This essay will focus on political and social printmaking in the 1960s onwards and it will show how these artists used printmaking to express political views of their times. Pop Art had emerged five years prior to the 1960’s; the Pop Art movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture. It was the visual art movement that characterised a sense of optimism during the post war consumer boom of the 1950's and 1960's. Warhol was the leader of the Pop art movement; he was a major influence for socially conscious art work in the 1960s. Warhol was also a postmodernist artist; he broke down the barrier of high art and low art, much of Warhol’s work went onto address many social/political issues in the 1960s which were produced using the medium of silk screening, although he denied any interest in politics, Warhol did create silkscreen prints Red Race Riots, of 1963 (fig 9), which were based on photographs of the civil rights protesters in Birmingham, and he also created The electric chair, of 1971 (fig 10) which is a haunting image of the execution chamber at Sing Sing. Over the next decade, he repeatedly returned to the subject of the chair, reflecting on the political controversy surrounding the death penalty in America in the 1960s. Warhol presented the chair as a brutal reduction of a life to nothingness, the image of an unoccupied electric chair in an empty execution chamber became a poignant metaphor for death. Warhol strived to communicate the true feeling which is aroused by this terrifying instrument of death. Another iconic image of Warhol’s is The Gun (fig 12) it is one of Warhol’s most famous still life’s on the subject of death. Death and destruction can be seen as a th... ... middle of paper ... ...istic maturity was forced out of the struggle to balance her (essentially Marxist) politics and a humanist art that searched for deeper meaning. Coe saw the print medium as a better one for reaching a wider audience than painting; ‘Tragedy of War’ was rabidly about the angry evils of the world reflecting in this case on the American Wars, the blunt, mostly black and white imagery follows the tradition of Goya, Otto Dix and George Grosz. The work can be described as both urgent and timeless. Her most riveting print, War Street, depicts a vast crowd carrying a platform on which the skeleton of Death holds a sickle and rides a dead horse. Pulled behind are the bull and bear of Wall Street. Coe's symbols are grimmer, bloodier versions of newspaper editorial cartoons. Her gritty etched lines make the image seem like a telegram from the time of Europe's Black Death.
This art analysis will define the theme of the universality of 20th century modern warfare in the context of modern works of art by David Levinthal and Roger de la Fresnaye. David Levinthal’s “Untitled” (1972) is commentary on the mass killing of modern warfare in the 20th century, which killed many millions of men during Hitler’s invasion of Europe. Levinthal’s childhood imagery of tanks, soldiers, and homes visualize the mass killing of war as a “universal” concept in the depiction of the modern psyche. Roger de la Fresnaye’s “Artillery” (1911) is also a commentary on cubist imagery that projects a military
The similar controversial natures of Fury’s Kissing Doesn’t Kill and Manuel Ramos Otero’s “Nobility of Blood” suggest that perhaps their intended audiences may have shared characteristics as well. Because Kissing Doesn’t Kill is a piece of poster art, it was displayed out in the public, instead of a museum or convention like usual pieces of art. The poster was plastered in large sizes to the sides of public transportation buses, billboards, and even mass mailings. People of all kinds of backgrounds came across the artwork, whether they wanted to or not. However, since the point of activist artwork like this is to create social change, the effect of this artwork on its viewers is the main focus. To people who agreed with the statements on the
Controversial artists such as Mike Parr and Stelarc place emphasis on shock-value and meaning rather than traditional skills and aesthetics, and use their own bodies as a medium, while working with new mediums and technology such as video, performance, sound, and robotics. As Postmodern art continues to push the boundaries of what is - and isn’t acceptable as art, the general public is left to wonder ‘what comes next?’.
George Gittoes (b.1949) creates works that that communicate the issue of the graphic horror of war. A social realist painter, photographer and filmmaker, his approach to art is that ‘he layers and accumulates material until, out of apparent chaos, there is a synthesis of idea, passion and image’ (Mendelssohn, 2014). As an eyewitness to the world's war zones, Gittoes clearly uses his work as a means of communication to society.
“Painting is a way to examine the world in ways denied me by the United States justice system, a way to travel beyond the walls and bars of the penitentiary. Through my paints I can be with my People—in touch with my culture, tradition, and spirit. I can watch little children in regalia, dancing and smiling; see my elders in prayer; behold the intense glow in a warrior’s eye. As I work the canvas, I am a free man.” – Leonard Peltier
The earliest forms of art had made it’s mark in history for being an influential and unique representation of various cultures and religions as well as playing a fundamental role in society. However, with the new era of postmodernism, art slowly deviated away from both the religious context it was originally created in, and apart from serving as a ritual function. Walter Benjamin, a German literary critic and philosopher during the 1900’s, strongly believed that the mass production of pieces has freed art from the boundaries of tradition, “For the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependance on ritual” (Benjamin 1992). This particular excerpt has a direct correlation with the work of Andy Warhol, specifically “Silver Liz as Cleopatra.” Andy Warhol’s rendition of Elizabeth Taylor are prime examples of the shift in art history that Benjamin refers to as the value of this particular piece is based upon its mass production, and appropriation of iconic images and people.
