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Visual Art

Updated and edited by Mollie Smith (2002) and Chang Wang (2005)
reproduced with permission

Adams, Eddie.  Speak Truth to Power:  Photo Gallery.  Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000.

The Speak Truth to Power photo gallery presents portraits by Eddie Adams of fifty human rights activists.  The photo gallery is part of a presentation produced by WETA celebrating the life and work of human rights activists from around the world.  The photo gallery may be viewed online at:  www.pbs.org/speaktruthtopower/gallery_pbs/intro.html.[1]

Anonymous. Man Protests Tank, Beijing, 1989.

Just after noon on June 5, 1989, the day after Chinese troops stormed the square to brutally crush a student political uprising here, a solitary protester engaged in a modern-day David versus Goliath showdown: Clutching nothing but two shopping bags, he stood his ground before a column of oncoming tanks on the adjacent Avenue of Eternal Peace.
 
Captured by newspaper photographs and cable news footage, the tense standoff lasted several minutes, a seeming eternity to onlookers waiting for the tanks to overrun the man, before he was hustled from the scene by onlookers.

The image and comments can be found here: http://multigraphic.dk/lounge/wordpress/?p=65

Beckman, Max.   Departure (1932-1933).  Museum of Modern Art.

 Beckman, a German exile, painted this three-paneled artwork to protest the evils of the German government.  Two panels show horrific scenes of torture and degradation, which contrasts with a third showing a family of peaceful royalty in exile.

Block, Tom.  Prisoners and Heroes.  Arts for Amnesty International, 2002.

            In this exhibit of paintings, Block tries to capture the effect encountering gross human rights violations has upon people of faith.[2]

Borges, Phil.  Enduring Spirit.  Rizzoli International Publishing, 1998.

 Emotional photography showing the power of humanity.
Also: Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion.  Rizzoli Bookstore, 1996.

Capa, Robert. Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936. Black and White Photography.

This photo can be found here: http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/Lessons/Photojournalism/Frank%20Capra.jpg

Chávez Pavón, Gustavo.  The Wall of Global Images.  Denmark, 2000.

On August 21-28, 2000, Mexican muralist Gustavo Chávez Pavón traveled to Denmark to paint a mural at the Odense train station entitled The Wall of Global Images.  Although Chávez Pavón directed the work on the creation, the project was done in collaboration with several local artists.  The Wall of Global Images focuses on the impact of globalization on different cultures.  Pictures of work may be viewed online at:  www.aidoh.dk/artists/gustavo/news/ukgustavo-index.htm.[3]

Costanza, Mary.  The Living Witness:  Art in the Concentration Camps and Ghettos.  Collier Macmillan, 1982.

 The Living Witness is a collection of art by survivors and victims.[4]

David, Jacques-Louis. The Death of Socrates. 1787. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Death of Socrates, completed in 1787 and exhibited to public acclaim, reflects David’s use of art to make political statements. He could identify with Socrates and undoubtedly saw in his martyrdom against oppression a lesion for contemporary France.

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

This painting can be found here: http://www.wga.hu/html/d/david_j/2/205david.html

David, Jacques-Louis. Tennis Court Oath. 1789. Oil on canvas. Musee Carnavalet, Paris.

The painting portrays many of the leading figures of the Revolution and others from more moderate quarters of the opposition. The gesture of the extended right arm, used by David in his earlier revolutionary painting, The Oath of the Horattii, now becomes a symbol of the movement’s defiance. (The Oath of Horattii can be found here: http://www.csun.edu/~hcarh001/305/academicimages.html )

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

The painting can be found here:

http://docushare.capousd.org/docushare/dsweb/GetRepr/Document-1567/html

David, Jacques-Louis. Trial of Phryne. Late eighteenth century. Oil on canvas. Musee’s de-partment aux de Loin-Atlantique, Musee Dobree, Nantes.

This painting by David is one of the many he based on ancient history and mythology. A number of those, including this dramatic scene, reflect the impact in classical literature of either romantic love or erotic passion.

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

Delacroix, Eugène.  Massacre at Chios (1823-24).  Louvre, Paris.

Massacre at Chios is a painting which portrays the heroic Greek struggle for independence.

