Tribute to Irving Petlin

Texts by Max Kozloff, Jon Henricks and D.K.Walla
Irving Petlin shared with his contemporaries beginning in the fifties an aspiration to “investigate the reality” of our existence and its underlying ideological, philosophical and moral assumptions. Petlin has refused to view ‘reality’ in isolation from the social, economic and political contingencies and historical contradictions. His early subjects, drawn from the experience of immigration and diaspora, reflect his anarchist, socialist, internationalist and republican leanings. In totality, his life’s work draws inspiration from a form of humanitarian socialism and an inability to portray anything in preconceived isolation.