Power, Politics & Glory

Session 5Ms. Beka

Exploring Art: A Global Thematic Approach

Function of Art

Rulers and governments use art to celebrate and spread their earthly power. Art is also used in war, either in creating weapons and armor for it or in making images that promote it. It also gives us images of peacemaking and monuments for peace.

Art can be an equally strong voice of protest against a government or against a social practice. People who are not in power can use art to art to affirm their ideas and to protest against warfare, oppression, or political policy.

POWER, POLITICS, AND GLORY

Throughout human history, a vast amount of artwork has promoted, popularized or propagandized governments as well as those who lead them.

Art has depicted war and helped shape our reaction to war.

Art has also celebrated peace.

Artists use devices for this function.

THE GLORY OF THE RULER

Artistic Devices

The idealized image: the ruler’s face and/or

body are depicted without flaw and often includes a wise or dignified demeanor.

THE GLORY OF THE RULER

Artistic Devices

Symbols: details are included

that indicate omnipotence, authority, or divine blessing: some symbols show military or religious power

THE GLORY OF THE RULER

Artistic Devices

Compositional devices: the ruler often

occupies the center of a picture and may be shown larger than attendants or other figures; the ruler’s clothing may attract attention

Seats of Government

In 1836 England’s old Houses of Parliament burned. Architect Charles Barry designed the Gothic Revival style of the building while A.W.N. Pugin was responsible for ornamentation.

Seats of Government

On one side stands the Victoria Tower and the other end is the famous clock tower with Big Ben.

Seats of Government

The building resembles a medieval church or a castle-fortress, visually housing Parliament in a metaphor of the church’s strength and the government’s power.

Seats of Government

Inspirations for the Houses of Parliament include Chartres Cathedral and the Chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abby.

Gothic Style: flying buttresses

WAR

War is part of the history of most civilizations and

cultures, and it is part of the story of power, politics, and

glory.

War Scenes

Art can present war as a memorable, even glorious, action-filled event. Or art can document battles from various points of view. Finally art can emphasize the horrors of war.

War Scenes

20th Century Images of War

After the revolution of 1917 in Russia, Communist leader Vladimir Lenin saw the advantages of film as a new medium.

Sergei M. Eisenstein was commissioned to glorify the collective heroism and martyrdom of the Soviet people in his masterpiece film, The Battleship Potemkin, made in 1925.

War Scenes

Eisenstein’s strength, however, was his editing. He used a rapid form of montage that allowed viewers to piece together the narrative from fleeting images.

The Odessa Steps Massacre sequence shows the horrendous conclusion of a failed 1905 uprising. The quick-cut images capture the feeling of terror, panic, and chaos.

War Scenes

Pablo Picasso’s painting, Guernica, dramatizes the 1937 destruction of the capital during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso blended the nightmarish aspects of Surrealism with his own style of Cubism.

War Scenes

The bull represents Fascist Spain, doomed to be tortured and suffer a slow inevitable death.

The gored, dying horse is the Spanish Republic, while the fallen soldier holding the broken sword represents the spirit of resistance against tyranny.

War Scenes

The electric light bulb shaped like an eye suggests that the world is being shown its inhumanity.

“Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy.”

War Memorials

An entire book could be devoted to

monumental art dedicated to war victories, battles,

and the dying.

Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982.

Names of the 58,000 men and women who died in the war are carved on the black granite surface.

War Memorials

Its polished surface reflects the faces of the living and superimposes them on the names of the dead, which forces a personal connection between the two.

Visitors mediate or mourn rather than celebrate.

War Memorials

This lack of glory made the memorial very controversial, so sculptures of heroic soldiers and nurses were added later near the site.

War Memorials

The long, V-shaped memorial is set into the ground with one end pointing to the Washington Monument, a symbol of national unity, and the other end pointing to the Lincoln Memorial, remembering a nation divided by civil war.

