When you actively consume art, what are you looking for? An escape into a beautiful landscape or portrait? A glimpse into the lives of people hundreds of years ago? Or something else entirely? We all view art as a source of pleasure — we hang it in our homes, we look at it on Instagram, we invest in it for monetary gain, we go to museums to get lost in the solitude of endless galleries. But art has always held power far greater than just beauty. For centuries art has been indicative of the society and culture that created it. The most famous artists are often the ones who pushed the boundaries of their culture’s content and aesthetics — think Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh, or Georgia O’Keeffe. While not all art is overtly political, for centuries artists around the world have used their work to educate, comment, and criticize culture and politics. Some of these moments produced significant cultural shifts by increasing awareness of suppressed issues. These 6 artists created works that shocked the world with controversy, and awakened many to injustices they were blind to.
Francisco de Goya, The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid, or “The Executions”, 1814, Copyright ©Museo Nacional del Prado
Francisco de Goya (1746-1829), considered one of the most prolific Spanish master painters of the late 18th and early 17th centuries, is most known for his decadent court portraits and depiction of the events of Napoleon’s invasion of Spain. Goya’s masterpiece, The Third of May 1808, depicts a French firing squad honing in on a group of Spanish captives. The raw emotion of the figures has become a symbol of the horrors of war, and many critics have lauded its homage to Christian iconography. The central Christ-like figure, a poor laborer bathed in a yellow glow, throws up his arms in surrender to death. Now a canonical piece in any art history lesson, The Third of May 1808 is considered the first painting of the modern era and has inspired countless reiterations throughout history.
Chinese artist Yue Minjun (b. 1962) riffs on Goya’s famous composition with his piece Execution (1995). Inspired by the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989, Minjun’s figures instead keep their arms at their sides as though they are not fearing death. Their faces could be interpreted as anguished pain or hilarious laughter, as they line up in their underwear for a faux execution by firing squad. The artist insists that the piece should not be viewed as a commentary on Tiananmen Square, but rather universal fear toward the unknown. Minjun told CNN: "The laughs illustrate my deep feelings. One might be very happy now but always unsure of what's going to happen next.” In 2007, Execution became the most expensive work of Chinese contemporary art at auction, selling at Sotheby’s London for 2.9 million British pounds ($5.9 million). Critics have lauded Yue Minjun’s bravery for painting something so politically dangerous in his veiled criticism of the Chinese government.
Yue Minjun, Execution, 1995 (image from artist website)
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was an American photographer, known for her Depression-era documentary portraits. After studying photography at Columbia University in New York, Lange left America to travel the world and sell her artwork. Shortly after the 1929 stock market crash, she settled in San Francisco and began taking portraits of the unemployed laborers wandering the streets. Her photographs caught the immediate attention of the public, who were struck by the poor conditions many rural Americans faced. Lange’s exhibited work in San Francisco led to a commission by the Resettlement Administration, a government agency formed to raise public awareness of and provide aid to struggling farmers. Lange’s photograph Migrant Mother, now easily the most recognizable icon of the Great Depression, depicts a desperate mother and her children, suffering through poverty in the West. The closed-in composition creates a Madonna-like figure of Florence Owens Thompson, a mother of seven children left destitute from unemployment and scarce farming jobs. Although Lange garnered a successful career as a portrait photographer prior to the 1930s, her interest solely lied in effecting social change through her art form. Lange believed deeply in the power of photography and continued to fight for social justice around the world for the rest of her career. Her work revolutionized the use of documentary photography in activism for change.
Guerrilla Girls, Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?, 1989, Copyright © Guerrilla Girls, Courtesy www.guerrillagirls.com
Guerrilla Girls, NYC Recount, 2015, Copyright © Guerrilla Girls, Courtesy www.guerrillagirls.com
For 3 decades now, the Guerrilla Girls have been fighting to “expose gender and ethnic bias as well as corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture.” Unlike typical artist activists, the Guerrilla Girls are not just one person or one group, but an ever-changing society of anonymous feminist art activists. The artists themselves rarely appear in public, but on scarce occasions appear wearing gorilla masks to hide their identities. Their works employ humor or outrageous imagery to bring attention to cultural issues, often focusing on the lack of representation of women and people of color in museums and art collections. One bold piece (top left), humorously questions the viewer about female nudity in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The work outwardly criticizes the museum’s lack of women artists on display, despite the copious amount of female nudes in the modern art sector. The piece has been updated in 2005 and 2012, to reflect the changing statistics and percentages of the museum’s representation.
Since their inception, the Guerrilla Girls have exhibited activist street art all over the world including New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Mexico City, Istanbul, London, Bilbao, Rotterdam, and Shanghai, and have participated in major art events like the Venice Biennale. Their activism and protest pieces have called out many museums for discrimination and bias, and inspired major institutions to increase minority representation in their exhibits and staff.
