Cases for Political Art | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios
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- Опубліковано 13 чер 2024
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This week we explore some of the most powerful artworks ever made, making the case for political art one work at a time. Pablo Picasso's Guernica, Kathe Kollwitz's prints, Kazimir Malevich's Black Square, Iri and Toshi Maruki's Hiroshima Panels, and Martha Rosler's House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home photomontages. What do you think of as political art?
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I'm very impressed by the diversity displayed, no country represented twice. good work
"Have you gotten the idea that war is bad?
No?
Let's continue. 🙂"
🔥🔥🔥
I _loved_ Sarah's delivery of that line. So well played! :D
I was expecting Otto Dix at that point, but I guess there's only so much time in a video like this.
yes it is very very bad .. But As you may know America makes tons of money with War ... The Budget of US military is bigger than the 10 biggest army in the world combine ... !!!! And our bridges , school , roads , public transportation , student debts.... etc .. crumble ....... What I mean is our country America is a war machine ... It seems that not too many people are aware of it ????
These "Case for" videos are always powerful, eye-opening, and inspirational. I can't thank you enough for them. This may sound naive, but they were a huge factor in my decision to declare a second major in art history. Keep doing what you're doing!
Aw, shucks. That is so nice to hear. The more and wider pool of voices we have involved in art and art history, the better and more relevant the field will become. Thanks for watching.
The Art Assignment inspired me to change my major from biological sciences to art history!!
i had a history teacher in seventh or eight grade (which was a decade ago) that once asked us why we saw Guernica and felt bad for the destruction, but could only think about it in the past, not related to genocide and war during our times, war that was indeed happening in other parts of the world. pretty deep for middle school and I've never forgot this. it's very easy to see political issues and atrocities as the "other", but they're not.
What a great teacher. I have several similar moments from my formal education that I remember that clearly, and they make all the less-inspiring bits completely worthwhile.
Yes
When I watch these episodes, I have to put down the phone, shut off the 2nd screen, close the book and REALLY pay attention. I don't want to miss any detail.
The surest sign of success: single-screening! Thanks for watching. And watching so well.
Exactly! Same here! Have to pause and read the subtitles several times maybe
I am doing my GSCE art exam this year. My theme is the word "fight" and this is extremely relevant to me. I have even recreated Guernica in my sketchbook but about Belfast troubles (where am from). Thanks, love this channel
in Brazil current political scene art has a strong voice as well. I'm curious to see what pieces will be consider iconic in a few years from now
Eu penso nisso também
Eu não conheço mt da cena politica de arte no Brasil atual, teria como vc me indicar alguns nomes ou links, eu agradeceria mt
I loved this. The art displayed here was truly stunning. I especially was moved by the Hiroshima-pieces. I can only wish that some day I can move people in this way
I really appreciate the way that all the Art Assignment videos introduce me to artists I'd never heard of. In particular for this one: Iri and Toshi Maruki. So thanks.
Some current political artists I like to follow are Peter Drew (Australian, big focus on refugees, asylum seekers, and multicultural Australia in general) and Molly Crabapple (journalist/artist with a focus on incarceration, war, and revolution). Does anyone else in the comments have recommendations for current political artists?
Totally agree!
political art is my favourite
Every time this channel comes out with a new video, I clear my schedule as best as I can because it always makes me want to paint for hours.
this episode made me cry and i can't even really explain why
i will be happy to know better person like you:)
Enough with the well deserved hiatus. Please rejoin the conversation. The world needs your voice right now. #thereturnoftheartassignment !!!
These "case for" videos are always really good, please keep making them :)
Beginning to end, this is stunning. Thank you for making this. My art history major mind is crying with joy and admiration for how brilliantly this is articulated.
I'm just about to start a major political project and really appreciated your perspective here:
"... What I appreciate about political art is the way it encourages us to constantly reframe our values: to re-consider what we hold to be right, and wrong, and true or false at every turn. For me, that is art that is worthwhile."
Guernica is absolutely amazing to see in person! I had learned about it in high school history as we were going through the Spanish Civil War but seeing its immensity at the Reina Sofia almost brought me to tears.
I really impressed with “the living room war” art works. And you are right, art is about knowing yourself and others, knowing your knowing and your un-knowing
Paraphrasing here, but the line "I don't want art that is a confirmation of things I already know" is the point. Brilliant!
please do one on text based art :)
I can’t remember the last time I cried at a piece of art . Thank you for showcasing the maruki’s and everything that this channel does !
The Dadaist movement is my favorite art movement! Great video with an even greater message.
I appreciate that you took the time to clarify that political art as a phrase is vague or ambiguous, and that there can be other names for what you're talking about. When you say these are political in an obvious way, are you taking intentionality into account? I do think that art can be political without the artist intending it to be, and vice versa, I think that art that was intended to be political can be misconstrued or misunderstood as not political (though not necessarily apolitical). After spending my semester studying art during the cold war and talking a lot about political art, I have been thinking about this a lot and I am curious.
