Page 98 - Time Magazine-November 05, 2018

From the Editor

The art of TIME What drew JR to the subject was that he knew
little about it. “In France,” he says, “we don’t have
any relationship with guns, and so I’m discover-
In hIs 2015 book, the artIst Jr asks, “Can ing the whole issue.” What drew me to this col-
Art Change the World?” Artists see beyond laboration was the hope that his creativity and
walls, across divides, around corners. Through outsider’s perspective could help those of us in
their eyes, we understand the world in new, America think differently about this debate, and
clearer ways—which is why TIME since its the many others where rage too often substitutes
founding has worked with great artists to create for discourse. In a week when explosives are
our covers, from Andy Warhol to Andrew Wyeth, being sent to major public figures and news orga-
Robert Rauschenberg to Ai Weiwei, Christo and nizations, the urgency could not be more clear.
Jeanne-Claude to Shepard
Fairey. Fifty years ago, Roy JR’s muRal envisions
Lichtenstein marked a se- the cover of TIME as a
ries of heartbreaking as- table, the kind of setting
sassinations with a TIME where we might actu-
cover, “The Gun in Amer- ally listen to one another.
ica,” which now hangs Over five months, he and
in the National Portrait his team, along with a
Gallery. group of TIME journalists,
So how would an artist, traveled to three cities—
one whose body of work St. Louis; Washington,
explores the world’s most D.C.; and Dallas—to film,
complex social issues, ap- photograph and record,
proach the topic of guns one by one, people who
in America today? If he represent the vast range of
were JR, a native of Paris, voices in our gun debate.
it would be with fresh △ The final result brought
eyes (behind his trademark sunglasses) and an JR and TIME together 245 people from every imaginable van-
open mind. His latest work—extraordinary mu- editor Edward tage point: veterans and teachers, hunters and
rals that bring together on one canvas people Felsenthal in doctors, people afraid that guns may kill their
from all points of view and walks of life—is Washington, children and people afraid they won’t have guns
about our common humanity. His message, D.C., on Sept. 4 to protect their children. They include Lezley
powerful and regrettably rare at this cultural McSpadden, whose son Michael Brown was shot
moment, landed him on this year’s TIME 100 dead in Ferguson, Mo., which helped spark the
list of the world’s most influential people. As Black Lives Matter movement; members of the
social entrepreneur Laurene Powell Jobs put trauma team that treated victims of the horrific
it in a tribute in that issue, JR “has dedicated 2016 sniper attack on Dallas police; House ma-
his career to bridging gaps—physical, cultural, jority whip Steve Scalise, a gun-rights supporter
spiritual—among people of all backgrounds.” who was critically injured in a shooting at a con-
Last May, when JR and I first discussed his gressional baseball practice; and former Con-
creating a cover for TIME, we immediately gresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot
landed on guns. It was just a few months after in the head at a 2011 constituent event. We are
the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., which had grateful to the participants for their time.
prompted a painful and often vicious national To JR’s table, we also invited six writers
debate over what is certainly a shared goal: pre- to explore the broader theme of bridging
venting the senseless mass murder of children. our divides. “The moral certainty of my rage

TASHA VAN Z ANDT 1959 1965 1968 1984 2002 2013

Ai Weiwei
Robert Rauschenberg
Marc Chagall
Andrew Wyeth
Andy Warhol
Roy Lichtenstein
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