The arts and politics

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A strong relationship between the arts and politics, particularly between various kinds of

epochs and cultures. As they respond to contemporaneous events and politics, the arts take on political as well as social dimensions, becoming themselves a focus of controversy and even a force of political as well as social change
.

A widespread observation is that a great

Pushkin, who some scholars regard as Russia's first great writer,[1] attracted the mad irritation of the Russian officialdom and particularly of the Tsar, since he "instead of being a good servant of the state in the rank and file of the administration and extolling conventional virtues in his vocational writings (if write he must), composed extremely arrogant and extremely independent and extremely wicked verse in which a dangerous freedom of thought was evident in the novelty of his versification, in the audacity of his sensual fancy, and in his propensity for making fun of major and minor tyrants."[1]

Art and politics continue to have a strong relationship today. Artists continue to use their work to express their political views and to promote social change. And governments continue to use art to promote their own agendas.

History of art

According to Groys, "Art has its own power in the world, and is as much a force in the power play of global politics today as it once was in the arena of cold war politics."[2]

Social and political change

Pertaining to such politically-intractable phenomena as the

political change
.

Role of poetry

Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

— 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry

The Italian poet

laws.[4]

The

Puerto Rican Independence movements to Black Lives Matter, poetry is used to build emotional unity in crowds and draw media attention.[6] Giannina Braschi wrote, "Poets and anarchists are always the first to go. Where? To the frontline. Wherever it is."[7] Protest poems include Gwendolyn Brooks "Riot", Allen Ginsberg's Howl, Tato Laviera's "Lady Liberty", Nikki Giovanni's "Rosa Parks", Amiri Baraka's "Short Speech to My Friends," and Jill McDonough's "Dear Gaybashers".[8] Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was arrested at an antiwar demonstration in New York City in 1967 and tear-gassed at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968.[9]

Examples

Situationist International

The

surrealist perspective on aesthetics and politics, according to Italian art historian Francesco Poli.[10]

In the works of the situationists, Italian scholar Mirella Bandini observes, there is no separation between art and politics; the two confront each other in revolutionary terms.[11]

Historically, revolutionary ideas have emerged first among

dichotomies as the "separation of art from politics". Once artistic-intellectual works are separated from current events and from a comprehensive critique of society, they are sterilized and can be safely integrated into the official culture and the public discourse, where they can add new flavours to old dominant ideas and play the role of a gear wheel in the mechanism of the society of the spectacle.[12]

Poster art

"Not content with claiming

art styles of "socialist revolution" to communicate its political message in 2008.[13]

In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster became almost instantly iconic and inseparable from Obama and his campaign. Almost immediately after its creation, the artwork went viral, spreading throughout social media and through word of mouth (largely due to the publicity efforts of Yosi Sergant).[14]

Throughout history, Communist governments have used poster art as a common form of propaganda used to promote the ideology of communism, namely the Soviet Union in the early 20th Century. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia defines communist propaganda as being the expression of the essential worldview of the working class and its natural aims and interests defined by its historical position as the social force which will ultimately usher in the epoch of communism.[15]

"Pig trained in Paris" Soviet poster

Entropa

Czech

sculptor David Černý's Entropa, a sculpture commissioned to mark the Czech presidency of the European Union Council during the first semester of 2009, illustrates how art can come into conflict with politics, creating various kinds of controversy in the process, both intentionally and unintentionally.[16][17][18][19] Entropa attracted controversy both for its stereotyped depictions of the various EU member states and for having been a creation of Černý and two friends rather than, as Černý purported, a collaboration of 27 artists from each of the member states.[19] Some European Union members states reacted negatively to the depiction of their country, with Bulgaria, for instance, deciding to summon the Czech Ambassador to Sofia in order to discuss the illustration of the Balkan country as a collection of squat toilets (ČTK). This "Europe-wide hoax
… reveals deeper truths" not only about the countries but "about art itself" (Gavrilova).

Russian aesthetics

After the

Soviet Art came under strict ideological control. According to Esti Sheinberg, a lecturer in music at the University of Edinburgh, in her book about Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in the Music of Shostakovich, in "the traditional Russian perception of the arts", an "interrelationship between artistic technique and ideological content is the main aesthetic criterion" (ix; cf.
Blois).

Classical music

telecast nationally in the United States, he substituted Freedom for Joy to reflect his own "personal message".[21]

Folk and protest music

In February 1952, the

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; but, after "The convention heard Robeson sing over the telephone", the union organized "a concert on the US-Canada border".[22] According to the account of the "Paul Robeson Centennial Celebration": "Robeson sang and spoke for 45 minutes. He introduced his first song stating 'I stand here today under great stress because I dare, as do you—all of you, to fight for peace and for a decent life for all men, women and children' … [and, accompanied by Lawrence Brown on piano,] proceeded to sing spirituals, folk songs, labour songs, and a passionate version of Old Man River, written for him in the [1920s], slowly enunciating 'show a little grit and you land in jail', underlining the fact that his government had turned the entire country into a prison for Robeson and many others."[22]

In the 1960s the songs of

military-industrial complex, continuing an American artistic tradition of political protest founded during its colonial era.[23]

