The latest Village Voice has a good essay by Barbara Pollack on the history of protest art. One of my favorite paragragraphs is:
Across the Met in the Assyrian gallery, artists gathered on March 5, Moratorium Day, to stage a more contemporary version of anti-war art-making, a "Draw-In for Peace," organized by Artists Against the War, and focusing attention to the wealth of archaeological treasures in Iraq, as well as the human life, that could be destroyed by American bombing. "If you are a serious artist, you don't want to make work that is thought of as agitprop," says Joyce Kozloff, one of the event's organizers, "but now I feel that what I want is to learn to do that and fast."
Here are links to some of the works and artists discussed in the essay:
- Kathe Kollwitz - she lost a son in WWI and a grandson in WWII
- Peter Paul Rubens: The Consequences of War
- Francisco de Goya: Disasters of War
- Martha Rosler: Bringing the War Home
- Art Workers Coalition: Q: And Babies? A: And Babies