Today, any average person can recognize the distinct artistic style of Keith Haring (1958-1990). After growing up in Pennsylvania, Haring moved to New York City in 1978, where his art would grow out of the street graffiti culture of the 1980s. Haring first began by spontaneously drawing with white chalk in the subway, which led to public recognition of his pieces. Both the style and means of Haring’s work lended itself to accessibility and visibility by the general public. In a world of often pretentious high-art institutions, Haring pushed back against traditional artistic norms. Haring’s growing international popularity allowed the artist to use his platform to shed light on social issues that were widely ignored. Much of Haring’s work focuses on safe sex and the AIDS crisis, a disease that would later take his life in 1990 at the age of 31. Haring’s political awareness fundamentally changed the art world, and brought a populist mindset to the consumption of art.
One of Haring’s most distinct contributions to the art world is his many collaborations with fashion brands and designers. In 1986, Haring opened his “Pop Shop” in New York to sell his work at affordable prices, making his art even further accessible to the general public. Today, Haring’s work can be seen in collaboration with Adidas, Urban Outfitters and UNIQLO. Haring’s legacy continues today through the work of the Keith Haring Foundation, a charity that strives to “perpetuate Haring's artistic and philanthropic legacy through the preservation and circulation of his artwork and archives, and by providing grants to children in need and those affected by HIV/AIDS.” The Foundation continues to lease Haring’s imagery to brand collaborations in their mission to continue Haring’s charitable legacy. In 2019, Haring was inducted into the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor at New York City’s Stonewall Inn.
Keith Haring, 1986 Ignorance = Fear / Silence = Death, 1986 ©2020 Artnet
Keith Haring at work in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Shirien Damra, 2020, from Damra’s Instagram Page @shirien.creates
Shirien Damra, 2020, from Damra’s Instagram Page @shirien.creates
After the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Shirien Damra wanted to create something in his memory. Damra, a freelance graphic designer, portrays Floyd with a face of serenity surrounded by flowers. After the video of Floyd’s death widely circled the internet and gripped the world with horror, Damra said “I was afraid that people would only see the video and remember his soul being taken away from him.” Damra’s work challenges racial stereotypes and demonizations of black men, and instead portrays Floyd within bright colors and florals. The artist’s portrait went viral on the social media app Instagram, and has since garnered over 3 million likes. Shirien’s artwork of Floyd has been shared across the platform from a wide variety of public figures - from New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Hollywood celebrities Mindy Kaling and Khloe Kardashian. "Art is a tool," Damra says. "It's not the end. It’s a means to an end, not an end in itself. Ultimately, the real work comes when we all come together."
Shirien Damra has made other memorial portraits for Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Damra views her Instagram page as a site for healing, as she sheds light on the memory of people who have died unjustly. If you are interested in donating or learning more about the Black Lives Matter movement, please read our previous blog post with resources.
In 2020, we can no longer stay silent on the issues that matter. Today, many social movements that have long been ignored have come to the forefront of our national consciousness. Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA+ rights, women's rights, immigration rights, and the climate change crisis, among others, are movements that Americans are fighting for in this election year. At Studio Gallery, we believe that art can be a catalyst for change. For centuries, artists around the world have used their work to educate, comment, and criticize culture and politics. This summer, our all-members exhibition, entitled Art & Activism, invites Studio Gallery artists to present on the issues that move them to create. Keeping with the theme of Art & Activism, some members have elected to donate the proceeds of their sales to a charitable organization of their choosing. By purchasing a piece from Studio Gallery, you are always supporting local D.C. artists and the arts community. We hope that this year's show inspires and uplifts our community to continue fighting for equality and social justice. Art and Activism will be showing from Wednesday July 29, 2020 to Saturday August 22, 2020 in our downstairs gallery. Studio Gallery is open by appointment only on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and open to the general public for walk-ins on Fridays and Saturdays from 1pm to 6pm.
Citations for Further Reading:
Francisco Goya: https://www.artsy.net/series/-1583427101/artsy-editorial-goyas-third-may-forever-changed-way-war
Yue Minjun: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/11/china.artist/index.html#cnnSTCText
Dorothea Lange: https://www.moma.org/artists/3373
Guerrilla Girls: www.guerrillagirls.com
Keith Haring: https://hypebeast.com/2019/6/keith-haring-legacy-tate-liverpool-preview
Shirien Damra: https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a32688070/shirien-damra-instagram-tributes/ and https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-06-02/george-floyd-instagram-art-tributes-portraits
From staff contributor Ginnie Murphy