Political Graffiti & Street Art

[Lucky Bastard]

Jan 17, 2019 18:25:33 GMT 1 Inknart said:

Cleon Petersen comes to mind.

I stopped supporting his work after his gitana project, Jonas Wood comes to my mind as well, since his latest VOTE print

[minus]

Ludo

[Chris JL]

Ai Wei Wei. Hands down one of the most lucid ones. Banksy obviously (almost his entire production is political). Shep Fairey is very active as you mention, but I’m still bitter for is propaganda stunt for the Kremlin’s kleptocrats at the MMoMA.
And personally, a very representative piece of our time, easy to find for your wall in print or original drawing, is this very clever icy and sot:

[Poly Mindset]

Jan 18, 2019 21:08:24 GMT 1 Fast Eddie said:

Not mine, but this is also a debatable example in my opinion.

It is obviously a political subject, but Pure Evil's Nightmare series seems to have little to do with politics overall. So the context does seem to matter.

Hmmm....I beg to differ. I think there are a lot of Americans, most notably 800,000 Federal Workers shedding a tear right now over our political situation and Pure Evil's images portray IMO a great deal that we can identify with.

[Fast Eddie]

Jan 18, 2019 23:08:35 GMT 1 Chris JL said:

Ai Wei Wei. Hands down one of the most lucid ones. Banksy obviously (almost his entire production is political). Shep Fairey is very active as you mention, but I’m still bitter for is propaganda stunt for the Kremlin’s kleptocrats at the MMoMA.
And personally, a very representative piece of our time, easy to find for your wall in print or original drawing, is this very clever icy and sot:

I am inclined to say that Shep was there to support Navalny and that good share of Russians royally fed up with Putin. If you listen to his interviews, Fairey is surprisingly coherent and serious about what he does. He strikes me as someone with a strong moral compass.

Obviously he also has a natural affinity with Russian Constructivism, but that is not why he was there I think.

[& that fence piece is truly powerful.]

[Chris JL]

Fast Eddie: I guess you did not visit the Moscow show, did you?

[Bill Hicks]

Maybe some of these.

Taxi Driver
Carrie Reichardt
Bob Osborne
Dolores de Sade
Dr. D
Heath Kane
Jeremy Deller
Kennardphillipps
Magda Archer
Marcus Harvey
Mark Titchner
Martin Rowson
Michael Peel
Mustafa Hulusi
Oddly Head
Peter Fish
Raquel Macartney
Robert Montgomery
Simon Roberts

[moron]

Nefertiti's Daughters


www.nefertitisdaughters.com/sneak-preview/




  

womenonwalls.org/artists-profile/ Political art.

 Includes profiles of male artists.

[Fast Eddie]

Jan 19, 2019 9:18:44 GMT 1 Chris JL said:

Fast Eddie: I guess you did not visit the Moscow show, did you?

No, I did not. Moscow is not exactly a practical destination from where I live.

Did you see it? My sense was that it meant to be some sort of retrospective, but really interested to know more.

[Chris JL]

Jan 19, 2019 16:56:18 GMT 1 Fast Eddie said:

Jan 19, 2019 9:18:44 GMT 1 Chris JL said:

Fast Eddie : I guess you did not visit the Moscow show, did you?

No, I did not. Moscow is not exactly a practical destination from where I live.

Did you see it? My sense was that it meant to be some sort of retrospective, but really interested to know more.

I did. I’m still very disappointed by him selling himself off for such an operation, and here is why

[Fast Eddie]

I see.

You felt Shep went soft on the elected autocrat. A bit like when Ai Weiwei had to tone done the anti-regime rhetoric once he was arrested and disappeared for weeks in a CCP black site.

I totally understand what you are saying in your post (which I had missed) and here is the conundrum: present a message of resistance without naming Putin or go full out, shame the regime and see your show disappear overnight, censored as an act of foreign propaganda. Not an easy choice.

[Chris JL]

I feel he helped big time. That’s basically how the local media covered it. The main local sponsor and curators are Kremlin insiders And the big ticket items in the show were sold to people I would not shake hands with.
That’s not called “going soft.” That’s called collaborating.

It did not need to be that way.

[Fast Eddie]

Premise: I do not wish to be an Obey apologist + Putin is a proven malevolent autocrat.

A few considerations: 1. Local media are aligned with the Kremlin. They would spin anything his way. Putin made sure of killing or beating to a pulp dissenting journalist systematically since 2002, so by now he has his bases covered. 2. Curators must be Kremlin insiders or you would not get that space to use for the show (I agree - Obey could have picked another location). 3. Most big ticket items in any show anywhere are sold to people I would not shake hands with.

