Where politics and drawing intersect: Michael Waugh

Ann Shafer

For the very first time since I left the museum three years ago (today is the anniversary), I am glad I’m not there anymore. The museum sector is going through some real come-to-Jesus moments. I am having a hard time watching from the sidelines and I can only imagine how frustrated I would be as a museum employee with little to no power to address the issues. Museums, by definition, are collections of things. Categorizing and defining objects and identifying the cultures from whence they came, as well as the notion of them as specimens for our study, has me feeling queasy. The whole enterprise has been rightly identified as a colonializing one. This idea isn’t new—I certainly didn’t come up with it—but at this moment, all these factors are colliding, and I am not sure I see a way for museums to come through it. What do you do when they are entirely based on the idea of studying the “other.” Is it possible to change courses to what necessarily has to be a wholly different model? Just what is the blueprint for this shift?
 
I loved working in museums. I did it for nearly thirty years. I’m an object person. I believe art can help us think through difficult concepts as well as give us pleasure. I never wanted to do anything else besides create ways to tell interesting stories through great art. I love works that sit at the intersection of new and old, of abstract representation and representational abstraction, of beauty and toughness.
 
Filed in the ones-that-got-away column is the work of Mike Waugh whose large-scale drawings demand attention. On the surface one sees an image that harkens back to traditional tropes of Americana: eagles, ducks, hounds, horses. One could write them off as illustrative and backward facing; but stay with it. Zoom in and notice each drawn line is really text. (This technique has a name: micrography.) These lines are not just random words selected because their shapes fit the bill, but words that together make up important political manifestos and bureaucratic documents.
 
In a drawing from earlier this year, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Waugh has written out the text of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling. Hugely controversial, it reversed campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other groups to spend unlimited funds on elections. Reversing the one-hundred-year-old law allows wealthy donors, corporations, and special interest groups to have dramatically expanded influence on campaigns with negative repercussions for American democracy and the fight against political corruption. In Waugh’s image, a pack of hunting dogs are waiting for guidance—the blind leading the blind—while a seagull seated on one hound’s back seems to be anticipating the other shoe dropping.
 
For Redacted, 2019, Waugh copied over 350 pages of The Mueller Report. It took months of meditative labor to accomplish the work (which is huge for a drawing at some 6 x 6 feet). A nest of baby birds with mouths agape are innocently stuck in the nest until they gain maturity. For the moment they are just waiting to be fed and hoping for the best. Wasps swarm above them menacingly. While the Mueller Report laid out definitive evidence of corruption and criminal activity within the 2016 Trump election campaign, the populace is unable to take really meaningful action (until November 3, that is).
 
Politically charged content and “traditional” imagery intersect here. The beauty and intricacy of the drawings engages us. Understanding what the text says and represents gives us pause. Artists are always interested in getting people to linger longer over their work, and Waugh’s delicate, massive, impactful drawings richly reward scrutiny.
 
Michael Waugh (American, born 1967)
Citizens United, 2020
Pen and black ink on Mylar
45 x 69 inches (114.3 x 175.3 cm)
Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery
 
Michael Waugh (American, born 1967)
Redacted (The Mueller Report, volume I & II), 2019
Diptych, pen and black ink on Mylar
Overall: 81 x 76 inches (206 x 193 cm.)
Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery

Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Citizens United, 2020. Pen and black ink on Mylar. 45 x 69 inches (114.3 x 175.3 cm). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.

[DETAIL} Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Citizens United, 2020. Pen and black ink on Mylar. 45 x 69 inches (114.3 x 175.3 cm). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.

[DETAIL} Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Citizens United, 2020. Pen and black ink on Mylar. 45 x 69 inches (114.3 x 175.3 cm). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.

[DETAIL} Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Citizens United, 2020. Pen and black ink on Mylar. 45 x 69 inches (114.3 x 175.3 cm). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.

Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Redacted (The Mueller Report, volume I & II), 2019. Diptych, pen and black ink on Mylar. Overall: 81 x 76 inches (206 x 193 cm.). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.

[DETAIL] Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Redacted (The Mueller Report, volume I & II), 2019. Diptych, pen and black ink on Mylar. Overall: 81 x 76 inches (206 x 193 cm.). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.

[DETAIL] Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Redacted (The Mueller Report, volume I & II), 2019. Diptych, pen and black ink on Mylar. Overall: 81 x 76 inches (206 x 193 cm.). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.

[DETAIL] Michael Waugh (American, born 1967). Redacted (The Mueller Report, volume I & II), 2019. Diptych, pen and black ink on Mylar. Overall: 81 x 76 inches (206 x 193 cm.). Courtesy Von Lintel Gallery.