Jack Rutberg Fine Arts presents an important and timely exhibition, “Art of Engagement,” officially launching the much anticipated book by renowned art historian, Peter Selz, entitled, “Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond,” published by University of California Press.

In its scope and breadth, the “Art of Engagement” exhibition functions as an ambitious historical survey of artistic expressions in contemporary and modern art inspired by social and political issues. The exhibition centers on works that are compelling for their artistic expressions. Collectively, these works underscore the degree to which artists have been responsive to such issues, in spite of the relative rarity of similar exhibitions presented by museums and galleries.

Free speech, eco-environmentalism, gender politics, racial issues, and labor activism are just a few of the subjects explored in “Art of Engagement,” along with images of conflict, from the Spanish Civil War, World War II and the Holocaust, to the war and political agitation of the Vietnam war years, up through to the present war in Iraq.