Visual Symbols of Power, Oppression, and Protest

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Visual Symbols of Power, Oppression, and Protest
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Since the earliest times, man has created visual
symbols to gain or express power over his
environment.
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Whether in life or death, the Egyptian Pharaohs
displayed their symbols of power.
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Symbols of power among many cultures, like the
Maya, were affected by geographical influences
such as plant and animal life and mineral wealth.
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The Aztec culture had many similar customs and
symbols of power.
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The Chinese Emperors had many symbols of their
powerclothing design and color, furniture,
armor, weapons, seals, knowledge and skills.
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Likewise, members of the English monarchy, such
as Henry VIII, displayed the clothing, scepters,
and other items that signified their power and
position.
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Horses were a common symbol of power in European
portraits.
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Even our American Presidents had flags, weapons,
and seals to represent their power.
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A modern CEO has his own symbols of power.
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And no matter what the time or place, the
exercise of power meant that others were subject
to that power, sometimes oppressively.

• Zhao Yannian Nightmare 2 1989, woodcut
• The hand pushing down the head gives this piece a
  sense of both the physicality of the act and the
  emotional ramifications of the humiliation.

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The Egyptians enslaved conquered people and put
them to work building their monuments.
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The Aztecs and Mayans killed or sacrificed their
enemies.
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Chinese rulers from Ghenghis Khan to PuYi
maintained control of their power and territories
by eliminating the opposition.
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In both England and France invaders and citizens
alike were beheaded for their religious beliefs.
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American colonists participated in the slave
trade from Africa and engaged in wars with Native
American peoples, forcing them from their lands
and hunting grounds.
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Artists have used their skills to record these
events or raise their own symbols of protest
against these abuses of power.

• Li Hua's Roar, China!, 1935 is poignant in its
  emotional directness. Sharp contrasts of black
  and white are used to emphasize conflict, and
  body movements are portrayed as purposeful and/or
  expressive of intense emotions.

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• Zhao Yannian is a major figure in the New Chinese
  Woodblock Movement (Creative Print Movement),
  founded in 1931 by the social critic, writer, and
  intellectual father of the Chinese revolution, Lu
  Xun (1881-1936). Inspired by the technique, style
  and subject matter of such European artists as
  Käthe Kollwitz and Frans Masereel, Zhao and other
  artists in the movement carved their own blocks
  and used their art to comment on current social
  and political events and to influence
  revolutionary politics.

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Käthe Kollwitz - Germany, 1867-1945

• Beim Dengeln is a startling image of a peasant
  sharpening a scythe, with the clear implication
  that the tool could also serve as a weapon.
• The image tells a story and presents an image
  that has universal recognition and appeal.

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Images can portray both the brutality and the
courage of the event.
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• Diego Rivera creates a contrast with past
  cultural convention by showing Mexican
  revolutionary leader Emiliana Zapata on a level
  with the horse he has seized from its former
  owner.
• Zapata's quiet assumption of power won him
  respect rather than fear.

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• The most effective images are simple, clear, and
  contain the most universally recognized symbols.
• They work best when they are publicly displayed,
  rather than having limited audience exposure.

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Lenin and Stalin, an example of the official art
of socialist realism, 1950s, USSR.
Komar Melamid, Double Self Portrait as Lenin
Stalin, 1972. From Sots Art series. First
Version. Destroyed in the Bulldozer Exhibition
along with other Sots Art works.

• An artist may rely on the shock value of using
  satirical versions of familiar or official
  cultural images in forbidden ways in their
  protest art.

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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along
with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet
Leader Joseph Stalin, attend the conference at
Yalta. February 1945. (Photo credit U.S.
National Archives)
Komar Melamid, Yalta Conference, 1982, tempera
and oil on canvas, 72X48.
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Some artists may develop personal images that
relate to the expression of their ideas.

• Hong Zhang created a series of pictures on the
  gender revolution in China.
• The first picture in the series represents the
  women of Hongs grandmothers generation.
• The cage represents the patriarchal society that
  kept women bound to the private space within the
  home. Grandmother also had bound feet, the
  practice that crushed the bones and deformed the
  feet of young girls so they can have the outward
  appearance of tiny delicate feet. The goal was to
  have a "Three Inch Golden Lotus" (sancun
  jinlian), but the actual result was unbelievable
  pain that lasted a lifetime. In this picture,
  grandmother is sewing a normal size pair of
  cotton shoes because her daughter was the first
  woman in her family to break the cycle of bound
  feet. The character on the dish is food.

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• Hongs second image represents her mothers
  generation.
• Unlike my grandmother, the cage door is open.
  Mother had more freedom as a women in the
  Communist Chinese society. Her feet were not
  bound and she had a number of career
  opportunities. Still, my mother did not have the
  freedom to say or do what she wanted. Her cage
  was the restrictions of the day and Maoist
  Thought, especially during the Cultural
  Revolution (1966-1976). The Chinese character on
  the cup is (weibing or hongweibing) the Red
  Guard.

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• The final image in the series represents the
  artists generation.
• Compared to my grandmother and my mother's
  generations, Chinese society has progressed and
  the situation for young urban women in China has
  improved. The cage is open and I can sit on the
  outside. The Chinese character on the cup is fu
  meaning good fortune. Also notice that the feet
  are uncovered and slightly exaggerated (larger
  than normal).
• These images would be easily recognized inside
  China, but might not be as meaningful elsewhere
  where the viewer lacked the cultural background
  to interpret the iconography.

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In America, we have our own highly recognized
images of the changing image of women in society.

• Norman Rockwell's iconic image of "Rosie the
  Riveter" was modeled on Michelangelo's
  Isaiah.Appearing for the first time on the
  cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1943, Rosie
  came to represent the growth in the power of
  American women brought about by war.This
  adaptation of Rosie for an American War Poster is
  typical of the theme symbolizing, as it does,
  the sense of empowerment, freedom, emancipation
  and commitment.

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Artists have used their skills to bring our
attention to the social issues of their day.

• Norman Rockwell gave us numerous poignant images
  of the fight against racial discrimination.

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Stereotypical images of the Negro Mammy were
replaced by images that showed quiet dignity and
eventually blatant militancy.
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Artists used classical art images as the model
for new art styles and the changing views of the
ideal of beauty.
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Art can be a powerful instrument for change.

• In speaking of most of the WPA sponsored art,
  Thomas Craven said, They are using art as the
  tool for propagation of economic notions which,
  though distributed geographically, are far from
  universal in their application. No art can be
  enslaved to doctrine. Art in its proper
  manifestations, is a communicative instrument
  but it communicates its own findingsnot what is
  doled out to it, not what an economic theory
  imposes upon it, but its discoveries in any
  department of life.

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• Diego Rivera, along with his compatriots David
  Alfaro Siquieros and José Clemente Orozco, broke
  the dependent links to European culture, helping
  to create authentic visual aesthetics for Mexico,
  with an emphasis on indigenism (or indianism),
  folk characters, historic epics, solidarity with
  the dispossessed, dramatization of class
  conflicts, mockery of the egotism and hypocrisy
  of those in power, and a celebration of the
  traditional rites and myths. These artists
  expressed the idealistic belief in the
  possibility of cultural change and the social
  responsibility of the artist.

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Many artists would no doubt agree with Charles
Wilbur Whites statement,Paint is the only
weapon I have with which to fight what I resent.