Restrictions on live-music venues

In the United States

In force from July 1985 until May 2002 and considered by its opponents a

U.S. Federal Court in early 2002, when a suit filed by the Joint Artists and Music Promotions Action Committee (JAMPAC) in 2000 was still being adjudicated.[24] In May 2002, Judge Lasnik ruled for the City of Seattle on JAMPAC's suit, finding no Constitutional infringement of the First Amendment and deciding that the matter is a political one for the Seattle City Council to decide, not the courts; during the course of the suit, Mayor Schell's successor, Greg Nickels, a proponent of the bill, resubmitted the ordinance to the Seattle City Council, and, on 12 August 2002, the new All-Ages Dance Ordinance (AADO) replaced the TDO,[25] but was not considered much of an improvement by its critics.[26]

In May 2008 a "Promoters Ordinance" proposed by the Chicago City Council aroused opposition in Chicago, Illinois, for being regarded as overly restrictive and stifling free expression.[27]

In the United Kingdom

Further information: Licensing Act 2003 § Impact on live music

Following the implementation of the

Risk Assessments would be processed this year. He said they weren't compulsory: ... 'We can't demand it – we recommend that you provide it as best practice. But you're bloody silly if you don't, because you're putting your venue at risk.'[29]

By early March 2009, over 16,000 British citizens or residents had signed McClure's E-Petition, which remained open to potential signatories until 1 December 2009.[30]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Vladimir Nabokov (1981) Lectures on Russian Literature, lecture on Russian Writers, Censors, and Readers, pp.13-4
  2. ^ Groys, Boris (2009-03-16). "Art Power". The MIT Press. Archived from the original on 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  3. ^ Slackman, Michael (19 August 2008). "An Arab Artist Says All the World Really Isn't a Stage". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  4. ^ Ungaretti, Giuseppe (1964). "Pasolini intervista Ungaretti" (Video). Interviewed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2014-06-08. Retrieved 2020-07-26. I am a poet and as such I begin transgressing all the laws by doing poetry
  5. ISBN 978-1-137-38621-2
    , retrieved 2020-10-10
  6. ^ "Poems of Protest, Resistance, and Empowerment". Poetry Foundation. 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  7. OCLC 39339100
    .
  8. ^ Poetry Foundation (2020-10-09). "Poems of Protest, Resistance, and Empowerment". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  9. ^ "Allen Ginsberg". Poetry Foundation. 2020-10-09. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  10. ^ Poli 2006, p. 63.
  11. ^ Bandini 1999, p. 408.
  12. ^ McDonough 2004, p. 29.
  13. ^ Harris, John (1 October 2008). "Tory posters are now ripping off the iconography of socialist revolution". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  14. ^ Arnon, Ben (2008-11-13). "How the Obama "Hope" Poster Reached a Tipping Point and Became a Cultural Phenomenon: An Interview With the Artist Shepard Fairey". HuffPost. Retrieved 2021-07-20.
  15. ^ Academy of Sciences (1981). The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Советская Энциклопедия.
  16. ^ "Czech EU art stokes controversy". BBC News. BBC. 14 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  17. ^ Gavrilova, Dessy (19 January 2009). "Entropa: art of politics, heart of a nation". openDemocracy. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  18. ^ Lyall, Sarah (14 January 2009). "Art Hoax Unites Europe in Displeasure". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  19. ^ a b "Czech sculptor Cerny apologises to govt for EU mystification". ČeskéNoviny.cz. Neris. 13 January 2009. Archived from the original on 29 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  20. ^ van Gelder, Lawrence (26 March 2002). "Footlights: Indoor Activity". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  21. ^ AP (26 December 1989). "Upheaval in the East: Berlin; Near the Wall, Bernstein Leads an Ode to Freedom". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  22. ^ a b "Robeson Peace Arch Concert Anniversary, Rpt. from People's Voice. Communist Party of Canada". Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Archived from the original on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  23. ^ Frank Hoffmann, modified for the web by Robert Birkline. "Protest Music". Sam Houston State University. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  24. ^ Bush, James (30 January 2002). "Courthouse dance". Seattle Weekly. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  25. ^ Howland Jr, George (14 August 2002). "Slow Dance". Seattle Weekly. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  26. ^ Pian Chan, Sharon (7 April 2006). "Initially hailed, city dance law doesn't mean much these days". The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  27. ^ DeRogatis, Jim (7 May 2008). "Background reading on the promoter's ordinance: The proposed law, and the Chicago Music Commission's response to it". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times News Group. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  28. ^ "Licensing_Policy, Section 6.2.10" (PDF). London Borough of Hillingdon. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-08. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  29. ^ a b c Orlowski, Andrew (11 November 2008). "Police vet live music, DJs for 'terror risk'". The Register. Situation Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  30. ^ a b c Murray, Robin (2 December 2008). "Jon McLure Protests Form 696". Clash Music. Clashmusic.com. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  31. ^ Hundal, Sunny (23 January 2009). "Did you know ... live music events could pose a terrorist threat?". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 2009-07-17.

References

External links

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