Here is a selection of five famous paintings which make political
statements. I've included links to images of the paintings, and
excerpts from descriptions giving details of the political content of
each painting.
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Jacques-Louis David's "The Death of Marat", painted in 1793:
Ibiblio
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/david/marat.jpg
"David was in active sympathy with the Revolution, becoming a Deputy
and voting for the execution of Louis XVI. His position was
unchallenged as the painter of the Revolution. His three paintings of
'martyrs of the Revolution', though conceived as portraits, raised
portraiture into the domain of universal tragedy. They were: The Death
of Lepeletier (now known only from an engraving), The Death of Marat
(Musées Royaux, Brussels, 1793), and The Death of Bara (Musée Calvet,
Avignon, unfinished)."
Ibiblio
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/david/
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Francisco de Goya's "The Third of May", painted in 1814:
Personal Page of Dr. David M. Hart
http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/personal/DHart/ResponsesToWar/Art/StudyGuides/Goya.html
"Later in his career, as Napoleon occupied Spain in 1808, Goya hoped
the conquerors would bring the liberal reforms so badly needed. The
savagery of the French troops ended his countrymen's optimism and
caused a resistance of equal consequence. Another of Goya's well-known
works occurred in response to this despair. Called, 'The Third of May'
it symbolizes the horror of the conflict on May 3rd, 1808. An
unaffected firing squad, devoid of regret, stood robotically, killing
a horrified, tortured group of citizens. Goya's dramatic lighting and
bold color gave the piece an overwhelming sense of fear. Viewers are
struck by the truth that the Neo-Baroque artist attempted to provide."
Elinoff Gallery
http://www.elinoffgallery.com/goya.htm
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Edouard Manet's "Execution of the Emperor Maximilian", painted in
1868:
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism/images/manet-maximilian.jpg
"Manet's family was in fact highly politicized and extremely
pro-republican. His cousin Jules de Jouy was an established lawyer who
for a period employed the young Leon Gambetta. Manet's brother
Gustave, also a lawyer, had been friends with Gambetta from their days
as students when the two had frequented the café Procope. Manet's
other brother Eugene - Berthe Morisot's future husband - was a pal of
another notorious republican lawyer, Emile Ollivier. Manet himself is
on record as actively disdaining the Empire. When J. F. Millet refused
the Legion of Honor in 1868, Manet applauded the gesture, dismissing
the award as a 'dirty gewgaw,' suitable for children and regime
toadies. Two of his early paintings, 'Execution of the Emperor
Maximilian' and 'Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama' were direct
slaps at the foreign policy of the 2nd Empire, as Maximilian had been
placed on the throne of Mexico by French troops and Napoleon III was
pro-South in the U.S. Civil War (the Kearsarge, a Northern vessel, had
sunk the Confederate raider Alabama in French waters)."
2Blowhards
http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/week_2003_03_09.html
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Diego Rivera's "Man at the Crossroads", painted in 1934:
Personal Page of Aase Sommer
http://home.attbi.com/~human7/Proj5C.htm
"Subject: man at the crossroads between past and present, capitalism
and communism in the modern machine-age. A mural that tries to bridge
"primitive" myths of nature with modern advances in technology. Plants
grow up from the soil at bottom; a machine looms up overhead. Faceless
figures wearing gas masks and marching in military formation carry
rifles in the upper left corner; they are flanked on the right by
workers wearing Communist red scarfs and joining together as a
collective, raising their voices in song. The left side of the
painting is dominated by exploiters and wall street high society,
while the right side contrasts sharply with figures clustered in
solidarity around Lenin, the father of the Communist Revolution. In a
way, the mural is a secular Last Judgment: the left represents the
damned in Rivera's opinion; the right shows the blessed, those who
uphold the Communist party's heroic ideals of social justice and a
classless society. The man at center must determine how to steer a
course into the future between these two poles."
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Mike Alewitz's "Bureaucracy", painted in 1995:
Stony Brook: State University of New York
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/wcm.nsf/bureucracy.jpg?OpenImageResource
"One of five 7 x 10 panels created for the International Confederation
of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions, 1995. Other
panels : Competition, Production, Class Unity, International
Solidarity. Dedicated to the then imprisoned Nigerian oil workers
following the general strike in that country."
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Although I performed several searches using keywords such as
"political art," "politicized art," and "propaganda art," these did
not prove very productive, and in the end I relied upon my memory to
choose the paintings described above. In order to locate each image
and description, I used Google Web Searches consisting of the names of
the paintings and the artists.
I hope this is helpful. If anything is unclear, or if a link does not
function, please request clarification before rating my answer, and
I'll be glad to offer further assistance.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
