Lecture 8

Artists and politics

Context

Aftermath of WWI
Systemic

political change (1917-19 onwards) Systemic economic change (debt, economic disruption, 1929, collapse of the gold standard)

Role of intellectuals? IDEOLOGIES Systemic change now?

Intellectuals?

Ideologies?

Artists and politics

Functions of art?
Role of an artist?

Henri Matisse, 1937, Blue Dress Reflected in a Mirror

Pablo Picasso, 1937, Guernica

Artists and ideology

Use of art for political purposes

Who pays Who benefits

Unintended consequences?

Modern Architecture, power and symbolism

Power and architecture inseparable? Symbolic architecture and power in the XX century, examples

Mussolini and the new imperial Rome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esposizione_Universale_Roma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27eclisse

Albert Speer and Nazism Niemeyer: Brasilia Ceaucescu Financial power from early-XX-cent.chic New York to Horror (King Kong to twin towers)

Fascist architecture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esposizione_Universale_Roma

Architecture

Niemeyer: Brasilia

Ceaucescu

Painting

Painting and official ideology

Soviet

peoples art: fascism.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UZ4Gu7a7V9UC&pg=PA496&lpg=PA496&dq=Soviet+people%E2%80%99s+art&source=bl&ots=FypMM8qM5&sig=Yf2vhcRSh2xbI_dZqXmVh2nLVgo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=aJmhUuabBsOBhQeqgoG4AQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Soviet%20people%E2%80% 99s%20art&f=false

Italian

http://www.palazzostrozzi.org/SezioneAnni30.jsp?&titolo=The+Exhibition&idSezio ne=1853 http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/sep/24/artfascist-italy-paintings-florence

Fascism

and Futurism.

http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/beautiful-ideas-whichkill-futurism-and.html http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/657603?uid=3738032&uid=2129&uid=2&ui d=70&uid=4&sid=21103140601873

Futurist manifesto
http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html

Literature, examples of classical writers

Greek drama

Checkov Late Tolstoy Orwell Bertold Brecht

Epic theatre Use of art as an instrument for arising political awareness Influenced Dario Fo (Noble prize)

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/philosophy_ and_literature/v032/32.1.conolly.pdf

Cinema, some examples

Leni Riefenstahl

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1975/feb /06/fascinating-fascism/?pagination=false

Sergei Eisenstein Italian Neorealism

Obsession:

Luchino Visconti Bycicle thefts, Miracle in Milan: Vittorio de Sica Germany Year 0, Stromboli: Roberto Rossellini Story of a love affair: Michelangelo Antonioni (not in subsequent films)