A Delicate Balance: Maintaining Perspective in a Political Message - Essay Example

? A Delicate Balance: Maintaining Perspective in a Political Message Jacques Louis David – The Death of Marat The French Revolution provided the dramatic subject matter for which the French neo-classicist painter Jacques-Louis David is celebrated. David’s republican sentiments inspired the political spirit of many of his works, which range from the sweep and grandeur of The Tennis Court Oath to the poignancy of The Death of Marat. David’s portrayal of republican themes have led some to regard him as little more than a propagandist, a man whose prodigious talent was concerned with matters that were beneath him as an artist. But it is a measure of his talent, of his ability to meld form and context, that these works have only served to enhance his reputation over time. In fact, one of his political paintings is generally considered to be his greatest work. The Death of Marat portrays the murder of Jean-Paul Marat, one of the French Revolution’s most incendiary journalists and radical thinkers. Just as Marat himself was a polarizing figure who stirred powerful sentiments, David’s portrait of his murdered corpse was intended to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. The painting’s context is clear: Marat has been martyred by an enemy of the revolution, whose act should serve as a rallying point for those whom Marat sought to inspire. Marat had admitted into his chambers a young Girondist woman named Charlotte Corday, a citizen of the provinces. She plunged a knife deep into Marat’s chest as he sat in his bathtub, killing him in seconds. David’s representation of the murder exhibits a form that is at once affecting and subtle, as though the artist sought to make a political statement in a way that would be impactful without alienating the viewer’s sensibility. There is a blending of subject and background that focuses attention on the dead man’s body in a unique manner. “…it appears as if we see Marat in his bathtub in front of a dark screen onto which the fake background has not yet been project – this is why the effect can also be described as one of anamorphosis…” (Zizek, p. xiv). Focusing on the background necessitates a blurring of the subject; the two cannot be taken in in the same focus (p. xiv). It is a remarkable achievement. The Death of Marat is undoubtedly a work of political propaganda by an artist deeply moved by a politically motivated assassination. David’s painting was also remarkable for the effect it had on its subject’s legacy. In Revolutionary France, Marat was widely seen as a rabble rouser, an unscrupulous politico and opportunist who had parlayed unprecedented social and political turmoil into a stage for his own renown. In spite of this, David’s subliminal appeal to the viewer, his classically oriented interpretation of the Revolutionary period’s most famous assassination has obscured the negative aspects of Marat’s persona. David’s purpose in The Death of Marat is to bring attention to Marat’s prestige as a leader of transformative social change, a matter for which the artist cares deeply. Marat himself is “idealized and flawless,” an expression of the “compassion and outrage” David felt at his murder (Twomey, 2012). It is this expressiveness that makes David one of the greatest synthesizers of form and content within the context of politics. Pablo Picasso - Guernica The great abstract artist Pablo Picasso was decidedly not a propagandist, though he is responsible for what many consider the greatest anti-war painting ever created. Guernica is Picasso’s representation of the slaughter of innocent citizens in the Basque village of Guernica by fascist (German and Italian) armed forces under the command of Spain’s nationalist government, headed by the dictator Francisco Franco. Picasso’s mural, created for the 1937 Paris International Exposition, portrays a chaotic, jumbled scene meant to convey genocidal destruction let loose by the fascists on a profoundly vulnerable populace. It is also symbolic of the effect war has on the innocent, on people who have no political ambition or involvement in governance. As such, Guernica is an eloquent expression of terror but there are other elements at work. The gesturing human forms, arms flung skyward, and body parts sprawled throughout the painting portray the horrors of violent death. The woman on the far left-hand side is a symbol of isolation and catastrophe, a pathetic and pitiable figure (Nyenhuis, p. 64). The bull, however, offers a somewhat different perspective. In Spain, the bull is a majestic animal, seen here as a symbol of constancy and survival. It is “in symmetry” with the falling woman, and is “outside (the) catastrophe, appealed to, but unaffected…” (p. 64). Thus, Guernica becomes a complex portrayal indeed. “Guernica is not victory but defeat – a sprawling chaos, shown as temporary by its dynamic appeal to the dominant, timeless figure of the kingly beast” (p. 64). Picasso’s aim was to indicate that hope could live and remain present in spite of the worst violence imaginable. The violence of the Spanish Civil War deeply affected Picasso, and the destruction of Guernica seemed to galvanize quite powerful emotions in this painting. A dead body lies underneath the horse, extending a hand holding a broken sword, from which a flower appears. The wound on the hand of the corpse appears to be a Christian allusion, a reference to the wounds sustained by Christ on the cross. Symbolism is very important in Guernica, and was employed in order to give the viewer a clearer context in which to view the painting. Picasso himself alluded to the symbolic nature of what he intended to accomplish with Guernica. “The Guernica mural is symbolic…allegoric. That’s the reason I use the bull, the horse, and so on. The mural is for the definite expression and solution of a problem and that is why I used symbolism” (Nyenhuis, p. 64). Thus, one of the greatest paintings of the 20th century made one of the most resonantly powerful political statements that a work of art can possibly render. Picasso later sought to contradict his explanation, claiming that the animals in the painting were merely meant as animals. And indeed Picasso’s abstract style seeks to exclude direct meaning and interpretation. Yet there is a point at which even the most committed abstract artist is prone to react in a very human fashion to such violence. The Basques of southern Spain are an ancient, pastoral people who have