Voices to be Heard
The practice of using art to voice displeasure towards a particular subject, rule or construct is difficult to trace back through history—as early instances could be identified as early as revolutionary times and even beyond. It was not until the latter part of the 20th century, that a collection of creative works produced by activists and social movements officially gave birth to a “new” art movement know as Protest Art.
Using a multitude of mediums, protest artists advocated in favor of contemporary causes that affected the community, society, and the nation. Though the Protest Art movement cannot be traced to a single individual source, it could be attributed to the political climate orchestrated by the efforts of the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements. As artists noticed the power and the influence that their works could affect upon the audience, they began crafting pieces, specifically infused with activist imagery and speech. One prime example is Wadsworth Jarrell’s Revolutionary, in which, the portrait of political activist Angela Davis is framed with words and phrases that echoed the Civil Rights Movement. In the same way, Guerrilla Girls’ Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum? presents striking imagery, along with a striking title to protest the exclusion of women artists from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Furthermore, Protest Art also proliferated onto other areas of society. Such examples include David Hammons’s Injustice Case—protesting corruption in the justice system—and Ai Wei Wei’s Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, which detested the indiscriminate valorization of art according to age and American Imperialism. The work of these artists would not only create a lasting impression, but would also influence regular individuals and those in power. Thus, in an unprecedented, deliberate infusion of political themes within art, a new era was born. Artists discovered the potential of their work influence society and emerged from the back scenes to be featured everywhere, from education, to business/corporations, and even in political campaigns.
Barbara Jones-Hogu 1972 Screenprint 64.8 x 72.4 cm Collection of the South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL
David Hammons 1970 Mixed Media Print 63 x 40.5 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Guerrilla Girls 1989 Screen-print on paper New Museum of Contemporary Art Exhibitions
Wadsworth Jarrell 1971 Acrylic and mixed media on canvas 64 x 51 in. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Keith Haring 1982 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 60 in. The Keith Haring Foundation, New York, NY
Alfredo Jaar 1997 One million slides, light table, magnifiers, and illuminated wall text
Judith Baca 1976 Paint on concrete 13 ft. × 2754 ft. Los Angeles, CA
Ai Weiwei 1994 Urn, Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD) and paint 25 x 28 x 28 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
General Idea 1989 Screen printed wallpaper Photo above shows exhibition view of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, from 2011
Jenny Holzer 1977-1979 Spectacolor electronic sign Times Square, New York 1982
To Be Free (Know the Past, Prepare for the Future)
Barbara Jones-Hogu
1972
Screenprint
64.8 x 72.4 cm
Collection of the South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL
To Be Free sticks to the ‘coolade colors for coolade images’ of the AfriCOBRA collective’s manifesto. Jones-Hogu uses imagery from African and American culture and history to exhibit the nascent notions of Afrocentrism, a recent school of thought at the time. The radiating face is a reference to the sun worship of many African traditions, showing how African culture can light the way to a future of freedom.
Injustice Case
David Hammons
1970
Mixed Media Print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
This mixed media print reflects upon the corruption of the United States justice system. The image shows a negative photograph of an anonymous prisoner displayed over an American Flag, a symbol that for many represents freedom. The pose is most likely inspired by a famous sketch of Bobby Seale who was bound and gagged during his trial for conspiring to incite a riot at a Democratic Convention as an alleged member of the “Chicago 8.”
Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?
Guerrilla Girls
1989
Screen-print on paper
New Museum of Contemporary Art Exhibitions
This poster by the activist group the Guerrilla Girls shows an overlap between Feminist and Protest Art. The work, originally intended as a billboard, was in protest of the lack of female artists present in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The image combines advertising techniques with iconic images from the fine arts world. In this case, they used Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s famous Grande Odalisque painting superimposed with the Guerrilla Girls’ signature gorilla mask.
The Great Wall of Los Angeles
Judith Baca
1976
Paint on concrete
13 ft. × 2754 ft.
Los Angeles, CA
This mural traverses the entire history of California up to the 1950s. Baca aimed to provide a more inclusive and honest take on the often-whitewashed history of the state that did not include people of color and women. The entire wall stretches over 6 city blocks and required over 400 community volunteers to paint the mural over 5 summers.
Revolutionary
Wadsworth Jarrell
1971
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
64 x 51 in.
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Revolutionary is a portrait of Angela Davis, a political activist and member of the Black Panther Party. Davis is adorned in clothing designed by Wadsworth Jarrell’s wife and fellow AfriCOBRA member, Jae, and a panoply of phrases and words that define the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In this way, the painting represents the Civil Rights Movement itself. The AfriCOBRA collective of Chicago produced many works of art to be easily reproduced.
Silence = Death
Keith Haring
1982
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 60 in.
The Keith Haring Foundation, New York, NY
Keith Haring has come to represent New York City street art and activism during the 1980s. His painting Silence = Death is one of many Haring created to spread awareness and end the stigma surrounding AIDS crisis. There are figures depicted covering their eyes and ears overtop a pink triangle, a symbol that was originally imposed on homosexuals in Nazi war camps but came to be an emblem of gay pride.
The Silence of Nduwayezu
Alfredo Jaar
1997
One million slides, light table, magnifiers, and illuminated wall text
In 1994 Rwanda experienced a mass genocide. Influenced by the lack of attention news outlets paid to this, Alfredo Jarr would spend six years creating twenty-one pieces covered under the title The Rwanda Project in which he would try to create a fitting memorial and call attention to this tragedy. This work features one million slides representing the one million deaths that occurred. Each slide has the same image of Nduwayezu’s eyes. The young boy had seen his parents murdered in front of him and was unable to talk for four weeks. Jaar says that his silence, “refers to the silence of the world community that let this happen.”
Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo
Ai Weiwei
1994
Urn, Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD) and paint
25 x 28 x 28 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and activist, whose works involve themes of the deeply political. In this piece, he paints the Coca-Cola logo on an approximately 2000 year-old Chinese vessel. After the creation of this piece, Weiwei dropped the urn, shattering it. This critiques both the tendency of the art world to covet old artifacts without necessarily assigning meaning to them while simultaneously detesting American imperialism.
AIDS (Wallpaper)
General Idea
1989
Screen printed wallpaper
Photo above shows exhibition view of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, from 2011
General Idea was a group made up of three Canadian artists, who were greatly affected by the AIDS crisis that was occurring across the United States. This image is derived from Robert Indiana’s LOVE motif, and was widely reproduced both in gallery settings, but also as mass media through billboards, prints, postage stamps, and wallpaper. General Idea referred to the work as an “image virus,” drawing a distinct parallel to the disease it signifies.
Truisms
Jenny Holzer
1977-1979
Spectacolor electronic sign
Times Square, New York 1982
Truisms were Jenny Holzer’s first text-based works. Truisms features several short one-liners in different locations. One feature that has remained throughout Holzer’s work is the lack of an author. By not identifing the author, she has given the text more power, and the audience must focus on the text itself, instead of who wrote it. Today, Holzer’s work consists of LED signs, large projections, and paintings featuring texts from assorted authors and on various subjects. Holzer admits, “I do make work that focuses on unnecessary cruelty, in the hope that people will recoil.”