When Art Irritates

Entropa exhibit.  Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Two years ago a controversial art piece was unveiled that still has tongues wagging.  Entropa: Stereotypes are barriers to be demolished was created by artist David Černý for a commission by the European Union to commemorate the Czech Republic's presidency of the Council of the EU.

Romania depicted as a Dracula theme park.  Image courtesy of the BBC.

Every six months a different country covers the presidency of the Council.  Prior to the Czech Republic, France held the position.  It is customary for the presiding country to erect an exhibit in the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels.  France offered a large balloon in the national colors of France.

Belgium as a half-eaten box of praline chocolates that have been bitten into.
Image courtesy of Tomáš Pirkl.

Černý chose to create a work that displayed negative stereotypes of all 27 EU member countries.  Each country is shaped like its real borders.  The depictions of each country range from harmless fun to rather risque innuendos.  

Poland with priests erecting a rainbow flag of the gay rights movement
on a field of potatoes, ala U.S. Marines at Iwo Jima.  Image courtesy of Pirkl.

The entire work measures 54' x 54', and weighs 8 tons.  Made of glass-reinforced plastic with joints made of steel, the entire work resembles an unassembled model kit with snap-out parts.  Černý claims that the Monty Python brand of humor influenced him.

Slovakia depicted as a wrapped Hungarian sausage.  Image courtesy of CT24.

The work was unveiled on January 12, 2009.  The next day Bulgaria's ambassador to the EU registered a protest on behalf of his country with the European Commission, and sent a formal protest to the Czech government demanding that the sculpture be taken down immediately.  The Bulgarian part of the piece was covered with black fabric on January 20th.

Bulgaria is shown to be composed of Turkish toilets.

The Bulgarian sculpture after it was covered up.
Both images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Czech officials defended the exhibit and stated that they wanted to avoid censorship as an expression of freedom.  Given the controversy they expected complaints from other countries, but few were forthcoming.

Malta with a dwarf elephant and a magnifying glass.  Image courtesy of Pirkl.

The Czech officials had a change of heart, however, when the evening of the unveiling Černý announced that he and two friends created the entire piece.  When the proposal was made to the Czech government, Černý had said that an artist from each country would create the piece for their respective countries.  They had even published a booklet listing each country's artist with résumés for the artists.  These ended up to be fake.  Černý stated that they had originally planned to contact artists but limited time and financing prevented it.  Once that fact was revealed, the Czech prime minister remarked that had they known that it would not have been authorized.

Portugal as a wooden cutting board with three pieces of meat shaped
like former colonies Angola, Brazil, and Mozambique.  Image courtesy of Pirkl.

Černý was accused of misappropriation of funds.  He claimed that since they knew they would be deviating from the proposal, the funds would be returned.  He also stated that the deception was part of the art.  In the end, it was decided to let the piece remain on exhibit, as it was "art, nothing more and nothing else".

Hungary as the Atomium, a monument in Brussels built for the 1958 World's Fair,
made of watermelons and sausages on a floor of peppers.  Image courtesy of antaldaniel.

No one seems to have denied that the stereotypes were true.  Blaming the art for the stereotypes doesn't cut it.  Since art reflects life, it is the way people think that is offensive, not an inanimate object.  Bravo for artists who dare to reflect shame and ugliness!

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For more of Černý's work click on his website.

Since last September, Entopa is part of the Pilsner

Science Center, Techmania.

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Political Posters

A poster of Joan of Arc turned into a tshirt for the Tea Party, the Hezbollah-like
faction of the Republican Party who resents government involvement in
economics but seeks it to impose their social and lifestyle choices.  Even their
names have a similar self-righteousness - Hezbollah means "Party of God" in Arabic.

Despite other media - the press, radio, and television - political posters remain an efficient way of communication.  Because of their graphic nature, these posters seem to break through the barriers of language and can be understood by an international audience...

Confrontation & Reflexion by Bangqian Zheng of China.
This poster won first place in the Third Biennial of the
Socio-Political Post in Óswiecim.  On cover of Ós Óswiecim.

The arts - music, theater, literature, poetry, posters - have always had a central role in any movement for social change.  Posters, however, seem to be almost intuitive in their comprehension.  Using bold images and often cutting edge graphic design, posters are at once both an advertisement and historical document of social issues.

Eat by Tomi Ungerger, offset, 1967.
Image courtesy of www.politicalgraphics.org.

No Nukes in the Pacific by Pam Debenham/Tin Sheds Art Workshop
silkscreen, 1984, courtesy of politicalgraphics.

Some say that all art is political.  While that may be true, not all art is openly and intentionally so.  Posters range from raw and disturbing to polished and refined. Although produced in numbers, few survive.  A wide variety of methods are used to print them - offset, silkscreen, stencil, woodcut, lithograph and even photocopy.

Built to Spill by Justin La Fontaine, freelance graphic designer.

