Norman Rockwell

Even you young kids these days should be familiar with Norman Rockwell.... He made famous paintings like this:

And This:

And this:

But a lot of people don't know that Rockwell actually made some really interesting political artwork in his life also. Besides the really wholesome, patriotic artwork, he made this:

(Southern Justice: Murder in Mississippi)

This illustration shows the scene of a true story of a murder that happened in Mississippi. (Which is why its titled "Murder in Mississippi") Rockwell worked throughout the biggest civil rights movement in U.S. history, and although he sided with desegregating the country, he still had bosses that were extremely racist and wouldn't let him show African-Americans in his artwork. It wasn't until after he got famous enough to call his own shots that he was able to make work that he really cared about. This is one of my favorite paintings of his because of the tension he is able to build. What are some techniques he uses to emphasize the tension in the illustration?

Diego Rivera

Aside from being the husband of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera was also one of the most influential and important Mexican Muralists in history.

In the 1920's, Mexico started a mural movement. They offered jobs for artists to paint murals of national, social, and political scenes around the country. Rivera was one of the most well-known and respected muralists of the time.

One of the main purposes of these murals was to give the common Mexican people (who didn't have the ability to read or write) a sense of history and knowledge about their roots. Many of his murals depict famous scenes in Mexico's history. What are some famous scenes in history that you would choose to show??

-Bustamante

Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley is a contemporary artist working out of New York City. He is a traditional figurative-realist painter that uses average New Yorkers as his models.

(Kehinde Wiley)

Wiley is heavily influenced by art history, modeling his figures and poses from historical paintings. What Wiley does though, is substitute the historical figures with African-American men. 

(Napoleon leading the army over the alps)

This is Wiley's way to shift a balance of power in the direction of people who are typically outcasts and ignored by society. Wiley understands that most young, black, men that are shown in pop-culture are only shown in stereotypical roles and uses his paintings to elevate them by showing them in place of kings and other leaders. Let me know what you guys think of his work and if you think his art actually does what he wants it to!

-Bustamante

Artists for Social Issues

Kathe Kollwitz

I have always admired the work of German artist Kathe Kollwitz for it's raw, emotional quality.  Her work consistently dealt with social issues like war and poverty, telling the stories of those who could not or would not speak for them selves.  This image titled Poverty, from 1893-94, is a perfect example of that.  I see this as a strong embodiment of the theme of Social Issues because in it she attempts to shed light on, tell the story of and draw our attention to a real life struggle.

This second piece by Kollwitz is called The Survivors, 1923.  Survivors of what, you might ask? The date on this is significant because it is a clue.  WWI has just ended, therefore, these grieving parents, injured men, widowed woman, and orphaned children are the unsung "survivors" and victims of what, at the time, was the greatest conflict the world had ever seen.  Again, Kollwitz is telling the stories that might not be told.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was an American photographer who in 1936 was traveling around California photographing migratory farm labor for what was then the Resettlement Administration.  This is a portrait of Florence Owens Thompson and her children, but it is officially known as The Migrant Mother.  At the time America was still in the midst of the Great Depression and The Dust Bowl, both of which greatly impacted peoples' ability to find work, and supply the basic necessities of life like food and shelter.  When Lange came upon Thompson and her family they were living in a small tent like structure in a field surviving off of vegetables and the wild animals that they could manage to catch.  Like Kollwitz's work, this photo tells the story of someone who could not speak for themselves and that we might not know without it.  The Migrant Mother became an icon of the people affected by these great hardships.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html and

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/316062.html

Esther Hernandez

Keeping on the subject of Migrant Workers, this is Esther Hernandez's Sun Mad Raisins, 1981. A clever play upon the real Sun Maid logo, Hernandez has made some very key changes all in an effort to draw people's attention to the plight of migrant workers and the deadly toxins they were exposed to all in an effort to produce a "healthy" crop.  Notice the small print, "Unnaturally grown with Insecticides, Miticides, Herbicides, Fungicides."  Yum!

Kara Walker

An African-Artist of the 20th and 21st century, Kara Walker deals with many themes, but among them is one that fits very well into our theme of Social Issues, and that is Race.  Her work is usually set in the pre-Civil War South and consists of silhouettes of exaggerated, stereotypical white and black figures.  This is a fictionalized history where Walker uses past images to bring up issues that are still present today.  In talking about her work Kara Walker has had this to say, "I'm not really about blackness, per se, but about blackness and whiteness, and what they mean and how they interact with one another and what power is all about." ("Conversations with Contemporary Artists" New York: Museum of Modern Art 1999)