MS Arts - Human Rights: Protest & Propaganda Art

prop·a·gan·da [prop-uh-gan-duh] noun information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. -

Around World War I, the need for aid and assistance grew, and appealing to the general public was essential. Eye-catching graphics and a compelling message proved effective tools for mass produced posters. With these essential principles of design, artists were able to create a memorable and successful campaign.

The earliest posters in the show advertise soap, candles, fabric dye and even a few rather out-of-place, misguided tobacco ads featuring babies and children. They’re all marked with a pastel palette, glamorous women and utopian teatime – very Victorian, very Versailles. It stems from the “yuefenpai” (calendar posters), which promoted everyday products, dressed in luxury.

The role of art in confronting important political and social issues is brought to the forefront at a new exhibition at the Whitney in New York. An Incomplete History of Protest examines who artists have become activists in order to help create a batter future.

Homemade posters can pack a punch. But well-designed images can deliver powerful messages that resonate for decades, as these examples, chosen by prominent designers, make clear.

As the right to protest in the UK continues to be imperilled, Aindrea Emelife’s upcoming book A Brief History of Protest Art [published by Tate Publishing] reminds us of the art’s potential to influence, condemn, elevate, inspire, and rally against the status quo. Beginning with Picasso’s Guernica, the independent curator and art historian embarks on a visual journey across eight decades of artists’ responses to the most vital political and social realities of their day.

For three straight nights in January, San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum turned itself inside out, using its front façade as a gallery wall for a projected exhibition in solidarity with the women of Iran. Titled after the originally Kurdish slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” the public display was centered on the women-led revolution against the draconian gender-based discrimination exacted by Iran’s Islamic Republic.

Arrested and harassed by the Chinese government, artist Ai Weiwei makes daring works unlike anything the world has ever seen