By T. Forman/Fireworks Graphics/Inkworks Press, 1989.
Image courtesy of politicalgraphics.

By Martin Lindsay/Allied Printing, 2005.
Image courtesy of politicalgraphics.

Posters communicate immediately and directly.  One can be literate or illiterate and still comprehend their meaning.  Posters have the ability to inflame, outrage, produce compassion, humor, and cause reflection. They cause emotional reactions. They also empower movements by instantly transmitting the hopes, dreams, and purposes of a cause.  From time to time I will be sharing the posters I come across...

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Honoring the Soul of Posada

El Mosquito Americano.  An illustration and verse critical
of U.S. imperialism where the U.S. is likened to a mosquito.

Artists, like writers, can be important political tools.  Both often are punished for their work, and they often die penniless, unnoticed, and never knowing what effect their work has had on the overall scheme of things.  One of these unsung champions is José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), a Mexican artist, illustrator and cartoonist.

Importantisimo milagro.  A miracle performed by

the Virgin of Guadalupe in response to the pleas

of a devout man, Nicolas Gutierrez, on behalf

of his wife who was suffering from chest pains.

Posada learned engraving and lithography as a young teenager, and while still a teen worked for a local newspaper, El Jicote (The Bumblebee), as a political cartoonist.  As the story goes, one of his cartoons so inflamed a local politician, Jesús Gómez Portugal, that the newspaper was shut down after eleven issues.

Explotador del Pueblo.  This political print deals with
labor abuses and the concentration of power.  The central
figure is likely a specific hacendado (landowner) of the
time.  Two caricatured men ride away on a donkey
while laborers toil in the background.

He moved to a new town and set up a print shop, where he became involved in commercial work, book illustration, and printing posters of religious and historical figures.  He also taught lithography at a local school.  When the town was flooded in 1888, he relocated to Mexico City.  He got work at a publishing company of the famous liberal journalist Ireneo Paz, whose grandson is the Nobel Prize-winning author, Octavio Paz. 

Corrido de la vida de Santanón (1911).  Pictoral broadside with an 
image and corrido narrative ballad addressing the life of
Santana Rodríguez (Santamón) - a Mexican Robin Hood-style
bandit in the state of Veracruz during the Porfirian era 
who was eventually captured by rurales (campesinos ).

El Dulcero Mexicano.  This is the cover
for a 16 page chapbook containing
recipes for Mexican desserts, depicting
a man wearing an apron, making sweets
in a kitchen.

In 1892, he went to work for Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, a publisher of newspapers, periodicals, and chapbooks for the general public.  These were cheap and distributed by the thousands, although not many have survived.  Because they were illustrated even the illiterate could understand them. During this time Posada moved away from lithography, using instead zinc, wood and type metal for the purpose of a cheaper way of printmaking.  Posada worked prodigiously for Arroyo and on his own, and had to open two more workshops.  Although he was never considered a “fine” artist, his work was important to the general public, giving historians a nice glimpse into their lives and thoughts.  He never went to an art academy, having learned his skills through apprenticeships, so was not regarded a “real” artist by his contemporary art world.

José Guadalupe Posada by Leopoldo Méndez (1960).  An offset lithograph from the portfolio 
450 Years of Struggle: Homage to the Mexican People honoring Posada, who initiated the
printmaking tradition in Mexico.  Here he is depicted in his workshop capturing the scene of
military oppression taking place outside of his window.  

Untitled (Guadalupe after Posada), Rafael López Castro, 1984.
This serigraph is based on Posada's A Nuestra Señora de
Guadalupe showing her surrounded by four medallions that
illustrate her apparitions.  Besides adding color to the original
black and white print, Castro substituted the image of
Emiliano Zapata for the supporting angel.

The Porfirio Díaz dictatorship was the target of a number of authors and illustrators who  delivered anti-establishment messages and cartoons to the public. Díaz was originally a liberal and progressive, but during his 35-year dictatorship he focused on the elite landowners and ignored the underprivileged lower classes.  Posada was a very outspoken critic of the Díaz government, and used his skills in political satire.  He supported Emiliano Zapata, and portrayed him as a noble hero.  Using the Dia de los Muertos festivities as a theme, Posada staged shows with puppet skeletons who were dressed in the latest fashions, emulating the rich.  His shows and artwork used macabre humor to skewer politics and the elite class, and he was jailed several times for these satires.

Despotados al Valle Nacional.  Indigenous 
men and women are being herded 
by men in military uniforms towards a train.  

Forgotten by the time of his death, he received some international attention in the 1920s when the French artist Jean Charlot discovered his work.  Diego Rivera and the muralist José  Clemente Orozco claimed Posada as an influence, as well as other more modern artists.  Posada was given a pauper’s burial, and his bones were eventually dug up and dispensed with.  Sadly, the man most associated with Dia de los Muertos was not and can never be honored at a gravesite during this commemoration.  I chose to honor him with this post.

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(Images courtesy of the University of New Mexico’s

Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections)
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