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!