Social & Political Art

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Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence was born on September 7, 1917, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Originally from South Carolina and Virginia, the Lawrence family, like thousands of black migrants, had hoped to find more promising economic opportunities in the North. By 1919 his family moved to Easton, Pennsylvania. In 1924, after Lawrence’s parents separated, his mother moved the family to Philadelphia, where she left the children in foster care while she worked in Harlem, New York. At the age of thirteen, Jacob Lawrence arrived in Harlem.

Jacob Lawrence (left), with his mother, brother William, and sister Geraldine in 1923. Courtesy Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence© Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

Jacob Lawrence, 1941. Photograph by Kenneth F. Space. National Archives, Harmon Foundation, College Park, Maryland

The Migration Series

During the World War there was a great migration North by Southern African Americans.The Migration of the Negro, panel 1, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Artwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

In every town African Americans were leaving by the hundreds to go North and enter into Northern industry. The Migration of the Negro, panel 3, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.Artwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

Among the social conditions that existed which was partly the cause of the migration was the injustice done to the African Americans in the court.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 14, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of Mrs. David M. LevyArtwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

They also found discrimination in the North although it was much different from that which they had known in the South.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 49, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.Artwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation  

Race riots were very numerous all over the North because of the antagonism that was caused between the African Americans and white workers. Many of these riots occurred because the African American was used as a strike breaker in many of the Northern industries.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 50, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm), The Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of Mrs. David M. LevyArtwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

They also worked in large numbers on the railroad.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 38, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of Mrs. David M. Levy Artwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

In the North the African American had better educational facilities.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 58, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of Mrs. David M. Levy Artwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

The African Americans who had been North for quite some time met their fellowmen with disgust and aloofness.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 53, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.Artwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

The female worker was also one of the last groups to leave the South.

The Migration of the Negro, panel 57, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 18 x 12 in. (45.7 x 30.5 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.Artwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

In this image, Lawrence portrayed a woman engaged in her work at a commercial laundry. She is washing clothes. Rugs and blankets hang behind her. The red handle of the woman's washing stick creates the painting's focal point and divides the composition down the center.

1. Carole Marks, Farewell–We're Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1989)

 Self-Portrait, 1977. Gouache and tempera on paper, 23 x 31 in. (58.4 x 78.7 cm). National Academy of Design, New YorkArtwork © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation

In 1942 Lawrence was drafted into the United States Coast Guard as a Stewards Mate, the only rank then available for black Americans. He was stationed in St. Augustine, Florida. Lawrence served one year in a segregated regiment. In 1944 he was reassigned first to a weather ship in Boston, and then to a troopship, where he served as Coast Guard Artist. He documented the experience of war in Italy, England, Egypt, and India. While he was on the troopship, he produced about forty-eight paintings (now lost) documenting the lives of men in World War II. After his tour of duty ended in 1946, Lawrence received a Guggenheim Fellowship that enabled him to paint his War Series.

Control Panel by Jacob Lawrence

Landing Craft by Jacob Lawrence

After the war, Lawrence was commissioned to paint murals for the Munich Olympic Games in 1972 and the Bicentennial in 1976, as well as covers for Time. He also joined the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle. After a long illness he died at his home in Seattle on June 19, 2000.

War Series Paintings

Jacob LawrenceWar Series: Victory1947Egg tempera on board20 x 16 in (50.8 x 40.6 cm)Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Artist: Jacob Lawrence  Date: 1983  Medium: Gouache on paper  Dimensions: 58.4 x 44.5 cm  Event: World War II in Asia  Motif:  Violence

Artist: Jacob Lawrence  Date: 1983  Medium: Gouache on paper  Dimensions: 58.4 x 44.5 cm  Event: World War II in Asia  Motif:  Collapsing Space

“I used my own experience. How people live, people at

the table, in the park, in the marketplace. I didn’t

follow something out of the book…I didn’t want it to

be an illustration of that sort; I wanted it to be in

terms of man’s inhumanity to man – a universal kind

of statement. Although I didn’t experience

Hiroshima, I was trying to get the feeling of this

tremendous tragedy in a very symbolic way.”

Jacob Lawrence Credits: © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, courtesy of the Jacob and Gwendolyn

Lawrence Foundation.

 

Other Political Art & Artists

Some political art involved the artist working for the government

General Étienne-Maurice Gérard (1773–1852), Marshal of France , 1816 Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825) Oil on canvas; 77 5/8 x 53 5/8 in. (197.2 x 136.2 cm) Purchase, Rogers and Fletcher Funds, and Mary Wetmore Shively Bequest, in memory of her husband, Henry L. Shively M.D., 1965 (65.14.5)

David first Painter to the Emperor

David was a leading political figure in the French Revolution

Following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815 David went into exile in Brussels

painted General Gerard in Brussels who was also forced into exile in 1816.

