Drawing Protest
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, 19.10.2013–19.01.2014 DRAWING PROTEST Exhibition Newspaper WILLIAM HONE & GEORGE CRUIKS- GUSTAVE COURBET, H. BALLING, HANK, “THESE ARE THE PEOPle”, THE “VIVE LA REPUBlique”, “Mrs WOODHULL ASSERTING 1525 POLITICAL HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, WOOD ENGRAVING, LE SALUT HER RIGHT TO VOte”, WOOD ENGRAVING, LONDON 1819 PUBLIC NO.2., PARIS 1848 WOOD ENGRAVING, HARPER´S WEEKLY, – 11/25/1871 1970 A commented picture spread by Alexander Roob with The wood engraving for Charles Baudelaire’s journal on the revolution of 1848 was made after material from the archive of a drawing by Gustave Courbet. It alludes to Delacroix’ iconic depiction of “La Liberté guidant the Melton Prior Institute, le peuple” from 1830. At the fore is the motif of the barricade as a symbol of resistance. In 1871 the well-known suffragette, journalist and stockbroker Victoria Düsseldorf Woodhull protested not only against being denied electoral rights, a short while later she also self-confidently stood as the first female presidential candidate. The subject of the enormously popular illustrated pamphlet is the Anon., “L´ATTAQUE so-called Peterloo massacre. A large demonstration for freedom of ALFRED LE PETIT, expression and universal suffrage was bloodily suppressed by A´ LÁBRI DES BOUchers”, EDITORIAL BARTHEL BEHAM, cavalry troops on St. Peters Field near Manchester. “Peterloo” (an L´ILLUSTRATION, WOOD “A Choisir!”, GILLOTAGE, “Der WELT LAuf”, COppER allusion to Waterloo) became an icon of liberalism and the early ENGRAVING, PARIS 1848 LE GRELOT, PARIS, Drawing is an artistic medium that has gained ENGRAVING, NUREMBERG 1525 workers’ movement, distributed in innumerous prints. For the first 06/23/1872 time, the depiction of a demonstration became the subject of critical new importance in the wake of the global illustrated journalism, thus lending protest itself an image. protest movements in recent years. One par- ticularly exciting new development is artistic WILLIAM HONE & reportage using drawings executed directly GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, on location, which capture a wide variety of “THE FREEBORN ENGLISHMan”, opinions and concerns and are subsequently IN: A SLAP AT SLOP AND THE published in printed and online media. There BRIDGE STREET GANG, are more and more drawn images cropping WOOD ENGRAVING, up on blogs or on artists' Websites that depict LONDON 1821 the global protests of the past two years with artistic means, and thus tell subjective stories. The artist Barthel Beham from Nuremberg belonged to a group of DRAWING PROTEST explores the importance social-revolutionary artists from the circle of Dürer that was influ- of reportage drawings in the context of Euro- enced by Thomas Müntzer, the theologian of the peasants’ liberation. pean protest movements: What added value The graphic expresses his deep despair in face of the suppression of the Peasants’ Revolts. Beham’s political Melencholia depicts Justitia is produced by pictures based on the artists’ chained and powerless. The fox, which at times was interpreted as direct participation, which consequently goes the symbol of counter-revolutionary Martin Luther, has wrested the beyond an “objective” documentation of executioner’s sword from her and now strikes terror among the defenseless creatures. The revolution of 1848 was the firt uprising that could be documented events? Can the personified representation by the illustrated daily press. The use of photographs can already be of political and social protests change public established in individual press graphics of the time. This lent the perceptions thereof or influence decision- ANON., “Man MUSS HOFFEN, visualization of protest a prosaic, retinal dimension. making processes? On the other hand, the DASS DIES SPIEL BALD ENDet” project explores novel forms and formats as (ONE MUST HOPE THAT THIS ALFRED RETHEL, “AUCH EIN well as the issues targeted by protests in GAME WILL END SOON), TODTENTANZ, VIERTES BLAtt” (ALSO The protest against censorship measures also repeatedly prompted Europe: Which forms of expression are se- COLORED ETCHING, PARIS 1789 A DANSE MACABRE, FOURTH SHEET), the graphic artists of French caricature magazines to astounding, revolutionary pictorial inventions. Alfred Le Petit, for example, lected and employed for purposes of protest WOOD ENGRAVING, LEIPZIG 1849 circumvents the pre-censorship’s prohibition of images by reducing in our day? What exactly is a modern-day the sketch to its compositional skeleton and protest? What dynamics do the protest conveying the content as pure text. movements have? What specificity do the mass movements possess? Artists can achieve immediateness in their reporting by going to protests in person, The picture of enslaved