socio/political themes

• sociopolitical art is used to help people understand political and social issues by creating art that expresses those same things

  • ex. Third of May & Second of May (Francisco Goya), Guernica (Picasso), Remembering (Ai Weiwei)

• subject matter that may politicize a work of art:

  • war

  • political figures

  • people/populations who have been impacted by political decisions

  • common objects that represent/symbolize an idea/population

• context can be…

  • point in history

  • place in history

  • social factors (race, SES, culture, etc.)

• propaganda art is used to spread non-objective ideas/info/rumors for the purpose of helping an institution or cause

  • ex. Rosie the Riveter, Uncle Sam, Hope Obama poster

• protest art is used as a form of protest/objection/disapproval of an idea/action (can sometimes depict an actual protest)

  • ex. Mexican Muralists, In the Trenches (Diego Rivera), the gorillas

• satirical art uses humor/irony, exaggeration to expose/criticize peoples stupidity in a political context

  • ex. political cartoons (can also be propaganda)

Art and War

• propaganda art is often used to promote war but art can also be used to protest war/conflict

• sometimes (wwii) enemies will destroy the other sides art/architecture to deal a blow to their morale

• art is looted during war (wwii)

• hitler and art

  • hitler would order art to be burned if it could not be displayed/seen in the Fuhrermuseum

  • destroying people doesn’t matter, but destroying their art, their architecture, their history, that’s when you erase them

• iconoclast- “image breaker”, those who take the Bible’s Commandment against the worship of graven images literally, sometimes even destroying images in a religious setting

• provenance- record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity/quality

• UNESCO- united nations educational scientific and cultural organization