Art and Revolution: Exploring Political Themes in 20th Century Art Movements

Dominated by political upheaval, two world wars, and wide-ranging social reform, the 20th century also witnessed art’s power to convey political messages and incite change. Engaging directly with political issues, artists helped shape political consciousness and promote change across a diverse array of movements during a century of incredible flux.

The 20th century was typified by wide-ranging change and art was there throughout to hold a mirror to a range of political themes. Artists challenged the world around them as they critiqued war and consumerism, advocated for social justice, and rallied for equality.

Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, and Keith Haring all addressed social and political issues, while classical art was challenged as waves of nationalism and imperialism spread over the world in the early half of the 20th century. And these changes were boldly reflected in the works by a series of revolutionary artists and movements.

Dadaism

Emerging from the ashes of World War I, Dadaism was a negative reaction to the horrors and folly of war, as artists rejected the logic, reason, and aestheticism they believed had led to the conflict. Inherently political, Dada art critiqued the absurdity of the modern world in a satirical and nonsensical manner.

“Revolted by the butchery of the 1914 World War, we in Zurich devoted ourselves to the arts. While the guns rumbled in the distance, we sang, painted, made collages and wrote poems with all our might,” wrote Hans Arp.

Anti-war, anti-bourgeois, and anti-nationalist, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, and Hannah Höch all expressed the absurdity of the world around them. In particular, Hannah Höch’s Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (1919) photomontage showed a vision of the chaotic Weimar society at the time and reflected the political focus of the Dadaism.

New Objectivity

Driven by a fiercely critical view of society and its failures, New Objectivity’s searing artistic realism blew away the romantic and utopian ideals of Expressionism in the pre-World War II years, with Otto Dix and George Grosz unflinchingly exposing the horrors during one of the most tumultuous times in German history.

Disillusioned by war, a group of artists mercilessly held a mirror up to life in Weimar society in highly naturalistic and caustically satirical paintings. They “wanted to see things quite naked, clearly, almost without art,” according to Dix, who along with Max Beckmann and Grosz used caricature, satire, Neoclassicism, and Surrealism to portray politicians and society with unflinching honesty.

Dix and Grosz’s hard-hitting realism exposed the effects of war and corruption. This effort to paint the truth along with any unflattering details can be seen in Dix’s portrayal of injured soldiers in Kartenspieler (Cardplayers), 1920, while Beckmann represents emaciated figures in abject poverty in Die Holle: Der Hunger (Hell: Hunger), 1919, and Grosz shows ugly power, corruption and Nazi collusion in Die Besitzkroten (Toads of Property).

Cubism

One of the most groundbreaking movements of the early-20th century, Cubism was the result of rapid experimentation between Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Challenging Renaissance depictions of space with non-representation, Cubism was varied in its political affiliations, with anarchists, leftist, an nationalists all embracing the movement, but it was Picasso who most memorably captured the atrocities of war.

Responding to the conflict during the Spanish Civil War, Picasso’s Guernica depicts the terror and chaos following the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by fascists in support of Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces.

Created in 1937, the large-scale mural powerfully and poignantly represents the atrocities of war. Conveying disorientation and fragmentation, Picasso’s Cubist style and monochromatic palette has helped it become a powerful tool for anti-war movements and peace activists around the world.

Pop Art

Emerging in the 1950s, Pop Art flourished in the following decade as it skewered consumer culture and the mass media, reflecting the widespread influence of capitalism and commodification in everyday life.

Searching for something representative of their lives, artists turned to films, advertising, product packaging, pop music, and comic books for inspiration, with Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol using mass-produced imagery to highlight the commodification of art and the commercialization of society.

Lichtenstein embodied these ideals. One of his most enduring pieces, Whaam! is taken from a 1962 panel of the DC comic, All-American Men of War. Created when America was on the verge of war in Vietnam, Whaam! could be seen as a criticism of desensitisation to violence, or of Hollywood’s romanticisation of war, or even a parody of military glory in US propaganda.

Street Art

With its roots in graffiti culture, Street Art’s public canvas often addresses political and social issues directly. Unencumbered by gallery walls, Street Art found a captive audience in the late 20th century, thanks to Keith Haring,Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Banksy, who have all expressed political and social disenchantment. Haring’s trademark murals of figures and symbols have proved particularly powerful tools of social activism to advocate for AIDS awareness, and anti-crack and anti-apartheid themes.

Combining elements of art and graffiti, Street Art’s subversive presence has spread from walls and subway trains to become a global phenomenon that has illuminated the Berlin Wall and cities across the world with murals and designs of arresting visual power and social conscience.

Influenced by Diego Rivera’s large frescoes that championed his socialist ideals, Street Art has often represented the voice of the everyman thanks to its aesthetic appeal and messages of anti-authoritarianism, social justice, anti-capitalism.

Activist Art

Explicitly supporting political or social change, and often associated with civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmental activism, Activist Art has dynamically harnessed artistic creativity to move its audience to bring about social change. It’s art on a mission to make a difference to public life, with artists working with communities to generate art that addresses political or social issues.

It could be art that challenges racism, sexism, or war. The common dominator is a desire to bring about change, and today’s artistic activists have a number of pioneers to thank. Opposition to the Vietnam War lit a creative fire in many, including Peter Saul, Norman Carlberg, and Nancy Spero, and produced artworks that raised awareness and called for responsibility.

“An artist must be an activist,” explained Ai Weiwei, who has used his art to critique the Chinese government’s stance on democracy and human rights, while the Guerrilla Girls’ forthright approach to exposing sexual and racial discrimination has made them a powerful presence in Activist Art.

Galvanizing Presence

In a century that witnessed incredible social and political change, art has reflected political realities, as artists critiqued war and consumerism, advocated for social justice, and called for equality. Not only raising awareness of these themes, art in the 20th century has shaped public opinion and mobilized support for political causes.

Instrumental in communicating political messages and rallying support for various causes as waves of nationalism and imperialism spread over the world, art has promoted social justice and challenged oppressive regimes, and even been used by those in power to advance their own agendas. In a time of great change, art’s versatility in expressing ideas and political themes represents the power of the image and has helped us gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between art and power.