Raising Awareness through Art

Today's artists are engaging the world and their audiences in vital and surprising new ways. They use an enormous variety of media and draw on sources ranging from pop culture and politics to ethnic heritage, classical models, and deeply personal life experiences. 

This weekend, over 40 protesters staged an intervention inside the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan during Saturday night’s pay-what-you-wish admission hours. Unfurling mylar banners, dropping leaflets, chanting words, handing out information to museum visitors, and drawing attention with the use of a baritone bugle, the group worked to highlight the labor conditions on Saadiyat Island in the United Arab Emirates, where Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a franchise of New York’s Guggenheim, is being built.

See the footage here: http://hyperallergic.com/110856/protest-action-erupts-inside-guggenheim-museum/

Staged in the midst of the museum’s newly opened Futurism exhibition, the intervention, a term used by some members of the group to describe the action, received both applause from visitors who seemed excited by the commotion and reactions of confusion from others unsure what was going on.

Charity Oetgen, a student at Laguna College of Art + Design and Army Veteran, and tattoo artist produces art with a conscience. Her works are moving and often disturbs the viewer while bringing to light a tragedy a world away in the Republic of Congo. She spent months there learning more about the plight of the Bonobo, a primate closely related to the Chimpanzee. They are killed for bush meat leaving orphaned youths without the skills to survive on their own. She spent time in a sanctuary caring for these babes.

The watercolor above depicts the suffering of an animal, locked in a wooden crate for years. Below is an oil painting depicting the destruction of their habitat. It is just as emotional for her to paint these works. It is worth it to her because these pieces of art will be presented as her final works from the college in the hopes that they will be purchased.

She uses art to not only raise awareness but to raise money that can make a difference in their lives and not just in the minds of those who view it. For some artists, it is not enough that you know of the injustice. Artists like Charity put verbs in their sentences and create actions in their lives.

Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.

Goya, one of my favorite artists, had an instinctive dislike of authority, and witnessed first-hand the subjugation of his countrymen by French troops. During these years he painted little aside from portraits of figures from all parties, including an allegorical painting of Joseph Bonaparte in 1810, Wellington from 1812 to 1814, and French and Spanish generals. 

Goya worked on drawings that would form the basis for The Disasters of War. He visited many battle sites around Madrid to witness the Spanish resistance. The final plates are testament to what he described as "el desmembramiento d'España"—the dismemberment of Spain.

Although Goya did not make known his intention when creating the plates, art historians view them as a visual protest against the violence.

During the conflicts between Napoleon's French Empire and Spain, Goya retained his position as first court painter to the Spanish crown and continued to produce portraits of the Spanish and French rulers.

He was deeply affected by the war, he kept his thoughts private on the art he produced in response to the conflict and its aftermath. He was in poor health and almost deaf when, at 62, he began work on the prints. They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons.

How important is art to social change? Is this the most effective use of art? I do not create art with a social message. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about it. I see people around me creating awareness or protesting a social policy. I guess I use my art in a way to distract myself from things that are wrong in the world. Is it wrong?

By:  Renee Bangerter