Art and Propaganda
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• For some term propaganda art is a contradiction in terms – “propaganda” sinister ring, strategies of manipulative persuasion, intimidation, deception – art implies special sphere activity, devoted to pursuit of truth, beauty and freedom.
• Lost neutrality WW1 – public opinion as recruitment, with millions of me being killed more difficult. Propaganda associated with totalitarian regimes – incompatible with freedom and democracy so “information” and education.
• Clement greenbery – abstract art would be immune to political exploitation – proliferation modern art, achievement Western art to move away traditional patronage groups of church, monarchy, aristocracy and government.
• Abstract art snapped up by propaganda – MoMa 40s and 50s – mark of freedom contrast regimented kitsch Soviet Communism – funded by CIA – could art or should art remain separated from political concerns?
• Lucy Lippard – “Some propaganda for propaganda” – use art for good propaganda – can art be both political and goof? Live issue for contemporary artists.
• Long history: roman, coinage, architecture designed for spectacular ceremonies of triumph, obedience and unit.
• Middle Ages – art closely bound to politics – Christian art used to back up ideology of church bodies or secular powers – aims subsumed within those of their patrons, even most famous renaissance painters required to use their skills to design their masters’ political accessories.
• Late 18^th century we see David’s works inspired by his own political aspirations – French revolution
• Goya mixed as court painter, also liberal minded intellectual, critical of corrupt and repressive policies of his employers.
• Romanticism – asserted artist’s individualism and social independence – “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world” – implication artist critic of society, but also that should not be reduced to social or political concerns.
• Does the use of art for propagada always imply the subordination of aesthetic quality to the message – can criteria for judging aesthetic quality ever be separated from ideological values – if it aims to persuade, how does it do this?
• Oppositional propaganda, or anti-propaganda (monument to freedom Tianemen Square and Willi Baumeister, these terms along with state propaganda or official propaganda difficult to maintain in all contexts.
• Not to ignore propaganda of capitalism – image drenched environment of consumer capitalism.
• Propaganda not always inherent from artists aims or intentions – become propaganda through function and site.
• History modern propaganda intimately linked with the rise of mass culture – mass culture is equally hard to define
• Media also used to subvert with views of a radical subculture.
• Rastafriansim – picture of Haile Selassie – portrayed with grandeur associated with Roman and Napoleonic imperialism – more integrated approach wih international success of reggae music.

PROPAGANDA AT WAR

Adjust to abnormal conditions and adapt their priorities and their moral standards to accomodate needs of war.

Effective use visual codes of mass culture – movie posters, film stars, makes war familiar, glamorises it, associates it with the fantasy and desire generated by mass entertainment.

WW1 distinction between civilians and soldiers really narrow. Link between movie news and propaganda stated from the outset – newsreel media at the same time as was broke out – blatantly jingoistic and audiences.

More suspicious at start of WW2 – men of trenches suspicious of calls to war, methods of manipulating opinion has developed as well. Insistence on total dedication and sacrifice of on individuals to national cause temporarily introduced tp democratic politics a manner of rhetoric that resembled that of mass-movement ideologies of communism and facism. Feedback: market research surveys, borrowed from advertising began using social and psychological sciences.

THIS MEANS YOU: RECRUITING IMAGES

This Means You – sudden intensification of bond between the individual and the state – notion of state was a distant one previously, small part in regulating people’s lives.

Any conflict of national and personal loyalties – countered by linking together of duty to country and family

Work opposite way and go against the values of war, recruitment of women to war work involvement in traditional male domains – contrast images of family and femininity – women into work, she is separated from industrial dirt etc, coarseness factory outfit downplayed and her outfit looks modish – concels social conflicts arising from women into work.

Difficulty propaganda and race in America – Joe Louis 1938 – vague calls for racial collaboration, but of course the army was strictly segregated.

WW2 weakened British empire – partly strain placed on imperial administrators, but partly nationalist propaganda inadvertently increased political awareness among colonized peoples. – helped strengthen their own nationalist demands for independence – anti-expansionist propaganda – intensifies awareness of politics of anti-racism and accustomed Asian and Africans to possibility of opposing foreign domination through armed conflict.

SATURATION AND SENSORSHIP

USA WW2 all images through censorship, mass poster runs and film prints. See documentary evidence of war into propaganda.

TARGETTING THE ENEMY

Gino Boccasie Italian anti-American poster – common place strategy of portraying men as despoilers of women, thus he removes Venus di Milo – classical bit of art, invasion symbolised in terms of rape – demonising of the enemy used frequently. – racial overtones black American purity of the statue.

Keep Mum she’s not so dumb- embroiling all citizens in a culture of secrecy – encouraged public to comply with and foster an official environment of censorship and surveillance

Leaflet drops ineffectual – clear message, reached with a leaflet reached with a bomb.

Less censorship Vietnam war – advent of TV, but these images re repackaged – to lessen shock effects on audiences, tactical use of human interest “and finally” Trevor MacDonald – reduces potential sense of critical disruption in social affair by integrating disturbing pictures ad information with a contrived atmosphere of normality.

Gulf War – information policy to restrict what was seen, no spontaneous interviews with coalition soldiers, or images Iraqis dying – neutralised by new terminology – surgical bombing, collateral damage – bloodless

Other Notes in this Category

1. A 15TH CENTURY PAINTING IS A DEPOSIT OF A SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP – IS THIS TRUE OF ALL WORKS OF ART
2. Art and Propaganda
3. Idea of History of Art
4. Patronage and Audience
5. Why do people want to destroy images?

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