Also:  Death of Sardanapalus.   (1827-1828).  Louvre, Paris.

A full-fledged work of his mature style, it is a lavish, violent, colorful canvas in which women, slaves, animals, jewels, and fabrics are combined in a swirling composition. The painting portrays the decision made by an ancient king to have his possessions (including his women) destroyed before he kills himself.[5]

Also:  Liberty Leading the People (1830).  Louvre, Paris.

This work is a semi-allegorical glorification of the idea of liberty. This painting confirmed the clear division between the romantic style of painting, which emphasized color and spirit, and the concurrent neoclassical style.[6]

De Goya, Francisco.  Second of May, 1808 (1814).  Prado, Madrid.
De Goya, Francisco.  Third of May, 1808 (1814).  Prado, Madrid.

These paintings depict horrifying and dramatically brutal massacres of unarmed Spanish street fighters by French soldiers. Both are painted, like so many later pictures by Goya, in thick, bold strokes of dark color punctuated by bright highlights.

Third of May was painted by DeGoya in order to commemorate the Spanish war of liberation, during which a number of innocent civilians were shot by soldiers from Napoleon’s army. At this late stage in Goya’s career, he had become cynical about the fate of the human race, and this attitude is reflected in the raw, expressive quality of the painting style in this piece.[7]

Also:  Tampoco (1799).  New York Public Library.

 The etching is of a French soldier indifferently staring at a hanging Spaniard.  DeGoya was trying to display the fact that war makes people become complacent in the face of dehumanizing violence.

Fellner, Gene.  The Genocide Paintings.  Art and Social Consciousness Website.

Fellner’s paintings portray the effects of genocide in Bosnia, Cambodia, Guatemala and Rwanda.  Fellner tries to show that people are vulnerable to genocide, regardless of where they live.[8]

Also:  A Train Full of Children and The Disappeared and the Rest of Us

Galschiot, Jens.  Pillar of Shame.  Hong Kong, 1997.

The Pillar of Shame is a sculpture that depicts fifty twisted human bodies and was first displayed in Hong Kong in 1997.  Galschiot’s goal is to each year place a Pillar of Shame in a country that has severe human rights violations as a sort of “Nobel Prize of Injustice” and as a memorial to those that have suffered.  Pictures of the various Pillars of Shame that have been established can be viewed online at:       www.aidoh.dk/art_and_events/pos/ukpos-index.htm.[9]

Also:  “My Inner Beast.”  1993.

In 1993, Galschiot created twenty sculptures of pigs dressed in human clothes and placed the sculptures in twenty European cities, without the knowledge of authorities, as symbols of increasing racism.  The event was named “My Inner Beast” by the press.  A picture of one of the sculptures can be viewed online at:  www.aidoh.dk/art_and_events/mib/ukmib-index.htm.[10]

Gesensway, Deborah.  Beyond Words: Images from America’s Concentration Camps.  Cornell University Press, 1987.

Beyond Words is a collection of paintings, drawings, sketches, and testimony of the Japanese interned by the American government during World War II.[11]

Green, Gerald.  Artists of Terezin.  Hawthorne, 1969.

This is a collection of drawings, sketches, and poems from the prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp.[12]

Grosz, George.  Punishment (1934).  Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Punishment is a prediction of world Apocalypse through humanity’s self-destructive tendencies.  The canvas shows a city in the middle of destruction through intensive bombing.

Hartmann, Erich.  In the Camps.  W.W. Norton, 1995.

 In the Camps is a book of black and white photography of the concentration camps of Europe.

Kiefer, Anselm.  To the Unknown Painter (1983).  Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.

To the Unknown Painter is a canvas showing the bleak landscape of Germany after the war was over and the Nazi regime toppled.

Koudelka, Josef.  Exiles.  Aperture, 1998.

 Exiles is a book of photography portraying those forced to leave their home.

Lange, Dorothea. Migrant Mother, California, 1936. Black and White Photography.

This photo and its comment can be found here:

http://faculty.etsu.edu/kortumr/HUMT2320/modernzenith/htmdescriptionpages/migrants.htm

Matteson, Tompkis. Examination of a Witch. 1853. Oil on canvas. Peabody Essex Museum.

In 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, a conflict evolved into one the most notorious witch-hunts in history, and ended with the hanging of nineteen people.