The Death of Socrates , 1787 Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825) Oil on canvas; 51 x 77 1/4 in. (129.5 x 196.2 cm) Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1931 (31.45)

Governmental Controlof

the Arts

Socialist Realism

Socialist Realism was an ideology enforced by theSoviet state as the official standard for art, literature etc.,defined in 1934 at the First All-Union Congress ofSoviet writers. It was based on the principle that the artsshould glorify political and social ideals of communism.Every artist had to join the "Union of Soviet Artists,"which was controlled by the state. The paintings had tobe idealizations of political leaders and communisticideas.

Karp Demyanovich TROKHIMENKO: "Stalin as an Organizer ofthe October Revolution". Oil on canvas, 85 x 117 cm.

Vyacheslav Vasilevich TOKAREV: "Lenin with farmers". Oil oncanvas, 46 x 77 cm, appr. 1960.

Boris Eremeevich Vladimirski: "Roses for Stalin". Oil on canvas,100.5 x 141 cm.

The years 1927-37 were critical for artists in Germany. In 1927,the National Socialist Society for German Culture was formed. Theaim of this organization was to halt the "corruption of art" andinform the people about the relationship between race and art. By1933, the terms "Jewish," "Degenerate," and "Bolshevik" were incommon use to describe almost all modern art.

In 1937, Nazi officials purged German museums of works theParty considered to be degenerate. From the thousands of worksremoved, 650 were chosen for a special exhibit of Entartete Kunst.The exhibit opened in Munich and then traveled to eleven othercities in Germany and Austria. In each installation, the works werepoorly hung and surrounded by graffiti and hand written labelsmocking the artists and their creations. Over three million visitorsattended making it the first "blockbuster" exhibition.

Artists included in the Entartete Kunst Exhibit Adler, Jankel

Barlach, Ernst

Bauer, Rudolf

Bauknecht, Philipp

Baum, Otto

Baumeister, Willi

Bayer, Herbert

Beckmann, Max

Belling, Rudolf

Bindel, Paul

Brün, Theo

Burchartz, Max

Burger-Mühlfeld, Fritz

Camenisch, Paul

Caspar, Karl

Caspar-Filser, Maria

Cassel, Pol

Chagall, Marc

Corinth, Lovis

Davringhausen, Heinrich

Dexel, Walter

Diesner, Johannes

Dix, Otto

Drexel, Hans Christoph

Dreisch, Johannes

Eberhard, Heinrich

Ernst, Max

Feibusch, Hans

Feininger, Lyonel

Felixmüller, Conrad

Freundlich, Otto

Fuhr, Xaver

Gies, Ludwig

Gilles, Walter

Gleichmann, Otto

Grossmann, Rudolph

Grosz, George

Grunding, Hans

Haizmann, Richard

Hausmann, Raoul

Hebert, Guido

Heckel, Erich

Heckrott, Wilhelm

Heemskerck, Jacoba van

Heister, Hans Seibert von

Herzog, Oswald

Heuser, Werner

Hoerle, Heinrich

Hoefer, Karl

Hoffman, Eugen

Itten, Johannes

Jawlensky, Alexej von

Johansen, Eric

Kallmann, Hans Jürgen

Kandinsky, Wassily

Katz, Hans

Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig

Klee, Paul

Klein, Cesar

Kleinschmidt, Paul

Kokoschka, Oskar

Lange, Otto

Lehmbruck, Wilhelm

Lissitzky, El

lüthy, Oskar

Marc, Franz

Marcks, Gerhard

Matare' Ewald

Meidner, Ludwig

Metzinger, Jean

Mitschke-Collande, Constantin von

Moholy-Nagy, Laszlo

Moll, Margarethe

Moll, Oskar

Molzahn, Johannes

Mondrian, Piet

Muche, George

Meuller, Otto

Nagel, Erich

Nauen, Heinrich

Nay, Ernst Wilhelm

Neistrath, Karel

Nolde, Emil

Pankok, Otto

Pechstein, Max

Watenphul, Max Peiffer

Art in Response to War & Government Max Beckmann, Der Kriegsausbruch (Declaration of War) , 1914, drypoint,19.8 x 24.8 cm.

Max Beckmann, Selbstbildnis als Krankenpfleger (Self-Portrait as a Nurse) ,1915, oil on canvas, 55.5 x 38.5 cm, Von der Heyt Museum, Wuppertal.

Max Beckmann, Die Granate (Shell) , 1915, dry-point on paper, 38 x 28.8 cm.

 Max Beckmann, Die Operation (The Operation) , 1914, dry-point on paper,29.8 x 43.4 cm.

Max Beckmann, Das Leichenschauhaus (The Morgue) , 1915, pointe-sèche, 25,7x 35,7 cm.