stubbornly maintained their own customs and language. It is this persistent defiance of central authority that the fascists sought to break, and it was the Basque predilection for independence that made them so vulnerable. Franco sought to make an example of them, and the bombing of Guernica was an opportunity for the followers of Hitler and Mussolini to stage a purposeful “dress rehearsal” for war. Guernica is Picasso’s refutation of this event as seen through the portrayal of human suffering and the horror inflicted on the common people, who typically bear the brunt of the destruction. Gustave Courbet – Young Communards in Prison This sense of outrage animates much of Gustave Courbet’s work, a leading representative of the French Realist movement of the 19th century. Courbet took part in the Paris Commune protests of the 1870s, and was sentenced for a time in the stable of Versailles, where he witnessed the terrible conditions under which innocent men, women and children were imprisoned. His sketch drawing, Young Communards in Prison, provides a window into the depredations of late-19th-century France’s corrupt government and the unilateral power wielded by the nobility over the common people. Courbet’s legacy of political activism stemmed from the Revolution of 1848, which spread revolt throughout Europe and threatened to unhinge the established political order throughout the continent. The 1848 unrest was an intellectual uprising, the physical manifestations of ideas of equality that culminated in the writings of Karl Marx and others who postulated a Europe marked by a more equitable division of resources and property. It was to this ideal that Courbet and others of the Realist school responded. In Young Communards, Courbet powerfully draws attention to the true state of affairs in France by creating an image in which both subjects and setting work in tandem to create an atmosphere of abject hopelessness. The shades of grey of Courbet’s sketch enhance this impression, which no doubt expressed his own feelings at the time (Musee d’Orsay, 2012). Having taken part in the commune uprising and been elected to the Commune Council, which placed him in charge of the Paris galleries and salons, Courbet was targeted for punishment by the authorities in the Versaillais government that took power after the Communards were finally put down. After the events of 1870-71, Courbet’s fortunes began to fall, and his art reflected this state of affairs. Like The Death of Marat and Guernica, Young Communards elicits a sense of outrage over a perceived injustice being perpetrated on the helpless and vulnerable. In the drawing, one child is weeping, and both are gesturing toward the barred window, indicating a naive hope for freedom, for deliverance. The chalk sketch leaves one with the impression that one is viewing a scene of misery seen darkly and indistinctly, though what is taking place is unmistakably real. As such, Courbet draws our attention to the manner in which governments seek to make people “disappear,” to render them dark and indistinct through the type of oppressive measures that marked the French government’s reactionary stance. This was what Courbet and his fellow activists and artists risked everything to combat. As in The Death of Marat, Courbet has created a powerful blend of form and context. His accomplishment is all the more remarkable for the fact that it is one of only a handful of sketches he is known to have done. This milieu lends Courbet’s subject a kind of raw power as if the artist feared for his own prospects, working quickly in insufficient light and in a cramped, drab setting while he still had time to capture this scene. Thus, the context and the medium work together in urgency. One has the feeling that some other interpretation, such as a portrait, would not have been nearly as effective in conveying what the artist intended. Courbet’s political beliefs, his commitment to republicanism, colored much of his work and, as such, it is not unreasonable to categorize him as a propagandist (or propagandistic). Yet as with David, his prodigious talent and interpretive power enabled him to rise well above the level of simple propaganda. Courbet’s vision takes us far beyond those limitations. It may be said that the venue of “political art” amounts to a contradiction in terms. Indeed, the very nature of politics would seem to run counter to the objectivity of art and the freedom that produces a truly creative environment. One need only think on the self-laudatory contributions of art from the Nazi era in Germany to appreciate the potential for contradiction. To produce a works such as The Death of Marat, Guernica or Young Communards in Prison, one requires a truly unique perspective in order to prevent context from obscuring form, to keep the message from becoming the medium. It takes a David to maintain a delicate sense of balance in creating a great work of art, the purpose of which was patently propagandistic. Or a Picasso to create a thoroughly abstract interpretation of war that manages to convey true pathos. It may be argued that it is the artist’s business to inspire, to create an emotional state that motivates the beholder in some way. By that definition, it is to be expected that art and politics should work in harmony. Indeed, artistic impressions have been used throughout history to commend rulers, celebrate the victory of armies and to commemorate the moral rectitude of lost civilizations. And it is no accident that revolution and war have produced some of the world’s greatest works of art. The Death of Marat and Guernica are among the most notable examples of this phenomenon, paintings that offer their own commentary and yet can stand on their own as original works of art. Young Communards in Prison, in its way, is a work whose creator makes a statement through a unique sense of perspective, vision and balance, which come through powerfully in the sketch and yet do not diminish the subject being represented. Ultimately, this may be said to describe the essence of this particular mise-en-scene. Works Cited “Gustave Courbet (1819-1877): A Biography.” Musee d’Orsay, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2012 from http://www-musee-orsay.fr. Nyenhuis, Jacob E. Myth and the Creative Process: Michael Ayrton and the Myth of Daedalus, the Maze Maker. Detroit, MI: Wayne State Univ. Press, 2003. Zizek, Slavoj. Less than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism. London, UK: Verso Books, 2012. Read More