I) Did the artist seek to have political effectiveness?<\/strong><\/p>\n Historically, politica It is in many ways that artists through history have been eligible for political effectiveness. The artist often puts his work in the service of a cause to defend.\u00a0 Artists have sometimes used their works as means\u00a0to denounce the powers of the time being.<\/p>\n Thus, Belisarius asking for David\u2019s charity can be seen as an indictment against the injustice of the mighty.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Belisarius begging<\/strong> is a painting by Jacques-Louis David in 1780<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Generally, such accusations are ac Thus,\u00a0glorification, denunciation and injunction establish three forms of the intervention of art in the social process.<\/p>\n These examples show that artists have intended, by their works, to have a political role.<\/p>\n In Egypt for example, the pharaoh, political and religious leader, appeared to the public with the attributes that dramatized his functions and powers. The monumental statues stressed the difference in nature between the king and the men he reigned, illustrating the almost divine legitimacy of his power.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rams\u00e8s II<\/strong> seated on his throne, holding the scepter and wearing Heqa dukhepresh – Nineteenth Dynasty – Egyptian Museum of Turin<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the Middle Ages, the rulers of the Kingdom of Aragon were crowned at a ceremony which portrayed heaven and angels in order to materialize the link between the Monarch and God. From the fifteenth century, the ruler\u2019s personal life has tended to be confused with that of the public: royal birth, marriage, and funeral, give rise to joyful or grave ceremonies where unfolds\u00a0all t Equestrian representation of the king of Aragon<\/strong> in the Grand Armorial Equestrian of the Golden Fleece, 1433-1435.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another example but this time of political denunciation: Guernica<\/strong>, one of the most famous works of the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, and one of the most famous paintings in the world.<\/p>\n Picasso made this oil painting canvas in cubist style between May 1st\u00a0and June 4th, 1937 in Paris, for the Spanish Pavilion of the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1937, in answer to Francisco Largo Caballero republican gov This monumental canvas is a committed denunciation of the bombing of the town of Guernica, which \u00a0occurred on 26th\u00a0\u00a0April, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, and which was ordered by the Spanish nationalists and executed by the Nazi German troops and the Italian fascists. Picasso’s painting, which was exhibited in many countries between 1937 and 1939, played an important role in the intense propaganda sparked by the bombing and the war in Spain; he quickly gained a renowned and international political significance, becoming a symbol of denunciation of Franco’s fascist violence and war horror in general.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But there are also other very recent examples that show the artists\u2019 involvement in the dictators\u2019 wrong policy. Some countries leave these ideals to turn into dictatorial oligarchies with a single party and a leader, charismatic or not, in the profile of the rescuer or in that of the providential man. Take for example Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy,\u00a0Stalin\u2019s USSR, Mao’s China, Saddam Hussein\u2019s Iraq, North Korea and many other Arab countries. There is then a real personality cult, with the proliferation of images of the rescuer sometimes as the father of the nation and sometimes as the saving hero. This is the image that the dictator Idi Amin tried to fix in the minds of his subjects and of the international opinion, at a triumph staging hat reversed the roles colonizer \/ colonized in 1975.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joseph Stalin propaganda. <\/strong>Portrait \u00a0by Isaak Brodsky.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thus, the staging can have a heuristic function, illustrating the various responsibilities of power in the eyes of the subjects, promote the public entity ethos or on the contrary play a role of disinformation similar to that of the propaganda emphasizing the pathos. Some stagings can even be classified in the power propaganda arsenal.<\/p>\n In fact, as you can see, the relationship between the artist and politics has not really changed for years, even centuries. Sometimes the artist is regarded as an instrument playing the media propaganda and at other times he casts doubt, by his art, the legitimacy of the authoritarian political rule. In either case,\u00a0his role is never sterile since his works serve as an effective medium in shaping the public opinion.