Pierre Bonnard, Un village en ruines près du Ham (A Village in Ruins near Ham),1917, oil on canvas, 63 x 85 cm, Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine - BDIC, Paris.

Bonnard assigned to paint the War at the end of 1916Originally a painter of landscapes and the figure, he was inexperienced Bonnard made this single painting, but never finished it

On April 26th 1937, a massive air raid by the German Luftwaffe on the Basque town ofGuernica in Northern Spain shocked the world. Hundreds of civilians were killed in theraid which became a major incident of the Spanish Civil War.

The bombing prompted Picasso to begin painting his greatest masterpiece... Guernica.

The painting became a timely and prophetic vision of the Second World War and is nowrecognised as an international icon for peace.

Photojournalism

Der Sinn des Hitlergrusses: Kleiner Mann bittet um grosse Gaben. Motto:Millonen Stehen Hinter Mir! [The Meaning of the Hitler Salute: Little manasks for big gifts. Motto: Millions Stand Behind Me!] , 1932J ohn Heartfield (German, 1891–1968)Photomechanical reproductionPurchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, 1987

Heartfield published his political photomontages, many of which savagely satirized the Nazi regime, in the Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung . In this widely distributed workers' newspaper (500,000 readers in 1931), the often deceptively realistic montages appeared with straight documentary photographs.

In this montage, Heartfield specifically links Hitler's electoral success with his courting of wealthy industrialists from the Rhineland. More generally, he gives pictorial punch to the commonplace idea that money fuels political power by implying that the Nazi salute is in fact a plea for cash.

Who Is an Aryan? , 1933Unknown Artist, German SchoolGelatin silver print; 6 1/ 2 x 9 in. (16.5 x 22.9 cm)Funds from various donors, 2003

This photograph, which illustrates the adaptation of physiognomic measurement by Nazi "race scientists," was published on the cover of the Neue Illustrierte Zeitung on June 1, 1933, above the headline: "Who Is an Aryan? A Fascist Experiences the National Revolution.

Mussolini Giving Orders to Teruzzi, Commandant of the Fascist Militia , 1931 Felix H. Man (British, born Germany, 1893–1985) Gelatin silver print; 9 3/16 x 7 in. (23.4 x 17.8 cm) Gilman Paper Company Collection

When Mussolini agreed to be trailed for a day by pioneering photojournalist Felix H. Man, the photographer was genuinely surprised. But as a former journalist, Mussolini understood the power of the media in modern political life, and he acknowledged existing official images of himself for what they were: stiffly posed, cold portraits that detracted from his desired persona as a "man of the people." The ideal candidate for altering this image, Man had established his reputation photographing candid moments in the lives of important and powerful people for the burgeoning German picture press.

Diego Rivera’s Man at the Crossroads - 1934

• 1932 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller convinces husband John D. Rockefeller to commission Rivera for mural in the soon-to-be completed Rockefeller Center in NYC.

• Proposes a 63 foot portrait of workers facing symbolic crossroads of industry, science, socialism, and capitalism.

• Rivera believes that his friendship with the Rockefeller’s will allow him to insert the unapproved portrait of Vladimir Lenin - Soviet Leader - into the mural.

• Building managers strongly disapprove of Rivera’s propagandist approach and order him to remove the offending image.

• Rivera refuses and offers to balance it out with a portrait of Lincoln opposite Lenin.

• They pay Rivera the full fee, and ban him from the site and the mural was covered with a huge drapery.

• Despite negotiations to transfer the work to the MOMA & demonstrations by Rivera supporters, the mural was destroyed by Rockefeller Center workers

Vietnam Memorial Maya Lin Washington, D.C.

Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial - 1980s

• 1979 - Congress grants a Vietnam War veteran’s Committee the right to build a memorial ion the Mall in Washington, D.C.

• Design competition - blue-ribbon panel of architects, sculptors, and landscape architects to evaluate more than 1,400 submissions

• 20 year old Yale undergraduate student Maya Lin selected

• Panel was moved by the simplicity, honesty, and power of Lin’s design

• V-shaped, sunken wall of black stone with the names of those killed in chronological order

• To search for a loved one, a mourner will walk along the monument and find the name among the 57,661 names listed.

• Lin describes it as “wanting to describe a journey…”

• Lin is an Asian American • her design lacks the realistic statuary of

most war memorials• Some veterans protested Lin’s design

as an affront, they thought it represented a”black scar” and thought it should be white, and have a large sculpture of wounded soldiers at the center with a flag.

• The compromise: include the sculpture off to the side, but the memorial would remain black.

• 1993- women’s memorial dedicated

Vietnam Memorial Maya Lin Washington, D.C.

Kathe Kollwitz, Widows and Orphans (1919)

Kathe Kollwitz, Killed in Action (1921)