One of your best videos yet. Thank you!
I really love the case for series. The Case fro Abstraction in particular was fantastic. More of these/other art history topics please.
I am delighted by this very well-demonstrated video. Thanks a lot for your excellent work.
Wow. Powerful and moving video, especially your closing statements. To be confronted, more so to choose to be confronted, to be engaged, to think, to grow, to get into the world of others, to broaden one's experience and horizons, to use it as a lens and to grow compassion... all wonderful and a powerful invitation to us all. And case totally made for political art. Thank you. :)
Thank you, Oliver! Always enjoy hearing I've made a successful pitch ;).
Incredible episode! Thank you.
This episode is amazing
Maybe the most underrated art channel on youtube. It is great!!!!!!
Thank you just the intro of this video helped me a lot (and the rest too).
Your content is unique and it made me love art even more
you are so right. im glad i found you this morning. wut a refreshing talk
Thank you so much, I love these videos!!
Every time I have an art paper to write the Art Assignment always has a good video on it
Thank you for making Suprematism understandable! I know there is more to it than your concise description, but it's a great, clear starting point.
The "Case for" videos are the best. Would you guys ever do one on outsider art?
i never leave comments on youtube videos, ever. but this! is amazing. diverse, profoundly interesting...thank you!
Could you do a video on Dadaism. I'd love to hear your take on it.
++++++
Mr.Baggins yes!
This video was sooo well made! Love it
Stumbled upon this after watching the Case for Impressionism and it made me recollect my old self who is more inclined to making art in depicting issues that I value. It's also timely that my country, the Philippines, is going through a much heated political rife that is fueled with misinformation, fake news, and historical revisionism. Watching this made me understood again and amplified the power of art and how I can actually utilize it.
Favorite video so far!
I've learned from these pieces of art, that artists choose to focus on the bad of the world a lot more than the good when it comes to things such as politics and new policies, which makes a lot more sense now that I'm saying it out loud.
this is incredible, i love the video.
Great examples here. I make political art sometimes but it is very hard to find a gallery showing it. It's still a good mental exercise.
As a current art college student, this is really inspirational. Thank you for posting!
Hooray! There is so much to write about when it comes to Ai Weiwei. Hope you continue to study his work.
those martha rosler images are insanely powerful
Art is a mirror of the world around us. Art should force people out of their comfort zones and think. The result of which is learning and hopefully change.
ALOHA-what about doing a Part 2 and including the brilliant artist Sue Coe and the politics of eating, and experimenting on animals
Bravo very well done !!!!!! thanks
"War, follows me to the end..." K. Kollwitz.
btw, When Kollwitz was born, Kaliningrad was called Konigsberg.
I remember the Truth is project! It actually came to a place where I was volunteering so I had a chance to participate although I don't recall now what I said . . .
'All art is propaganda' said Upton SInclare. 'You either have to be part of the solution or you're going to be part of the problem' said Eldridge Cleaver. Present events are true inspiration and show the dictators we are not asleep.
I love this channel.
As an artist I’ve taken another approach : I use abstract art and have others describe politics in interviews. Take a look at the project: Triptych Dialogue
great, very impressive
YASSSS I LOVE THESE
amazing video
I’ve been watching your videos and I want to thank you for helping me wedge some space in my mind for interest in art. And can we get a batch of the hidden rose hoodie in grey pretty please?
I'm surprised muralist art wasn't included in this video. That being said, great work. all of the art featured is extremely interesting. Thank you.
ua-cam.com/video/TS1oPqP2qyY/v-deo.html
hahaha thanks. I guess I should be paying more attention to uploads :]
🎨 projects powerful messages and thought provoking.
Although I've seen Guernica in the flesh, it did not have as big an impact in the way I perceive the world as Francisco Goya's Disasters of War.
Strongly agree. Disasters of War made me weep.
That was on my list (my very, very long list) at the start, and the process of narrowing this down to 5 artists was nearly impossible. One way I got there was to start after 1900 and stop before 2000. Still, it was nuts and I didn't talk about scads of important political work. Goya is genius.
Indeed! Overall, the 5 artists you've selected are diverse and powerful in their own right. Thoroughly enjoyed this video, and even more so now that I know great care was taken in the compilation process. Keep up the great work, Sarah! I always learn something new after watching a video by you or John.
I saw it I got weak at the knees . My father came from there and witnessed the bombing .
The story behind is often important, Rubens Consequences of War is by now just a part of the story behind.
would love to see the case for artists manifestos
I hope y’all do a video on Wyndham Lewis soon. Considering his art was praised but ruined his friendships all around him, he is a rather intriguing painter. He is possibly the first artist of the 20th century to cause people to differentiate art from the artist.
