any standard sense. I am very anticlimactic about this. Besides most people I hope know right from wrong, truth from lies. What is in their best interest in the best sensibility as what most general consensus says is basic human dignity for yourself and others. Religion gives reasons for things that are hard to explain. Mysticism. Not much that's mysterious going on nowadays. Political art should shed light on the so-called darkness of mysticism. Peel back the curtain. Peace, death is all part of life. Fear of life is a mistake. Morality goes great when you have a full stomach.

AP: Symbolism seems to play an important role in your work. Are there any insights that you would offer to people who are being introduced to it for first time? Or would you rather leave the interpretation solely in the hands of the viewer?

Sol: I endeavor to leave no room for interpretation. Symbols so to speak are merely markings like the one you would see on a trail to guide you. That's just a western tradition. Having titles, captions or a short paragraph to go with the art articulates the context. I don't believe that art by itself can do this properly. I also do pictures in series or tritych-polytych format. Tritychs are 3 pictures that fit together end to end. Polytychs are more than 3 pictures. This can show a continuous visual narrative. Like a scroll. I’ve posted a few of these on my website. At best a picture is only worth a couple of sentence fragments.

AP: what if anything would you suggest to young political artists just coming out?

Sol: Don't be afraid to grow up.  Get your art out there, not just your perception that there is a thriving art world out there because there is not at least in any vital way. Political does not identify itself to art buyers per se. Only to folks who want to hedge their bets and to say they are diverse.

For more art from Sol Robbins please visit his site: http://www.criticaleye.org