freedom of expression alludes to a number of convictions of radical-liberal publicists. The often circulated motif becoming involved and creating artistic docu- goes back to a caricature from the circle of repeatedly imprisoned ments on the spot. They record what they see, Thomas Spence in the 1790s. feel and hear so that they can post reports THOMAS NAST, online by the next day at the latest. This is the HONORÉ DAUMIER, “NAY, PATIENCE, way Enrique Flores works in Madrid and Vic- “C‘étAIT VRAIMENT BIEN LA PEINE OR WE BREAK THE SINEWS toria Lomasko in Moscow. Their protest docu- DE NOUS FAIRE tuer!” (SO THIS IS ALL WE (SHAKESPeare)”, mentations differ both from the official press GOT OURSELVES KILLED FOR!), WOOD ENGRAVING, photos and film footage and from snapshots LITHOGRAPHY, LA CARICATURE N° 251, HARPERS WEEKLY, taken by the protesters themselves. PARIS 08/27/1835 NEW YORK, 05/05/1877 The question as to whether artistic images During the times of the French Revolution, protest was not expressed The sequence of wood engravings by the Nazarene history painter, that formulate a subjective perception merit frontally in pictures either, but preferably in an allegorical or emble- which demonizes protest as a destructive force, ranks among the more credibility today than photography – matic form. What was widespread in all kinds of variations was the internationally most influential products of counter-revolutionary which has successively replaced the drawn system-critical image of a social context thrown out of joint, with image propaganda. the third estate threatening to collapse under the weight of the fat news image since the beginning of the 20th nobility and clergy. century – was one of the starting points for GUSTAVE DORÉ, “COMMUNARD”, LINE the exhibition “Tauchfahrten (Diving Trips) – JAMES GILLRAY, “THE ZENITH BLOCK, VERSAILLES ET PARIS EN 1871 Drawing as Reportage”. This exhibition was an OF FRENCH GLORY: THE PINNACLE D´APRES LES DESSINS ORIGINAUX, important milestone for the genre of reporta- OF LIBerty”, AQUATINT ETCHING, PARIS 1907 ge drawing in German-speaking countries. As LONDON 1793 a result, the curators, the artist Alexander Roob and the art historian and curator Clemens Krümmel, founded the Melton Prior Institute, which researches the international history of reportage drawing. In the light of the many suppression mechanisms with which the July The exhibition newspaper “Drawing Protest” Monarchy sought to stabilize its power, the victims of the revolution combines drawing reportages by Victoria that it had caused rise is horror from their graves. Together with other Lomasko and Enrique Flores from Moscow draftsmen of the legendary satirical magazine, Daumier created the motif of the defensive, heroic proletarian, which decades later went and Madrid with analytical perspectives and on to make a career in socialist journalism. approaches by sociologists Alexander Bikbov, Carles Feixa and Carlos Taibo, and with histo- WILHELM KLEINENBROICH, rical theoretical research on the drawn image “Der neue ProMetheus” focusing on protests, crisis situations, revolu- (THE NEW PROMETHEUS), tions and wars by Alexander Roob and LITHOGRAPHY, Victoria Lomasko. The newspaper also DÜSSELDORF, 1842 includes drawings on the resistance topic No artist had more political influence than the North American press 2003–2013 by Dan Perjovschi which links the During the tribunals against the Parisian communards in Versailles, illustrator Thomas Nast with his cartoon campaigns against the exhibition newspaper with the mutual space the popular illustrator drew a series of vitriolic character studies. Democratic Party, against anarchy, communism, corruption, excesses installation by Perjovschi with ARTIST'S The publication, which appeared only decades later, includes portrait of the financial markets, and environmental pollution. studies of both the members of the Versailles administration and PROOF, the interdisciplinary student group combatants of the Commune. that regularly uses drawing as an integrative, ANON., “THE GREAT Strike – interdisciplinary artistic medium. The instal- THE SIXTH MARYLAND REGIMENT The insurgents themselves were not interested in spreading pictures ARTHUR BOYD HOUGHTON, lation is dedicated to the reflection of artistic of the revolt. Instead, images that depicted the outrage or the FIGHTING ITS WAY THROUGH “PARIS UNDER THE COMMune – work in and beyond contemporary protest overthrow itself belonged to the repertory of the counter-propagan- BALTIMore”, WOOD ENGRAVING, da. In James Gillray’s caricature, the revolutionary events are shown WOMen’s CLUB AT THE BOULE NOIRE, and also to the symbolic, protest-related and HARPER´S WEEKLY, NEW YORK, as the spawn of a mad mob. BOULEVARD ROCHECHOUart”, cognitive powers of the art. 08/11/1877 WOOD ENGRAVING, THE GRAPHIC,