Abstract
There are unique tensions in political art because it asks us to appreciate its aesthetics. It asks for appreciation in at least two ways: as a formal thing demonstrating who we are, and as an object that orients our collective becoming via politics. Unlike politics, political art takes on the explicit burden of having to be appreciated aesthetically. The stakes in conversations around the aesthetics of politics are only heightened within left politics; while the left has a strong artistic appearance, any realistic assessment of its strength suggests that it is hardly adequate to our developing needs. Yet, as pragmatists, we make do with what we have— because the left does have some space within the infrastructures and institutions that support it.