Art that Speaks to the Social Consciousness

Chapter 11 Social Protest & Affirmation

What would you protest?

• Protest: express opposition through action or words; the act of making a strong public expression of disagreement and disapproval

Art as Protest

• Protests Against Military Action• Fighting for the Oppressed• Affirmation• Representing the underrepresented• Questioning the Status Quo

18th Century Spanish Artist: Francisco Goya

Los Caprichos

Thou Who Canst Not. (Caprichos, no. 42: Tu que no puedes.), 1796-1797. Etching and burnished aquatint

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Plate 43 of The Caprices (Los Caprichos), 1799Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828)Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin

Source: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Plate 43 of The Caprices (Los Caprichos) (18.64.43) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The artist's nightmare reflected his view of Spanish society, which he portrayed as demented, corrupt, and ripe for ridicule.

About Goya’s work…

• The 1808 invasion of Spain by Napoleon’s army and the succeeding French occupation, which lasted until 1814, had a profound impact on Francisco Goya.

• A powerful anti-war statement, Goya is not only criticizing the nations that wage war on one another, but is also admonishing us, the viewers, for being complicit in acts of violence, which occur not between abstract entities like “countries,” but between one human being standing a few feet away from another.

• n the gruesome Disasters of War series begun in the 1808, but published decades later, Goya created images that were unambiguously anti-war.

Francisco Goya: The Third of May, 18081814-15Oil on canvas, 8'9" x 13'4"Collection Museo del Prado, Madrid

And There's Nothing to Be Done (Y no hai remedio), 1810–23

Goya's Disasters of War

19th century German artist: Kathe Kollwitz

While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing, I really felt the burden I am bearing. I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate. Kathe Kollwitz

Käthe Kollwitz, Outbreak, 1903

Asking Questions About Society

• Would you be willing to protest against something or in support of a belief if you knew you might be imprisoned for it?

Contemporary Artist: Ai Weiwei

Chinese contemporary artistAn outspoken human rights activist, Ai was arrested by Chinese authorities in April 2011 and held incommunicado for three months. Upon his release, he was prohibited from traveling abroad, engaging in public speech, and was subjected to continued government surveillance.

Ai WeiweiHan Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo10" by 11" by 11"paint/Han Dynasty urn1994

Critical Thinking

• What is the artist communicating through his piece: Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo?

• Compare to Cildo Meireles’ piece on page 299 of your textbook.

Cildo Meireles. Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca Cola Project, Brazil, 1970. Screen print on Coca Cola bottles.

On the bottles, such messages as ‘Yankees Go Home’ are followed by the work’s title and the artist’s statement of purpose: ‘To register informations and critical opinions on bottles and return them to circulation’.

The Coca-Cola bottle is an everyday object of mass circulation; in 1970 in Brazil it was a symbol of US imperialism and it has become, globally, a symbol of capitalist consumerism.

As the bottle progressively empties of dark brown liquid, the statement printed in white letters on a transparent label adhering to its side becomes increasingly invisible, only to reappear when the bottle is refilled for recirculation.

Contemporary Artist: Shepard Fairey

Fairey's multi-layered renderings of counter-cultural revolutionaries and rap, punk and rock stars, as well as updated and re-imagined propaganda-style posters, carry his signature graphic style, marked by his frequent use of black, white, and red.

His portrait of Barack Obama, a ubiquitous sight on the campaign trail, drew a new level of attention to the artist's work and was recently acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, for its collection.

Contemporary Artist: Shirin Neshat

Speechless is part of a series of photographs titled “Women of Allah” by Shirin Neshat. Neshat was raised in Qazvin, Iran, but left her country to pursue art in the US after high school. She was unable to return back to Iran until eleven years later because of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. When she finally returned to Iran, it was completely different from the country she grew up in.

"Speechless" by Shirin Neshat, Iranian, born 1957. RC print and ink, 66 x 521/2 “

Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery New York, 2006

In Speechless, Neshat uses a woman in mourning to represent the oppression of women in the Islamic culture. Speechless is simple but also very complex due to the symbolism of each object  in the picture. The solemn look on the woman’s face with the tears brimming at her eyes gives a look of strength and also a cry for help. Neshat makes the symbol of a woman in mourning more powerful by having opposites of each emotion in the photograph: freedom and oppression, strength and weakness, determination and submission, hope and despair.

Contemporary Artist: Jenny Holzer

Whether questioning consumerist impulses, describing torture, or lamenting death and disease, Jenny Holzer’s use of language provokes a response in the viewer. While her work often blends in among advertisements in public space, its arresting content violates expectations. Holzer’s texts—such as the aphorisms “Abuse of power comes as no surprise” and “Protect me from what I want”—have appeared on posters and condoms, and as electronic LED signs and projections of xenon light.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Text: Selections from Truisms (1977-79), Inflammatory Essays (1979-82), Living (1980-82), Survival (1983-85), Under a Rock (1986), Laments (1989), Mother and Child (1990); © 2007 Jenny Holzer, member Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY; Photo: David Heald

The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University; Presented by Creative Time; © 2007 Jenny Holzer, member Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY; Photo: Attilio Maranzano; Text: U.S. Government Document

Processing

• Identify which artist belongs in each group:Protests Against Military ActionFighting for the OppressedAffirmationRepresenting the underrepresentedQuestioning the Status Quo

Francisco Goya, Kathe Kolwitz, Ai Weiwei, Shepard Fairey, Jenny Holzer, Shirin Neshat, Cildo Meireles