Known for being the father of Pop Art, and a giant in pop culture, Warhol dominated the art scene from the late fifties up until his untimely death in 1987. However Warhol’s influence spread further then the art world, he also was a major player in the LGBT, avant-garde and experimental cinema movements. Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Slovakian immigrant parents, Warhol came from humble beginnings. Becoming widely known for debuting the concept of ‘pop art’ in 1962. Warhol’s reach grew further when he started experimenting with film, becoming a major player in the LGBT, avant-garde and experimental cinema movements. Warhol’s artist studio, known famously as ‘The Factory’ became a hub for experimentation, and a go-to point for celebrities, musicians and trans folk. During this time, Warhol came out as an openly gay man, challenging the status quo of the day, a time when being homosexual was illegal. While also producing highly experiential films such as ‘Blow Job’ (1964) and ‘Sleep’ (1964) which were highly political and provocative, at the time. As art critic Dave Hickey asserts, “Art has political consequences, which is to say, it reorganized society and creates constituencies of people around it” (Hickey, 2007), Andy Warhol’s art and lived experience created a political constituency which can be best recognised in the function of the “Silver Factory” on
Artists portray gruesome events in many ways including poems and videos. Gruesome events are portrayed in similar ways and also different ways including what is put in and what is left out. Whether it be leaving out who started the war, telling the whole story, or emphasizing elements in different ways the artist clearly portrays the Civil War of Spain as a gruesome and horrifying event. Both mediums clearly show how life was before the war and how people have been hurt. Both artists give the reader a sense of how the war affected everyone in Spain and eventually give the rest of the world a reason to “come and see the blood in the streets”(1/5 voices).
Rhythm is the fundamental element of music; without its pulsing drive, a melody seems aimless, and harmony irrelevant. The beat of a drum awakens the primal within us, calling back ancestral memories and basic instincts. It can lead us to dance and to joy, but also, too often, to war. The war drums beat loudly in cycles throughout history. Many would argue they first became audible to our generation immediately following September 11 th, 2001, and grew deafening with the buildup to our invasion of Iraq. Few would deny that with America's massive global economic and military influence, we have become an empire. Many would argue that we have been an imperial power for some time now. Even so, it is only recently that that recognition has entered the popular consciousness, and so only recently could we begin interpreting artistic analyses and criticisms of imperialism as they relate to our own nation. J.M. Coetzee?s Waiting for the Barbarians paints a disturbing picture of what it means to be a citizen and a proponent of empire, one as applicable to modern America as it was to apartheid South Africa at the time it was written. Coetzee has created a story of Justice versus Empire that applies to us all not just as imperial citizens, but as human beings as well.
The invention of the printing press revolutionized fifteenth century era European communication. With the progression of technology the translation of information moved from spoken word to written word, and then to print. Separate experiences and mentalities developed depending on their reliance on spoken verses written word. Spoken word was unreliable and didn’t transport information quickly or safely enough. Written word often took months to transcribe and were hand-written which is difficult to comprehend and facilitate. Print became the method of choice, producing books
...he American Civil War. No matter what, the pictures of war that I’ve seen all have the same sad, hopeless, and tired expression of the soldiers that have fought that I think the painter was trying to show. This expression that has been like boulders on the shoulders of the soldiers won’t just go away, but I see it outside of the war as well; the wars of everyday life. It’s almost as if these warriors’ heavy hearts were so heavy that it physically weighed their bodies down to a shrug. I think that John Singer Sargent wasn’t sent to France to just capture the aftermath of World War I, but to capture the feeling that people have after their own wars. I think this heavy hearted and sorrow feeling that is expressed in this picture wasn’t just painted for this particular war, but to represent the wars people like us, the soldiers, fight in everyday life in our own war.
theartstroy.org. 2013. The web. 22 November 2013. Warhol, Andy.
The city of San Antonio continues to grow in population and within the NISD school district the Hispanic population is 68.4% and continues to rise above all other ethnicities within the school district each year.
...s work The 3rd of May, 1808 is a very detailed and dramatic narrative within a collection of war themed works by the artist. I believe that by using the formal elements of color, texture, shape, lines, space, and the value I was able to sufficiently provide evidence that Goya offers a sequential order of direction for the audience to comprehend from their personal viewing. The twisted and grief stricken work creates a massive emotional connection and the artist plans for the viewers’ to grow and understand this message. The subject highlighted is obvious that Goya is passionate on his stance and outlook on war is suggested in the work. It’s obvious that Goya’s formal organization of his color palette, variation of brushes, repeating shapes, and play with lighting all correspond to depict man’s savage and at times monstrous actions are justified during war.
This shock is often achieved by either the violation of human rights, exhibition of animal cruelty, display of violence in an explicit or crude way, tasteless sexual references, or the presentation of topics that are “delicate” within the community in a morbid or perverse way. Other methods are through repulsive and horrifying images, or the defiance or disregard for tradition and law. Evidently, this type of art is bound to make the audience feel uncomfortable, scared, and even angry. All this only to send a bold political message, challenging the audience to change their way of thinking. But, who is the one responsible for drawing the