This page has largely emerged as a result of my ongoing frustration at the underestimation of art as a tool of political and social insight, so in many ways this page is a written manifestation of my personal endeavour to dismiss the crude labelling of art history as a ‘soft’ subject, an opinion that has relentlessly been posed to me since my passion for the subject developed.
Artistic history spans millennia, and in many ways transcends language in its capacity to communicate through only the visual. In a historical scope art has been used in a multitude of ways: to convey scriptural teachings to the illiterate, a vehicle of political propaganda and a tool for social critique.
As I am confident in typical, my early engagement with art exclusively constituted visual engagement, however, through increasing observation and consideration, largely facilitated by my study of art history in school, I have become increasingly concerned and captivated by the intersections between art and its social context. On this page I hope to exemplify these observations, combining my own personal perceptions with accepted historical fact, exploring artist who have opted to articulate social critiques in their works, but also the politics of art, the nature of the industry and ongoing controversies within the art world.
Hopefully, I will be able to achieve an accessible and informative platform that I hope will engage both those with and without pre-existing passion within this field. Demonstrating that current and historical issues can be accessed with great clarity through the artistic outputs relevant to the time.
To end with a quote, as expressed by Groys, ‘Art has its own power in the world, and is as much a force in the power play of global politics today as it once was in the arena of cold war politics’.
P.S. As I am completely new to this platform please do leave any comments and suggestions, any advice or constructive criticism will be received with open arms.
art-and-politics.com 