Granted that, all this feels terrible overall. Also the Italian gallery organizing the show reminds me of this drift that sees Italy becoming a Russian proxy pawn within EU.

[Chris JL]

I’m not saying that it’s easy, but one can actually do things in Russia without cooperating and/or being exploited by the Kremlin. And without taking money from that crowd.
That’s actually what I do over there, and I go often enough to see this done in the art scene too.
And granted, it’s much harder. I have friends expelled from the country for public statements. I have friends who had to flee overnight, leaving a family behind, and that cannot safely enter Russia. Even me and my academic team one year we all had our business visa denied because we publicly upset the kleptocrats.
But again, it can be done the right way. And from a guy with SF’s rhetoric, that’s what I would have expected.
Or, if he did not want to do it the hard way, he could have done like the Banksy team and simply said “no thanks.”

PS this being said, we all f-up sometimes, and I’m not sure how directly involved/aware/informed he was...

[Leo Boyd]

Sue Coe

A printmaker I discovered recently. Her work is pretty bloody in yer face.
Which is nice 
This piece from the exhibition 'All good art is political.'

www.artsy.net/show/galerie-st-etienne-all-good-art-is-political-kathe-kollwitz-and-sue-coe

[Someones Brain]

What about "Know Hope"? At least war and peace is often a theme in his work.

[Fast Eddie]

Going back to examples: Powerful & immediate street art.

[Wisconinla]

I’ve seen this print in person, very nice.

[Daniel Silk]

Jan 17, 2019 15:50:57 GMT 1 Carl Cashman said:

Jan 16, 2019 13:13:44 GMT 1 Daniel Silk said:

I like art that is about a important issues, but I don’t like it when artists are basically campaigning for a political party.

Where is that line drawn though ? What is expressing your opinion on important issues and what's campaigning ?

Sometimes it can be down to the timing, or basically the piece of art is about a politician or party rather than a particular issue.

[Guy Denning]

political art can be documentary:
guydenning.org/2017/12/08/2017-another-year-of-discontent/

or it can take a position:
guydenning.org/2017/01/06/exhibition-set-february-2016/

sometimes clear:
guydenning.org/2017/01/09/exhibition-set-the-hand-of-man/

sometimes not:
guydenning.org/2017/01/07/exhibition-set-september-2010/

[Fast Eddie]

Jan 20, 2019 16:36:25 GMT 1 Guy Denning said:

political art can be documentary:
guydenning.org/2017/12/08/2017-another-year-of-discontent/

or it can take a position:
guydenning.org/2017/01/06/exhibition-set-february-2016/

sometimes clear:
guydenning.org/2017/01/09/exhibition-set-the-hand-of-man/

sometimes not:
guydenning.org/2017/01/07/exhibition-set-september-2010/

It is disquieting drawing. Not surprisingly you refer to Goya. Personally I find this of exceptional clarity and strength. Thank you for sharing it.

[maven]

I like the subdued colours and clean lines of murals by Escif which often have a political message.
Wish I could find more Escif art to buy but rarely find work that is suitable to hang on the wall.

[Fast Eddie]

I agree.

[aymar75]

Love escif work. Just bought his book I strongly recommend if you want to have a large example of his street work!

[Fast Eddie]

[Wisconinla]

Jan 21, 2019 19:50:10 GMT 1 maven said:

I like the subdued colours and clean lines of murals by Escif which often have a political message.
Wish I could find more Escif art to buy but rarely find work that is suitable to hang on the wall.

Positive propaganda might have some (very lightly) handfinished credit war prints that look great framed and are priced to sell

[treweman]

Like others, I am very taken with the art (and politics) of Escif. A few other examples of overtly political art:

Pez from his Visa series ... 


Faile Wolf Within ...


TMNK Corpoate Clowns ...


Frank Kozik ...


Cranio ... 


Interesni Kazki ... 


Barron Storey ... 


Mark Bryant ... 

[treweman]

I’m surprised that there has been no mention of Pejac, Paco Pomet, or JR in this discussion.

[maven]

Just going back to the Escif - Credit War. I know it has been available for a while and I was sitting on the fence. I guess it has not been so popular. Can anyone recommend this print? Did anyone buy the International Dealmaker signed print set? It seems like a good offer.

[Fast Eddie]

Jan 23, 2019 16:17:09 GMT 1 maven said:

Just going back to the Escif - Credit War. I know it has been available for a while and I was sitting on the fence. I guess it has not been so popular. Can anyone recommend this print? Did anyone buy the International Dealmaker signed print set? It seems like a good offer.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Same doubts. I am going to decide on this by the end of the day focusing on Escif only (I am not connecting with the other prints in the set, including the Obey one).