Is propaganda art? One of the central themes of both articles for this connect assignment was whether or not propaganda, whether it was socialist realist, or if it was something put out by ISIS is or isn't art. It was interesting to see how both types of work are remarkably different, but are still propaganda, and may function in many of the same ways. Soviet or socialist realism was the dominant art movement in Russia during the Cold War, especially during the 1930s-50s (Neumeyer 3). While the work put out by artists during this period in Russia look like they are just normal works by realist painters, but in reality, were meant to convey the themes of hard work and community under the Soviet regime. Joseph Stalin actually mandated that the art produced in the USSR during this time should be "about workers and depict an idealized version of everyday life... representational (no bourgeois abstraction), and advance the Communist Party line." (Neumeyer 3). Artists who complied with these guidelines and created realistic works depicting Soviet workers were often commissioned by the state and praised by the party leaders, while abstract painters such as Kazimir Malevich were left to fade into obscurity. Because Soviet Realist art was effectively just a form of propaganda used by Stalin and his successors, many critics do not believe it fits into the category of "art" at all. I believe, however, that despite the moral questionability of Soviet Realist art, it does have content, composition, and craftsmanship involved, and can be considered artwork. If you use the logic of "someone told me to paint this in order to spread their political ideas and therefore their work is not art," then most renaissance paintings and the work of the Old Masters would not be considered art either, as almost all of those pieces were religious ones commissioned by people in power in order to help enforce mandatory Christian belief at the time.
While Soviet Realist artwork is desputed as real artwork due to the ideas behind it, Chris Kitching's article about ISIS presented another side of the artwork/propaganda debate. Artist Brian McCarty found that the terrorist organization ISIS had used a photograph he took, edited it into a propaganda poster to recruit members for their cause. What Brian had posted online was obviously artwork, which he based off of depictions of war from small children (Kitching 5), and was meant to show how terrifying war is for children. ISIS photoshopped the image heavily, and replaced the doll figure (as shown above) in the photo to their symbol, and changed the image entirely. Is it still art? Can art become propaganda even if it did not begin that way intentionally? Is artwork no longer considered artwork once someone else edits it and the message away, adding their own? I don't have clear answers to any of these questions, and I don't think there are definitive answers to any of them. Perhaps art can become symbolic of a certain movement or political view due to that movement adopting the image as their own, but I am not sure that necessarily means it will become propaganda, which is something that was created for the purpose of getting someone else to buy into a certain viewpoint. But the case of McCarty and ISIS also brings up the longstanding issue of art theft, especially digital art theft, and the problem with people stealing and reposting or editing art, and completely changing the meaning or viewpoint the original artist had. Hopefully someone will do something about ISIS and other organizations stealing art and profiting off of it.
1 Comment
Megan
4/12/2018 10:33:04 am
I like your discussion about the question of whether propaganda is art. The "what is art" question is always a tough one and it comes up all the time. I really like your argument for the validity of soviet realism as art with the parallel to Old Masters works, that was something I hadn't thought about. I also wondered about how governing bodies could prevent organizations like ISIS from art theft. It's a difficult problem with all the technology available these days.
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AuthorA senior at Maggie Walker taking Art IV Archives
May 2018
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