Social Protest / Affirmation Fighting for the Oppressed Many artists fight for the rights of economically or politically repressed peoples. They can use beauty, illustration, narrative, humor or shock as strategies to make their points more forceful. The work is designed to affect public consciousness in general ways, rather than to prescribe specific changes.
Eugène Delacroix Liberty Leading the People 1830 oil 8 6 x 10 8 Romanticism Considered a French masterpiece, Delacroix painted a representation of the Second French Revolution, which took place from July 26-29, 1830. The French people overthrew the monarchy of King Charles X, putting in place a constitutional monarch as the French people continued to strive towards democracy as their new ideology. Government for the people by the people.
Edvard Munch Workers on their Way Home 1915 Munch portrays workers returning from the coal mines as exhausted laborers.
Diego Rivera The History of Mexico Epic of the Mexican People Palace of Fine Arts 1929-1935 fresco In the 1920s, Secretary of Public Education, José Vasconcelos made a mission of educating the masses through public art and hired scores of artists and writers to build a modern Mexican culture.
Ancient Mexico from Diego Rivera s The History of Mexico - Epic of the Mexican People
Mexico Through the Centuries from Diego Rivera s The History of Mexico - Epic of the Mexican People
Diego Rivera Social Realist The Night of the Poor 1923-1928 fresco 81 1/8 x 62 5/8 From the History of Mexico: Persecution of the Indian Revolution, Independence Palacio Nacional, Mexico City 1929-1935
Diego Rivera painted many scenes of oppression and exploitation of workers. In the painting below, workers are being ordered around by foremen, while the owner languishes in a hammock. Even in the fresco painted in New York City, Rivera questions this new ideology of capitalism as a form of freedom. The figures in this fresco don t appear free as capitalism is thwarted. The New Freedom International Rescue Commission Building New York City 1933 Fresco 72 x 71 Sugar Cane 1931 fresco 57 x 94
Judith Baca started SPARC ( Social and Public Art Resource Center) and worked with the community, hiring young adults who had questionable pasts, as away to give them a second chance and to become more aware of their community and its history. Great Wall of LA depicts the history of California as seen through the eyes of women and minorities in many connected panels. Judith Baca / SPARC Great Wall of LA 1979-1980 13 h x 2,754 l Valley College, San Fernando Valley
Judith Baca / SPARC detailed portions from Great Wall of LA 1979-1980
Judith Baca / SPARC Migration of the Golden People 2002 Central American Research and Education Center (CARECEN) Los Angeles
Ester Hernandez 1981 2008 Ester Hernandez s appropriated graphic design are direct, forceful and should cause viewers to contemplate the social injustices happening in the United States to agricultural workers, our food and the environment.
Favianna Rodriguez Favianna Rodriguez has been honored for her political activist messages and she continues to fight and speak out against institutional racism and for women s rights.
Favianna Rodriguez 21 st Century
Yolanda Lopez
Marshall s paintings provide a realism to the housing projects within inner cities. The projects are given names which don t reflect the life in these areas. Kerry James Marshall Watts 1963 1995
Kerry James Marshall Better Homes & Better Gardens Walker -
Kara Walker s installations reflect the treatment of African Americans during slavery as a way to remember versus forgetting the past, so it doesn t repeat. Her work could also raise questions about servitude and enslavement today in the world. Darkytown Rebellion 2001 Installation 14 x 37 Insurrection! (Our Tools Were Rudimentary,Yet We Pressed On) 2000 Installation / cut paper silhouettes & light projections
Kara Walker Grub for Sharks-A Concession to the Negro Populace 2004
Kara Walker After the Deluge 2006 Narratives of a Negress
Yinka Shonibare s appropriations explore cultural-identity, colonialism and post-colonialism. His sculptures are dressed in Africanized prints, which are actually Dutch-based wax-printed cottons, which further the dialogue of crossbred cultural backgrounds. Thomas Gainsborough Mr. and Mrs. Andrews 1748 Yinka Shonibare Mr. and Mrs. Andrews Without Their Heads 1998 Mixed media 65 x 224
Yinka Shonibare The Swing (After Fragonard) 2001 Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Swing 1766
Yinka Shonibare, MBE Reverend on Ice 2005 Sir Henry Raeburn Portrait of the Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddington Loch 1795
Eric Fischl A Visit to / A Visit from / The Island 1983
Saburo Murakami Passing Through (21 panels of 42 papers) 1956 Murakami is breaking through the barriers of society and the use of paper as a symbol of Japanese tradition.
Do Ho Suh Cause and Effect 2013 Suh speaks out against oppression in his country of Korea and about the unity of people working together. This piece is made of thousands of 5.5 inch figures connecting to one another. Creating a whirlwind of force.
Do Ho Suh Floor 2012
Do Ho Suh Floor 2012
Ai Weiwei @ Large 2014 legos (represents 175 political prisoners incarcerated around the world)