When art is mentioned, you may think of the ‘Sunflower’ by Picasso, skipping children in fields or boats floating on glistening bodies of water, but should it go further than this? Should art actually be a record of how we lived in that time or is it simply an aesthetic?
When discussing politics and art, it would be Sacrilege to not start with the prolific artist Norman Rockwell. Although that statement may be debated by some.
Notwithstanding, I am more personally convicted by his later work, which we will lightly explore.
Rockwell started out creating work for adverts like Kellogg’s and was even commissioned to produce art for the famous campaign that appealed to women to join the workforce, during the Vietnam war. Rockwell achieved this through the iconic image ‘Rosie the Riveter’ which changed the face of the workplace forever and gave birth to a deity for Feminism.
Rockwell went on to paint other political series of works. This included the 1943 ‘Freedom from…’ series, comprising of the four oil paintings. ‘Freedom from Want’ was the third of the four paintings: A depiction of the American family at Thanksgiving, being served an indulgently largely turkey and ‘Freedom from Fear,’ which was an image of anxious parents watching over their sleeping children, desperate to be free from the fear of wars and governing bodies. Without careful examination and the knowledge of Rockwell’s work, these paintings on the face of it, are family-based pictures, void of a political position.
When Rockwell worked for the Saturday Evening Post, he was asked why his narratives never included Black people. He replied that his employers would not accept it, as the images would be offensive to the public.
In 1968 Rockwell resigned from the paper. Not long after he painted the famous ‘The Problem We All Live With.’ Which was an illustration of the Civil Rights school desegregation, in 1964.
It must already be clear, from the time I have devoted to speaking of Rockwell, that his journey is my fitting example of how art records our history and the impact it has on how we see ourself.
The examples of art and politics doesn’t end here. Another very important era was the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.
This era gave room to Black people to tell their own story, in their own voices, with their own words. Black people could finally attempt to drown out the desperate, filibustering shouts and whispers of racism through literature, dance, singer, and art.
This gave Black people the permission to respect their existence and to unapologetically take up space.
In more recent times we have seen commercial entities like Sainsbury’s, who in 2020 used an image of a Black family celebrating Christmas to market their products. This gave rise to angry responses from some section of the public. The same response Rockwell’s employers feared in the 1960s. Just in case you thought that to be a rare reaction and things have changed, this same response followed the Marks & Spencer’s Christmas advert, where a young Black protagonist befriended a girl from another world. The young black actor and his family shamefully received hate-filled messages for daring to be seen.
It was however not lost on me that the offence was not alien representation but Black representation. (Swiftly moving on). I mention these two examples as they are both influences to buy through the power of art. At the same time, it records how representation has evolved and how others refuse to.
My final example is the Political cartoons often seen in newspapers. These cartoons where first used to politically influence the public, designed to reach even the illiterate.
These images were used to lampoon the parties across the aisle or encourage sexist and racist ideology and are still used today as a persuasive tool.
What are your thoughts? Does politics have its place in art or are they inextricably linked?
This question finally led me to ground my position in the dictionary definition of both art and politics.
Art
/ɑːt/ /ɑːrt/ Idioms. [uncountable] the use of the imagination to express ideas or feelings, particularly in painting, drawing or sculpture
Politics
noun. /ˈpɑləˌtɪks/ 1[uncountable] the activities involved in getting and using power in public life, and being able to influence decisions that affect a country or a society
Whether or not our experiences differ wildly, my art is my personal library, a collection of experiences for others to share.
Comments