We continue to explore some of the most powerful artworks by Iri & Toshi Maruki and Martha Rosler making the case for political art one work at a time.
The news slips reports on the events leading up to the passing of the War Powers Act, and the further implication of this law. The legislative branch is given more power to limit the president's control to send troops into war.
Ron and other Vietnam veterans protest the Vietnam War at the 1972 Republican National Convention. Their protest illustrates the unpopularity of the war among United States veterans.
You can argue that all art is political in some way. Even a pile of yarn or landscape painting can be interpreted through a political context. But the various moments of the 20th century are political in obvious ways. We're going to dive into Kathe Kollwitz and the German war. Then the Russian revolution by Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir tatlin and lastly Pablo Picasso. We have to consider how each of these works is political, how each artis used the material and platforms of their own times to make unforgettable statements, and how these approaches might inform our own modes and means of expression.