War Memorials

Magazine and newspaper coverage had brought the blunt realities of the war into U.S. homes, as evident in Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executing the suspected leader of a Vietcong commando unit, a war photograph from 1968 by Eddie Adams. Its harshness contrast severely with romanticized images of war.

PEACE

Winged allegorical figures, doves,

women, and pastoral landscapes have

symbolized peace in Western art.

Gardens, bells, and temples serve as

monuments to peace in Asia, Europe, and

the Americas.

Art about Peace

Edward Hick’s The Peaceable Kingdom, painted between 1830 and 1840, is based on the biblical passage of Isaiah 11.

Social Protest/Affirmation

SOCIAL PROTEST/AFFIRMATION

Many artists protest injustice with their artwork.

They identify villains, honor heroes, and promote causes with emotional and visual impact unequaled by the written word.

Protest art is a form of affirmation, because it is based on respect for human dignity and the belief that change is possible.

PROTESTS AGAINST MILITARY ACTION

Francisco Goya’s The Executions of May 3, 1808, from 1814 is based on his sketches of the actual event in 1808.

The citizens on the left side unsuccessfully rose up against Napoleon Bonaparte’s army.

PROTESTS AGAINST MILITARY ACTION

The rioters were captured and executed outside the city. The citizen in white is posed like a crucified Jesus.

The soldiers are dehumanized, like war machines.

PROTESTS AGAINST MILITARY ACTION

George Grosz’ 1918 pen-and-ink drawing, Fit for Active Service, depicts the irony of well-fed doctors and officers sending elderly, sick, or very young men to the front lines to fight for Germany at the end of World War I.

FIGHTING FOR THE OPPRESSED

Artists who fight for the rights and

affirm the values of economically or

politically repressed peoples

use several strategies to make their points more

forcefully.

These include beauty, illustration,

narrative, humor and shock. Most social protest works are

designed generally to affect public consciousness, rather than to

prescribe specific changes.

Strategies for Protesting Oppression

Beauty

Beauty and excitement can be very effective elements.

In Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, Liberty has been personified and made like a Greek goddess in her profile and her idealized body.

Strategies for Protesting Oppression

Beauty

Delacroix’s painting mixes realistic, idealistic, and romantic elements.

The faces of the men, the details of clothing, weapons, and the Paris skyline are realistic.

Strategies for Protesting Oppression

Beauty

The glowing goddess-like figure of Liberty, and the belief that revolution will lead to a better way of life are idealistic elements.

The painting is also romantic in its portrayal of fighting as thrilling, dangerous, and liberating.

EUGÈNE DELACROIX Liberty Leading the People, 1830.

Strategies for Protesting Oppression

Illustration

Lewis Hine’s 1910 photograph, Leo, 48 Inches High, 8 Years Old, Picks Up Bobbins at 15¢ a Day, illustrated the injustice of child labor.

Strategies for Protesting Oppression

Narrative

Ben Shahn’s The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, is a narration of an unjust trial that ended in the execution of two men.

Strategies for Protesting Oppression

Shock

Cildo Meireles’ Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project in 1970 was a shocking piece that protested the Brazilian government.

Strategies for Protesting Oppression

Humor

Ester Hernandez’ Sun Mad is an example of humor.

Affirming the Values of the Oppressed

When a group of people is oppressed,

their way of life tends to be discounted or

ridiculed.Art is an especially effective tool for

affirming the lifestyles and values

of down trodden groups.

In 1533, Hans Holbein the Younger painted the portraits of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve (“The Ambassadors”). De Dinteville was a political leader and de Selve a religious leader, but both were examples of authority which affirmed all things can be studied understood and classified (faith is foolish).

HANS HOLBEIN.The Ambassadors,

1533.

Political

Religious

Jean de Dinteville

Georges de Selve

Celestial (Heavenly)

Terrestrial (Earthly)

Westminster Abbey Floor of

the Cosmos (Universe)

Speak Up for the Oppressed!

Create art to PROTEST Ms. Beka’s UNJUST

RULE of NO CELLPHONES IN

CLASS!