What a wonderfully thought provoking and informative episode. I think it would have been interesting to have included some street art, especially banksy, as so much of street art is deeply political. Oh well, you certainly can't cover everything, and who knows, maybe street art will become it's own episode.
Upon further inspection, the third piece shown was a banksy piece.
Great series, thank you for it. In this episode on political art, I miss though one angle. The art of the oppressed, which can have many different forms that differ from the art produced by the free (which was mostly discussed here). My counterexample would be the underground art of dissidents in the former communist block, where the official regime had actually stolen and perverted the anti-war message, so the authentic artists had to find different ways of expressing what mattered. some of these art forms are surprisingly gentle and almost light spirited, yet still expressing a full political stance
Between which decades would you defy this subject as? (defy as of whats in this video)
Malevich was not russian artist. He was born in a ukrainian-polish family in Kyiv, spend childhood in a different small cities around Ukraine (because of father work they were moving quite often). Also later on he was an art teacher in The National Academy of Visual Arts in Kyiv in the same time when there was working a lot of other now classic ukrainian artists. Even just his name - Kazimierz or in ukr. Kazymyr - is actualy typical polish name. So I'm just saying that it is not anyhow correct to call him russian artist just because he was born when it was rissian empire and later ussr
How did I not realize... IT'S THE YETI
This was a great video. One thing though: I don't think all art should be considered political. Everything does not need to be about politics. But I loved the video
maybe the Egyptian revolution didn't end the way most of us had hoped but it left us with an abundance of political art, poetry and songs, both old and new, were strongly present in Tahrir square during the 18 infamous days, and since it's Egypt and we laugh off everything that troubles us there were a lot of satire too, the walls of Cairo were covered with powerful massages and calls for the people to join the protests in the streets, glorious graffiti that was immortalized in photos before the regime removed it.
afterwards there were many cartoons in many new media outlets, performances that rely mainly on monologue and improvisation and of course all those photos, the regime can try as hard as it could to make us forget what happened in 2011, but what can they do about all the photos? all the moments captured by cameras and uploaded to the internet for every one to see? art didn't only help the Arab spring, it's preserving its memory they way it should be remembered not the way the rulers want us to remember it>
Very ilustrative 12 minutes; I´would have liked to hear something about mexican muralism, as it is an excellent case of political art, and there are some mural paintings in the USA by Orozco (New School of Social Research. NY) and Diego Rivera (Detroit). There was in California a mural by Siqueiros, destroyed in the 40´s. Elizabeth Catlett is beloved in Mexico, my country, where she spent many years.
Great videos! Short but informative, thanks! But one mistake)) Kazymyr Malevich is a Ukrainian artist)) He was tortured by russian government couple times. And he wrote in documents: "nationality - Ukrainian". Malevich lived in Kyiv and he was teacher in Kyiv academy of art. So, because of these facts we can definitely say that Kazymyr Malevich was Ukrainian artist))
Of course Prudential would sponsor this. It not only shows that they "support art", but this particular video was mostly about war which connects nicely with loss thus seggwaying oh subtly into preparing and saving for the future. But I wonder how many starving artists they would help even though they have no or very little income. Ah well, PBS hasn't been commercial free for awhile now.
Karya seni tema politik selalu menarik untuk di bahas, karena memiliki potensi untuk dapat mengubah kondisi masyarakat.
WOOOOW ARE THEY REALLY TOUCHING "GUERNICA" WITH THEIR HANDS!?!!?!?!?!?! AT MOMA!!??!?! 6:16.
I love the work of Women on Waves - I live in Ireland- but I don't see how they're artists? Could you please explain that a bit more, or direct me towards a resource on this?
Rebecca Gomperts, who head the organization, got an artxt degree in art before attending medical school, and early funding for Women on Waves was actually provided by the Mondriaan Foundation. The project is a healthcare advocacy group, but its founders have always been interested in the overlapping area between art and activism. While the boat itself is no longer in use, it has been shown in a number of exhibitions. They are committed to their cause and continue to provide healthcare to women in various forms, but they also understand the power of the boat as a symbol and as a way to stir public debate. The presence of the boat from shore was a potent visual reminder of a debate that is often very private.
Could you guys PLEASE make The Case for Shia LaBeouf?
Give this video a like if you think it stands as a political artwork itself.
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i would really like to know how a ball of yarn or a painting of a landscape can be interpreted as political. can you please make a video on that?
It's due to the many contexts that go into that art. A landscape painting can be propaganda, it can be made to show the beauty of a country and imply a nationalistic superiority. In another context, it could show the beauty of nature initself, attacked by modern deforestation and industrialization, implying that we should protect the beauty of the natural world. Yarn is less obvious, but in some contexts it could be represent working conditions, the historic perspective of knitting as a female coded activity implying a perspective on gender, etc.
