Jean Toche depicts imperial Bush at Franklin Center

Artist Jean Toche is known for his controversial and reactionary work, and his new exhibition at the John Hope Franklin Center is no exception. Titled Jean Toche: Impressions from the Rogue Bush Imperial Presidency, the collection includes expressionist photography coupled with vehement political statements and various news excerpts. Kristine Stiles, professor of art, art history and visual studies, curated the show, drawing the works from her own archives.

The collection is comprised mainly of  four-by-five-and-a-half inch cards, each featuring a distorted photographic image displayed above a written statement from Toche. The works comment on a range of topics from excess consumerism to “Bush: Brutal Butcher of Fallujah!” Many of the photographs are abstracted images of Jean Toche himself, from dramatic and confronting close-ups of his face to pictures of his exposed backside. Toche uses his own portrait to add visual potency to his radical statements. On one card, Toche quotes a New York Times article and surmises the possibility of an unchecked Republican dominance, asking the question, “Another Thousand-Years Reich?” These words are paired with a photograph of Toche’s back, with his bare buttocks visible under a black T-shirt marked with only one word: UTOPIA.

This is but a single example of Toche’s mix of stark humor and radical political observances. The works do not just attack Republicans and the Bush administration. Toche also calls attention to ignorance and apathy among the American people, a growing and worrisome xenophobic attitude in Europe and an art market overrun by the principles of consumerism.

Impressions from the Rogue Bush Imperial Presidency is an exhibition that makes no amends or compromises and forces the viewer to react. Whether viewers agree with Toche or not, the works offer a personal and intimate summons to engage in today’s sociopolitical debates.