Artists works and the portrayal of evil in society

The work of artists who have expressed the evils in their society in an effort to bring about change

As artworks are instruments of communication, they usually convey some meaning or message.  And as artists are influence by the society, they are able to express their concerns through their art-making.  Picasso, Gittoes and Goya are artists who have expressed the evils in their society.  These artists have all reacted and witnessed the effects of atrocities and warfare; they were shocked by both the evils and strength of humanity and by exposing such scenes of horror to the audience they have brought about change.

After the atrocities that took place in the village of Guernica in 1937, Picasso was asked to paint a monumental mural in reference to the event.  This powerful painting captures Picasso’s horror at the brutal destruction that men commit against men.  This work’s symbolism is as powerful as its visual effect.  First of all, the monotone shades portray a great sense of agony which corresponds to the tortured figures’ horror.  This interpretation is supported by the distortion of the proportions of the animals and figures, which make them appear to be from a nightmare; also, the angles of the heads and the reaching arms give the sense of movement, again depicting their despair.  Picasso had divided the negative space into angular areas of shades grey and no one area seems to be emphasized more than another; this makes the mural appear to be balanced because the images and shapes span the entire surface.  This unifies the overall atmosphere of the image, sinking the figures in melancholy.  In this painting, the lamp represents the instrument of pain and violence with the light piercing jaggedly outward.  This may be interpreted as in irony by some since lights are generally understood as a symbol for hope and comfort; and this could be a reference to the violence brought about by those with power.  The juxtaposition of the horse and bull also brings out a contrast.  Representing the common people, the horse’s spiked tongue, rolling eye, franticly splayed toes and fingers, and the neck arched in spasm shows the horror and dreadfulness of the scene, whilst the bull can be understood as a symbol for the attacker’s brutality as it stands off to the side, apparently unharmed by the death and destruction around.  Here, the bull may be seen as a representation of Franco and the speared horse as the Spanish Republic.

It has been commented that “Picasso could imagine more suffering in a horse’s head than Rubens normally put into a whole crucifixion”.  As a result, Guernica received different opinions from the audience.  It was generally seen as a virtually official utterance by the Republican government of Spain when I was exhibited at the Paris World Exhibition.  Some felt that the work was too literal by simply exposing the moment of horror, whilst some feel that the explicit nature of it has delivered a strong

and clear message to the world.  Picasso has responded to the public reaction by making this statement:  “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols.  Otherwise it would be better if he wrote it out in so many words!  The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them.”  After years of controversy over Picasso’s Guernica, today, it has successfully brought about change in relation to people’s attitude towards violence as it is respected as a symbol for peace.

Although Picasso has chosen to express his awareness and concerns through the use of monotonic shades and Gittoes had done so with bright, striking colours, both of their works portray a great sense of despair and agony which calls for the audience’s emotional response.  As an Australian artist, Gittoes is able to walk into a foreign situation and be accepted as a neutral observer, seeing both sides of the conflict; he observes soldiers struggling with their guilt as well as the massacres.  Rwanda Maconde 1997 is the expression of the direct experiences of a pacifist.  Gittoes painted this work in order to shock the view into doing something positive about the ‘violence and evils of society’.  To allow his message to be easily understood by a wide audience, he has used bold central images and recognized symbols.  As an audience, the distortions, thick expressive brushwork and glaring colours of the work has caught our attention and engaged our senses.

Gittoes has added a grotesque sense of impression to his image, like the baby staring at us with his hands cut off with a machete and huge heads, enormous eyes and dismembered bodies are consistently seen in his images; as a result, we are compelled to have an emotional response to his artwork and are most likely to reflect upon the unjust principles of society.  Similar to Picasso’s Guernica, the main themes of this piece of artwork includes horror, pain, cruelty and loss, but it also carries with it the notion of courage and the strength of the human spirit.  The sensation of shock and horror carried out through the figures in his work are comparable to those in Guernica.  The expressionless eyes of the figures bear with them the impression of despair and helplessness.  The blue-green tone of the heads are disturbing for the viewers, with the combination of the figures’ purple-blue toned skin and the image of the merged heads they appear to be alien and diseased.  As the audience sees this as the result of violence of the world, we feel deterred from contributing to the world’s vehemence.  The juxtaposition of the cross in the top left-hand corner of the image with the alienated figures creates a stronger sense of despondency for the figures whilst carrying with it a feeling of bewilderment in relation to the faith in god.  This is because in an ideal situation god would be looking after all peoples of the world, yet ironically here they are committing atrocious acts against each other.  This symbol can be interpreted as a cultural reference to the religious beliefs that people have which has became meaningless in the practical world for the underprivileged.

Both Picasso’s Guernica and Gittoes’ Rwanda Maconde 1997 has expressed the evils in their society by revealing their feelings towards the atrocious acts that take place.  Because the audience needs to reflect upon the work in an attempt to understand the underlying messages of these works, they are required to think about issues relating to violence and the evil acts that men commit against men.  Whilst reflecting upon such issues, the artworks have influenced them as they are subjective and would generally bring about change, although assumptions cannot be made as to what kind of changes it has brought about.