I was going to like this video until the end when PBS promotes Prudential who tells us that we're not saving enough for retirement. Oh what about the political art that came out of the Occupy movement?
In one of my many views on art, I see it as the attempt to create an experience which does not classify, thus forcing the audience to reevaluate their classification system. Thinking about this in context of political art, the amount of intention in that new classification order can vary widely. A lot of art such as dadaism just gives the audience a bunch of things to deal with and walks away. Some art can be very constructive with a specific thesis for a better political world. While other art is more disorienting focusing more on an anti-thesis of things it sees as problems.
In my opinion art with a thesis like the Hiroshima panels, that tries to understand not just the horror of war but also the intentions of its perpetrators is more beautiful and effective than works like Guernica.
Could you make a Case For Jeff Koons?
4:13 - because in Russian chistianisty, the icon sculpture of Jesus crucified on the cross is placed in the corner of the ceiling - now being a black square.
oh no,retirement ads.im not that old am I :0
politics are at the center of art thanks for covering it
this video made me cry. 2019 and the world is still fighting against itself.
Money, charity and investments, flow to what's inspiring. Rebuilding for people who have lost their homes is "deserved" and inspiring. People who have never had a home haven't, according to the status quo, done anything to deserve it, a.k.a. inspire investment and trust. So those who have fight to protect what they have, and those who don't use that model as a a template for 'success.' As long as governments keep paying people to make weapons and fight, instead of incentivising de-escalation of conflict, war continues. Check out Yoko Ono's work.
Sah , j'aime bien 🍜
how do you cite this page?
I have this screaming urge to respond to the Prudential ad with a list of US states that don't have a minimum wage. It makes me wonder if any of their employees are receiving State aid like food stamps... at age 60 or so.
Where is Banksy?
The revolution mexican muralists?
Malevich is Ukrainian (ethnicaly Polish) not Russian artist. And now there is also ongoing war in Ukraine started by Russia, and it's seems that just USA cares about it. I'm from region that occupied and I'm always wanted to pour my feelings into art but it's very heavy experience to come back to, but after your video I understand that it's need to be done, I don't know how yet. Thank you for your work and inspiration 🙏
Case for Banksy sometime?
I thought she had already done one, but yes. I support this!
How is Ilya Repin not here??????
I cried. Twice.
"I want art that calls for me to be a compassionate person."
But what if the most important philosophy in the world at the moment is *anti-*compassion, the denial of altruism, enlightened self-interest. The best art (a stylised documentary) I've seen on this is Adam Curtis's _All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace_.
There's a temporary link to Episode 1, _Love and Power_, here vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799353
I do not appear in any other of the "Case for" videos I've made, and I showed up in this one because I was voicing my opinion, sharing what I look for in art. We're all going to want different things from art at different times, and what a shame it would be if we all wanted to same thing or if the world only needed one kind of art.
Thanks for the reply, though I must say I'm confused - I think there might be a communication breakdown. I'll have another go.
I was trying to say that it's almost taken as read that we all want to be better, more compassionate people - but maybe the biggest issue facing the world is the fact that anti-compassion, selfishness, and the denial of altruism are the most influential, most powerful philosophies in the West at the moment. _AWOBMOLG_ really illustrates that (see the relationship between Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan for instance). And given it's style I think it'd probably be recognised as Art, or arty at the very least.
*Is it fair to say that underlying all art are ideas of understanding, compassion, and communication? What might be truly iconoclastic would be art which celebrates selfishness.*
I'm not advocating these positions, and it's quite likely they are marching us off the edge of a cliff, but I do think they are profoundly important, and should be discussed much more widely, especially in Political Art.
To take/make a simplistic example it might be a piece like _House Beautiful_ but instead of the Vietnam War the backdrops are, say, the Prison-Industrial Complex and what David Simon has called the "slow genocide" of the War on [Some] Drugs. However the piece is not condemning this genocide - it is celebrating it. This would be hideously ugly, but it might be a truer representation of what is happening in the world.
I think the first four series of _Game of Thrones_ explored these sorts of issues very well - they give a rationale (based on historical precedent), for instance, for Assad's (and Putin's) behaviour in Syria.
(I've no idea if this is any better, these thoughts are fairly clear in my mind (which is different from them being right :-)) but maybe I'm not getting them across.)
Thanks Again
This video is great - but in 1867, Kaliningrad was called Konigsberg
Did my comment really get deleted? So much for ART and Freedom of Speech, welcome to one size fits all.
Irony
Sry to correct you but Kaliningrad wasn’t named Kaliningrad in this times. It was called Königsberg an Germany isn’t written with a p