<\/p>\n We are interested here in pictorial art with political intention to examine its effectiveness. And as such, everything\u00a0is embodied within the framework of politics. The issue raised enables, according to Carole Talon-Hugon the author of “The painting efficient”, to reach to the following conclusion “The political effectiveness of painting lies in the power of images in general, i.e. not specifically artistic\u201d.\u00a0\u201cThe images have both illocutionary effects (emotions) as well as perlocutionary ones (acts)\u201d, assumed an anthropological research. What makes a pictorial image effective is its iconic dimension and not its artistic dimension.<\/p>\n Unlike laws or might, it neither compels nor restrains. Putting it in action can proceed only from a persuaded. The multiple meanings of this verb is interesting: to persuade is to believe, but also to act. Is there persuasive might of the figurative works?<\/p>\n The first track is to seek in the pictorial work something like a persuasive speech. But how can it hold meaning processes?<\/p>\n II) Shall work remain concerned with political topics: A plausible reality or a useless idealism!<\/strong><\/p>\n Art or Business: First of all, it is necessary to underline that today for some artists; art is the “business”, art rhymes with dollars! Yes. So what? A part from the hopeless, fashion followers and other copiers, don\u2019t authentic and talented artists have the right to succeed and get rich? Is other professions? Remember Dali, whose genius nobody denies (whether we like it or not) as extremely ambitious that he was nicknamed “Avidadollars” by Andr\u00e9 Breton! However, greed does not always debase quality.<\/p>\n Any way, the problem doesn\u2019t concern only the artist, since it is due to commercial constraints he, implicitly, has to deal with and which very often deprive him of his freedom to choose the political themes. Unfortunately, art is considered today as a product, which is to meet the tastes and behavior of the modern society, a society that prefers the cheap product for decorative purposes (I was talking about product! It is very sad, as if we were in the supermarket).<\/p>\n Today the viewer seeks refuge in the pictorial space that allows him to escape the political problems which bombard him daily, this reminds me of the time of Fauvism (1905-1907), the time when Henry Matisse left\u00a0criticism to resort to simpler ways of expression for people to understand.<\/p>\n The emergence of new contemporary artistic expressions reflecting the inner impressions, spontaneous and unconscious, found mainly in abstract art, the technological interest dominated by digital art, seem to complicate more the chances of the survival of the indictment art, especially with the nice succession of the caricature that could respond effectively to any political subject. <\/p>\n The drawings of Charlie Hebdo on Syrian refugees are faithful to the values of the satirical newspaper.<\/p>\n All these transformations related to the tastes, behavior, commercial constraints, diversification of the means of artistic expression could possibly explain the absence of the political subject in contemporary painting. In fact, I wonder if \u201cthe indictment painting” still has a chance to survive?<\/p>\n I could not definitively answer this shocking and puzzling question without knowing the reason. Indeed, I persist in such choices and my recent painting (JERUSALEM LOVER) joins in this absurd logic that I continue to follow; maybe I keep looking for the historical continuity of the involvement of painting in the public affairs. Finally! I wonder why I insist on not going with the stream!<\/p>\n I then asked myself, why I insist to swim against the current! so I go to Search of \u00a0one mobile which gives me more courage to continue, and fortunately I found it in the reflexions of the visual artist \u00a0Saralee Horsey,<\/strong> who says\u00ab\u00a0I believe we were put here to make a difference ”\u00a0and who had a strong belief in the role of art in the affairs of the city\u00a0when she confirmed the idea by the quote of Thomas Merton<\/strong>( from Introductions East & West. The Foreign Prefaces):<\/p>\n \u201cIt<\/strong>\u00a0is true, political problems are not solved by love an This allowed me to continue and finish my painting \u00abThe Birds lovers of Jerusalem\u00bb III) “THE BIRDS LOVERS OF JERUSALEM” painting for Peace, Love and Hope.<\/strong><\/p>\n My most recent painting on canvas (2m x 1.40m), raises the most natural subject in the world, the human diversity, (religious, social, racial, cultural …) through the symbolism of the political conflict of JERUSALEM, this extraordinary natural and metaphysical diversity, that we could synthesize, we should harmonize, and we push to move towards the search for a new result, the resulting of peace, love and hope. This is possible with our new ” SURE- REALISM\u00bb<\/p>\n Yes, one message of hope and love through a miserable reality. The idea is to demonstrate, on a one hand, both love and cooperation, but also anxiety and tears, on the other. It is meant to push anyconcerned person to awareness (Palestinian and Israeli), to choose the destiny of their children: share love and life or share hatred and death.