Beyond documentation: art as challenge and commentary

With its capacity for commentary, even with something as seemingly straightforward as a photograph, art becomes the perfect tool for artists to create powerful visual and conceptual statements they might not be able make otherwise. Faced with hostile power structures and conflicts, some artists rely upon art for a voice to challenge issues such as racism, nationalism, immigration, and oppression.

From the ancient world through the Renaissance, artists were fascinated by the drama and physicality of war, and many of their great masterpieces were effectively pro-war in that they glorified military action. But by the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945, the majority of artists were using their practice to openly condemn conflict. As early as 1915, the Dada movement was founded as a direct response to the senseless death of the First World War, revolting against the traditional beliefs of a pro-war society by making art that was silly, irreverent, and entirely in opposition to that society.

In the 1960s, Pop artist and painter Roy Lichtenstein harnessed the materials of popular culture–in this case, the look and feel of comic books–in order to challenge that very same culture. Using the imagery of a popular medium, Lichtenstein could present highly emotional scenes in an impersonal manner, leaving it up to the viewer to decipher his message.

So what might Lichtenstein be inviting us to think about in Whaam! below?

A painting like Pablo Picasso’s famous Weeping Woman, on the other hand, makes a very direct visual statement, responding to the 1937 massacre in the city of Guernica by making immediately visible his feelings of grief, fear, and outrage. Many artists to this day are making work that speaks directly to the viewer on issues surrounding conflict. Sometimes, as in the case of British artist Bob and Roberta Smith below, the message can be quite literal.

But what if you were a contemporary artist oppressed by a hostile regime, or marginalised by those in power? What if you relied upon your art to be your voice? Many contemporary artists have moved away from the immediate emotional impact of works like Picasso’s in favour of more conceptual statements on the issues that face them. Some artists engage with the restrictions placed upon them in a playful manner, like when Wang Peng created installations and performances at a time when performance art was banned in China, often forcing the authorities to engage with his work by the very act of their own intervention.

Cuban artist Tania Bruguera and Colombian artist Doris Salcedo use their work to speak to issues of racism, immigration, and police control by bringing those very elements into galleries and museums through jarring interventions. Bruguera’s performances have involved bringing mounted police, immigration exams, and lie detector tests into the spaces she is exhibiting in, rendering audience members literally unable to hide from the issues that face them. In Doris Salcedo’s piece Shibboleth, the floor of the gallery was split down the middle with a jagged crack, physically disrupting the viewer’s experience of the gallery and forcing them to engage with the piece.

So what kind of art speaks to you the loudest? Is it Picasso’s grieving women? Or Tania Bruguera’s mounted policemen taking charge of the gallery?