Cf. Arthur Miller’s play Cruicible; cf. Tompkis Matteson, Trial of George Jacobs.

This painting can be found here: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/salem/generic.html

Matteson, Tompkis. Trial of George Jacobs. 1855. Oil on canvas. Essex Institute, Salem.

This painting of the Trial of George Jacobs was completed by Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813 – 1884) in 1855. Matteson was a painter of genre and historical scenes in upstate New York, where he was also active in politics and community service. This is a rather fanciful depiction of the trial. The building in which the trial is portrayed is certainly grander than any Salem structure of that time and this representation is more melodramatic than was likely.

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

This painting can be found here: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_PHO.HTM

Olere, David.  Witness: Images of Auschwitz.  Westwind Press, 1998.

 From the trains to the gas chambers, Witness portrays life and death in Auschwitz.[13]

Orozco, Jose Clemente.  Victims (1936).  University of Guadalajara, Mexico.

A painting showing three figures of disturbing starvation, one apparently a dead child.  It expresses Orozco’s empathy towards the poor masses.

Parker, David.  Stolen Dreams: Portraits of Working Children.  Lerner Publications Company, 1997.

Stolen Dreams contains photographs of the terrible effects and conditions of child labor.

Picasso, Pablo.  Guernica (1937).  Reina Sofia Art Center, Spain.

Guernica portrays the devastation of the town of Guernica, Spain after a bombardment by Nazi planes during the Spanish civil war.  Picasso’s rendering of vast human suffering is very real and powerful.

Also: The Charnel House (1944-45).  Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Picasso’s passionate response to the first news of the Nazi death camps being reported in the newspapers

Pippin, Horace. John Brown Going to His Hanging. 1942. Oil on canvas. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia.

John Brown (1800 – 1859), radical abolitionist, because a hero and martyr of the militant antislavery movement by his unsuccessful raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in October 1859. He was charged with treason and conspiracy to commit treason and murder, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He was hanged on December 2, 1859, having conducted himself with dignity throughout.

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

This painter can be found here: http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/p/p-pippin1.htm

Rivera, Diego. The Flower Carrier. 1935. Oil and tempera on masonite.
48 x 47 3/4 in. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

This painting can be found here: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/r/rivera/flower_carrier.jpg

Robert-Fleury, Joseph Nicolas. Galileo Before the Inquisition. 1847. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris.

This large painting of Galileo’s trial before the Inquisition by Joseph Nicolas Robert Fleury (1797 – 1890). He was a French artist, from a family of painters. He specialized in historical scenes and used the realistic style employed by other French painters of trial scenes.

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

This painting can be found here: http://www.westga.edu/~chem/courses/xids/lectures/GalNewt/sld005.htm

Rockwell, Norman. The Problem We All Live With. 1963. Oil on canvas. The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

In the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine, Rockwell’s painting with the unwieldly tile, The Problem We All Live With, appeared without accompanying text or explanation.

The painting aroused considerable sympathy for the courageous black children who had borne the brunt of the attacks on desegregation since the landmark Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954).

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

This painting can be found here: http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/past_exhibitions/rockwell/problem_lg.html

Shahn, Ben. The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti. 1931-1932. Tempera on canvas. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Saco and Vanzetti were arrested and tried for the murder of a paymaster and guard during a robbery at a Massachusetts shoe company in 1920. Following their conviction and death sentence, protests focused on the lack of convincing evidence against them, the prejudicial actions of the trial judge, and many procedural irregularities. In 1977, on the fiftieth anniversary of the execution, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts issued a proclamation calling the 1921 murder trial unfair because of prejudice against foreigners and a national climate of political intolerance at the time.

Based Morris Cohen’s catalogue entry in Law: The Art of Justice, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc, 1992, New York.

This painting can be found here: http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/367.html

Smith, W. Eugene. Tomokoi n Her Bath. 1972. Gelatin-silver print.

This photo can be found here:

http://www.afterimagegallery.com/smithprints.htm

Swiebocka, Teresa.  Auschwitz: A History in Photographs.  Indiana University Press, 1993.

This book of photography includes over 280 photos from Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and prints of artwork from prisoners.[14]

 

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