Art With A Message: Protest And Propaganda, Satire and Social Comment (Blog Post #2 Tessa Luicart & Tori Evans)

For our Kanopy film pick, we decided to watch Art With A Message: Protest And Propaganda, Satire and Social Comment. In the film, which was two parts together, the narrator discusses how art was and is still used as a tool to sway public opinions. From using it to promote war, to protest groups using it to fight back against government regimes, art has been used in this manner since the early times in history. This included posters promoting heroism in war and building fear of the opposing side, as well as satire pieces making fun of these leaders and those who tried to quell the voice of artists. Of course, the people in power used this strategy as well, hiring artists to combat the negativity that clouded their images, one of these evasive maneuvers being the creation of beautiful portraits of themselves, like Napoleon commissioned. The video detailed examples from as early as medieval times, to as late as the Civil Rights Movement, by showcasing scenes of war, use of satire, and the powerful language of human gestures. Much like many works from older times, this propaganda was also used with the influence of faith, depicting the beauty of religious leaders and figures, as well as the bloodshed of crusades. Unfortunately, a common thread between these times was the painting of women and wives in a negative light. Beginning with the story of Eve, it became popular for a time for men to blame women for poorly resulting marriages: women blamed for both the downfalls of man as well as being used in a sexual manner to sell products and ideas, as they still are today. As the video stated, “woman [have] become an object”, and a useful one at that. For our Kanopy film pick, we decided to watch Art With A Message: Protest And Propaganda, Satire and Social Comment. In the film, which was two parts together, the narrator discusses how art was and is still used as a tool to sway public opinions. From using it to promote war, to protest groups using it to fight back against government regimes, art has been used in this manner since the early times in history. This included posters promoting heroism in war and building fear of the opposing side, as well as satire pieces making fun of these leaders and those who tried to quell the voice of artists. Of course, the people in power used this strategy as well, hiring artists to combat the negativity that clouded their images, one of these evasive maneuvers being the creation of beautiful portraits of themselves, like Napoleon commissioned. The video detailed examples from as early as medieval times, to as late as the Civil Rights Movement, by showcasing scenes of war, use of satire, and the powerful language of human gestures. Much like many works from older times, this propaganda was also used with the influence of faith, depicting the beauty of religious leaders and figures, as well as the bloodshed of crusades. Unfortunately, a common thread between these times was the painting of women and wives in a negative light. Beginning with the story of Eve, it became popular for a time for men to blame women for poorly resulting marriages: women blamed for both the downfalls of man as well as being used in a sexual manner to sell products and ideas, as they still are today. As the video stated, “woman [have] become an object”, and a useful one at that. One of the paintings that was displayed that we found ourselves both familiar with is a piece titled The Third of May 1808 by Francisco de Goya. Unlike how we had touched on propaganda of war being created out of fear or to promote rising to arms, Goya used this work to show the atrocities of war and how leaders, “...turned men into an official killing force, in spite of human instincts.” In simpler terms, the dehumanization of war was captured thoroughly in this piece, depicting the frightened human nature of the victims, unevenly stanced and showing their humanity, while the others look more akin to something mechanical – a force naught to be trifled with, and something that would destroy all life in its path, so long as it isn’t on their own side.

Satire was a large point within the documentary, and from this I took away one of my favorite quotes from throughout the entire film, “Early in the history of civilization, man learned that he could say much with satire that could not say otherwise. And so, like the court jester, he camouflaged himself in laughter and went among his fellow man, stalking the stage of life and poking behind the scenes to uncover men’s follies and attack them.” This quote alone is very descriptive for the light of satire, as it was seen in times of such bloodshed from the medieval times, and times of strife with government. Even today, satire is used against predatory political figures in an attempt to put their flaws on display as another reason why you shouldn’t vote for them. In my own opinion, I think that part of this might also be a way to cope with the current standings of the world, and a way to reach out to the public with our own opinions – to be able to point and talk about the people we don’t like and why. In our opinion, this was at the very least an interesting video. To see something from 1984 talk about how art is used in activism, and comparing that to our present day was a fascinating experience. Most of the things talked about i n this documentary are things still impacting us today: war, governments trampling people’s rights, misogyny, and the list goes on. It makes us wonder what some of these artists would say if they saw what was happening today, especially those who were fighting for rights with their works. It’s interesting as well to think about art we’ve seen/done recently, and what would count as protest or propaganda. Especially after the election results, we’ve seen more and more pieces dedicated to fighting back against governmental regimes, works supporting women rights, gay rights, or just those making fun of people like Trump and Elon Musk like the picture shown above.