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the image there are two characters who express two opposite situations. If you tilt your head diagonally to the right, you can see\u00a0 LOVEsharing, \u00a0love one another and love life.<\/p>\n Now if you tilt your head diagonally left, the same image becomes a scene of horror; you can see the character carrying a horrible human face in his hand: it is then human horror. The mouth is transformed\u00a0into an eye, the ear in a mouth, the eyes into a nose and the eyebrows in tears.<\/p>\n The painting was\u00a0intended to impress, reassure, mystify and terrify as well. For me, it is a question of denouncing and criticizing in the name of values and ideals.<\/p>\n IMPRESS, REASSURE, but also STIMULATE and CHOCK. AWAKEN THE CONSCIOUSNESS<\/strong> to defend good causes, putcolour and give a glimpse of hope on the greyish face of the miserable political reality.<\/p>\n “The arts flourish, all human. In his work, the artist is free, so he is vigilant. He should be free to be vigilant and innovative. A prisoner artist can only decorate the life of his jailer. The artist, through his works, warns our society against any inhuman derivation\u00a0leading to its collapse. The artist disrupts any hegemonic order desire by self-sacrifice. The artist guarantees human freedom and the fulfilment of his intelligence. He guarantees the collective imagination. The artist produces a “human heritage” image of our humanity. Even if I only remains with my brush to support me, I will continue using my mighty materials,\u00a0 colors and forms … ”<\/p>\n Please! We should act together, so that the Rousseau\u2019s thesis will no longer be justified.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n MOURAD ELLOUMI \u2013 Professional Artist painter – Tunis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the Artist and Politics. A sterile option or an effective choice? To intervene through art in the course of the public affairs is to aim at not only the spiritual effects, but also at the pragmatic ones. The search for a moral edification, as well, should go beyond the moral as it requires and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-147","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n![](\"https:\/\/media.licdn.com\/mpr\/mpr\/shrinknp_400_400\/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAhdAAAAJGQ2NDJhMmE1LWJmMmMtNDdkMS1hNzIzLTJlNmQ3MGQzMTFlYQ.jpg\")
l power staging has been the way the governors see the nature of that power in the eyes of those they govern, their peers or their rivals. Those stagings have been designed to both impress and reassure, mystify, sometimes terrify or simply fool the audience in one way or another, whether on the governor\u2019s recommendations and in his favour, \u00a0or as a committed \u00a0artist in favour of the governed.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/media.licdn.com\/mpr\/mpr\/shrinknp_800_800\/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAl7AAAAJGJhY2YwOWUxLTBjNzMtNDMwMy1hMTdlLTUyOTVkNzg4ZjZkMg.jpg\")
companied by a political order since all negation is an affirmation in its critical dimension. To denounce is to criticize in the name of values and ideals.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/media.licdn.com\/mpr\/mpr\/shrinknp_400_400\/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAiIAAAAJDhmOGFlM2IzLTg2OTAtNGVlNi1iMzNhLTBkY2Q0ODM2OTZmNg.jpg\")
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\nhe art of the civil and religious authorities to materialize the relationship between the power and the subjects.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/media.licdn.com\/mpr\/mpr\/shrinknp_400_400\/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAhwAAAAJGU2MWU1ODBkLWFjZDAtNGViNS1iOGI1LTU3NTliZjM0ZmMwYg.jpg\")
ernment\u2019s command.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/media.licdn.com\/mpr\/mpr\/shrinknp_400_400\/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAg-AAAAJDk2NGQ1NDQyLTkyNjctNDdlMi1iZDk5LTI1Nzc5ZWQ3NjBlNA.jpg\")
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d mercy. But the world of politics is not the only world, and unless political decisions rest on a foundation of something better and higher than politics, they can never do any real good for men. When a country has to be rebuilt after war, the passions and energies of war are no longer enough. There must be a new force, the power of love, the power of understanding and human compassion, the strength of selflessness and cooperation, and the creative dynamism of the will to live and to build, and the will to forgive. The will for \u00a0reconciliation\u00bb.<\/p>\n
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