Reaganomics

Executed in 1982-1983, Reaganomics captures the mood in the United States at the very beginning of Ronald Reagan's presidency. Created by German artist Hans Haacke, the work offers an incisive commentary into the radical economic changes and structural reforms being undertaken by the neo-Conservative leader at the time. It also investigates the discourses of media, cultural and political power by forcing a reexamination of how images are encoded with meaning. The work was conceived as a sister piece to the artist's Homage à Marcel Broodthaers (1982), which entailed the installation of a small portrait of Reagan in a gilded frame behind a red velvet rope at Documenta 7. Reaganomics was created the following year and shortly after the President's son was pictured queuing for the dole in the New York Post on 14th October 1982. Ron Reagan Jr. was quoted as saying: 'I spoke with my mother before I signed on and she OK'd it' (R. Reagan Jr. quoted in I. Rogoff, 'Double Vision: Politics Between Image and Representation', German Art Now, London, 1989, p. 61). In Reaganomics, Haacke parallels the slick, glowing, colour portrait of Reagan with the affirmative language, 'Yes, my son collects unemployment, too! REAGANOMICS'. In doing so, he illuminates the populist and rhetorical effect of the President's words, using the same advertising tactics as those used in commercial practice. The irony lies in the inviting image and the implied camaraderie when the policies of Reaganomics were explicitly geared towards driving back the welfare state, privatisation, liberalisation and the breaking of entrenched labour unions.