Art Activism In The Digital Age
By Deanna Balestra for the Carl Kruse Blog For the past 100 years, we’ve fully embraced art in political activism with painting, sculptures, live demonstrations, and more. In fact, being enraged seems to be a driving force in some artwork, an opening of flood gates to release anger. Activist art is also meant to draw attention, share perspective, and even change minds when possible. Historic Examples Of Art Activism Throughout history, there have been marginalized people given a voice through artistic expression. Art has also been an outlet for crying out against unjust governments and societal inequalities. Diego Rivera created murals protesting Mexican politics in the 1920's and 30's. His paintings were attacks on the ruling class, capitalism, and churches. Rivera wanted to protect worker’s rights and promote socialism. Diego Rivera, Peasants Yayoi Kusama did live protest performance art, often using nude subjects, to protest the Vietnam War.