We think that the power of art as protest cannot be understated. Connecting to people through pictures, as well as words, has been an incredibly effective strategy since people started drawing. Not only is art able to connect artists with a broader audience, it can be more accessible, as it doesn’t worry about language barriers or convoluted sentences. Anyone can pick up a paper and start drawing and distributing that content, as seen from the days of the zine boom. This proved a powerful tool to get the message of movements out and propel them forward. When it comes to satire, we see something similar. Some of the first (and my favorite examples) were jesters, who were able to say what they wished, without fear of repercussions from the king, or those in power. This tool, this vehicle with the ability to excuse accusatory words and offensive jest and exchange it for power without breaking any laws or ending up in your own execution, was a powerful thing. Artists that use it now know it still is today, even if in America we still have the rights of free speech to protect us. All in all, this was a very interesting documentary. Even if it wasn’t exactly up to date, there were many things that still ring true today. Whether that’s governments using propaganda to promote cruel things or people’s movements using their own art to combat that, art has always been and will always be a powerful, powerful language of its own. One of the paintings that was displayed that we found ourselves both familiar with is a piece titled The Third of May 1808 by Francisco de Goya. Unlike how we had touched on propaganda of war being created out of fear or to promote rising to arms, Goya used this work to show the atrocities of war and how leaders, “...turned men into an official killing force, in spite of human instincts.” In simpler terms, the dehumanization of war was captured thoroughly in this piece, depicting the frightened human nature of the victims, unevenly stanced and showing their humanity, while the others look more akin to something mechanical – a force naught to be trifled with, and something that would destroy all life in its path, so long as it isn’t on their own side. Satire was a large point within the documentary, and from this I took away one of my favorite quotes from throughout the entire film, “Early in the history of civilization, man learned that he could say much with satire that could not say otherwise. And so, like the court jester, he camouflaged himself in laughter and went among his fellow man, stalking the stage of life and poking behind the scenes to uncover men’s follies and attack them.” This quote alone is very descriptive for the light of satire, as it was seen in times of such bloodshed from the medieval times, and times of strife with government. Even today, satire is used against predatory political figures in an attempt to put their flaws on display as another reason why you shouldn’t vote for them. In my own opinion, I think that part of this might also be a way to cope with the current standings of the world, and a way to reach out to the public with our own opinions – to be able to point and talk about the people we don’t like and why. In our opinion, this was at the very least an interesting video. To see something from 1984 talk about how art is used in activism, and comparing that to our present day was a fascinating experience. Most of the things talked about i n this documentary are things still impacting us today: war, governments trampling people’s rights, misogyny, and the list goes on. It makes us wonder what some of these artists would say if they saw what was happening today, especially those who were fighting for rights with their works. It’s interesting as well to think about art we’ve seen/done recently, and what would count as protest or propaganda. Especially after the election results, we’ve seen more and more pieces dedicated to fighting back against governmental regimes, works supporting women rights, gay rights, or just those making fun of people like Trump and Elon Musk like the picture shown above. We think that the power of art as protest cannot be understated. Connecting to people through pictures, as well as words, has been an incredibly effective strategy since people started drawing. Not only is art able to connect artists with a broader audience, it can be more accessible, as it doesn’t worry about language barriers or convoluted sentences. Anyone can pick up a paper and start drawing and distributing that content, as seen from the days of the zine boom. This proved a powerful tool to get the message of movements out and propel them forward. When it comes to satire, we see something similar. Some of the first (and my favorite examples) were jesters, who were able to say what they wished, without fear of repercussions from the king, or those in power. This tool, this vehicle with the ability to excuse accusatory words and offensive jest and exchange it for power without breaking any laws or ending up in your own execution, was a powerful thing. Artists that use it now know it still is today, even if in America we still have the rights of free speech to protect us. All in all, this was a very interesting documentary. Even if it wasn’t exactly up to date, there were many things that still ring true today. Whether that’s governments using propaganda to promote cruel things or people’s movements using their own art to combat that, art has always been and will always be a powerful, powerful language of its own.