These two articles and the video all share the idea of propaganda in art. The first one deals with the subject of socialist realism, where the Soviets glorified every day life to promote their state and the government. This completely changed the arts in the Soviet Union by shifting dramatically towards realism to the extent that abstraction basically died out. It wasn't until the struggles of war and repression became so obvious they were hard to ignore. At first, socialist realism wasn't really regarded as a form of art. It was sold cheaply and seen mainly as kitsch. In recent years, however, there has been an attempted revival as people believe it is a legitimate art form and part of the world's history.
The second article reports on ISIS using other peoples artwork to create propaganda. This reminded me of Donald Trumps campaign video which was from Africa not the southern border of the United States, yet he still used it as propaganda. Lastly, the North Korean propaganda video isn't exactly art, or fine art in the way the previous two are, but is still a form of propaganda.
The main question these readings bring up for me is the difference between art and propaganda. This has been a controversial topic for many years and still isn't yet resolved. As the first article mentioned, at first the art was sold off to tourists because it was solely regarded as propaganda, but now it has become history. It makes us think, what are the distinctions between art, propaganda, historical artifacts, advertising, etc. This brings us to the even more vague question art I teachers always ask us about "What is art?"
The second article reports on ISIS using other peoples artwork to create propaganda. This reminded me of Donald Trumps campaign video which was from Africa not the southern border of the United States, yet he still used it as propaganda. Lastly, the North Korean propaganda video isn't exactly art, or fine art in the way the previous two are, but is still a form of propaganda.
The main question these readings bring up for me is the difference between art and propaganda. This has been a controversial topic for many years and still isn't yet resolved. As the first article mentioned, at first the art was sold off to tourists because it was solely regarded as propaganda, but now it has become history. It makes us think, what are the distinctions between art, propaganda, historical artifacts, advertising, etc. This brings us to the even more vague question art I teachers always ask us about "What is art?"