The document explores the concept of political art and the role of committed artists throughout history, showcasing a variety of artworks and their socio-political implications. It includes notable pieces from artists like Ilya Repin, Pablo Picasso, and Käthe Kollwitz, demonstrating how art has responded to social issues and movements. Additionally, it references historical events and protests, highlighting the intersection of art and activism.

1. Art and Commitment
What is political art?
What is a committed artist?

2. Ilya Repin, Ploughman (Tolstoy), 1887.
Felix Vallotton. Leo Tolstoy
(La Revue blanche), 1895.

3. Henri Cartier-Bresson,
Sartre, 1946.
Wols, Untitled (Sartre) from the
series Visages, 1948.

4. Jacques-Louis David, The Death of
Marat, 1793.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The
Swing, 1767.

5. David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784.

6. Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to Her
Children as Her Treasures, c. 1785.

7. David, The Death of Marat, 1793.

8. Engraved by James Aliprandi (after
Domenico Pellegrini), The Death of
John Paul Marat, 1794.
A. L. Dumoulin, Death of Marat, n.d.

9. Unknown, Death mask of Marat,
n.d.
David, Drawing of Marat’s
Death Mask, n.d.

10. George Hatot (Lumière Company), Film still from Marat, 1897.

11. Pablo Picasso, The Death of Marat, 1934.

12. Robert Wilson, Lady Gaga/Death of Marat, 2013.

13. Vik Muniz, from Pictures of Garbage, 2008.

14. David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801.

15. Francisco Goya, Third of May, 1808, 1814.

16. Goya, Disasters of War series, 1810-1820.

17. J.M.W. Turner, Slave Ship, 1840.

18. John Constable, Hay Wain, 1821.

19. Jean-François Millet, Gleaners, 1857.

20. Millet, Man with a Hoe, 1863.

21. Millet, Sower, 1850.

22. Portal, Saint-Lazare, Autun, France (details), 12th century CE.

23. Portal, Saint-Lazare, Autun,
France (detail), 12th century CE.
Millet, Gleaners, 1857.

24. Limbourg Brothers, Les Très
Riches Heures du Duc de Berry,
1412–6.
Millet, Sower, 1850.

25. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Corn Harvest (August), 1565.

26. Van Gogh, Sower with Setting Sun, 1888.

27. Dorothea Lange, Florence Thompson with two of her seven children in a
California migrant camp, 1936, and Filipinos Harvesting Lettuce, 1935.

28. Thomas Hart Benton, July Hay, 1943.
Diego Rivera, Maguey, Agave, and Sisal
Plants (mural detail), Palacio Nacional de
Mexico, 1951.

29. A. Plotnov, Gather All Harvest in
Time, 1945.
Weng Yizhi, The hogs of the
commune must be raised to be fat
and big! 1956.

30. Gustave Courbet, Stonebreakers, 1849.

31. Honoré Daumier, Gargantua, 1832.

32. Daumier, Rue Transnonain, 1834.

33. Daumier, Third Class Carriage, 1862–4.

34. Daumier, Untitled cartoon, n.d.

35. Claude Monet, Boulevard des Capucines, 1873.

36. Charles Marville, Photographs of Paris, n.d.

37. Edgar Degas, Ironers, 1884.

38. Degas, In a Café (Absinthe), 1873.

39. Picasso, Woman Ironing, 1904.

40. Picasso, Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1906.
Mask, Fang culture,
Gabon, 19th century CE.

41. Picasso, Bottle of Suze, 1912.

42. Picasso, Guernica, 1937.

43. Picasso, Guernica (detail), 1937. Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498–9.

44. Kazimir Malevich, Peasant Woman with Buckets and Woodcutter, 1912.

45. Malevich, Sketches for Victory Over the Sun, 1913.

46. Malevich, Red and Black Square, 1915.

47. Malevich, Design for a Book Jacket and Speaker’s Backdrop for the
Committees on Rural Poverty, 1918.

48. Soviet agit-prop trains, c. 1910s.

49. Soviet agit-prop trains, c. 1910s.

50. El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919.

51. El Lissitzky, “The New Man,” design for Victory Over the Sun, 1921.

52. El Lissitzky, Russische Ausstellung, 1929.

53. Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third
International, 1919–20.

54. Replica of Monument to the Third International on parade on May Day,
Leningrad, 1925.

55. Käthe Kollwitz, Outbreak, 1903.

56. Kollwitz, "Brot!” 1924.

57. Kollwitz, "Never Again War," 1924.

58. Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830.

59. Max Pechstein, Call to All Artists, 1919.

60. Otto Dix, The Art of War, 1924.

61. Gustav Klutsis, “We will fulfill the plan of great endeavors,” 1930.

62. World War II-era recruiting
poster, United States.

63. Vietnam War and Civil Rights-era posters and photographs, c. 1960s–70s.

64. Situationist slogans and public demonstrations, Paris, May 1968.

65. Poster from Occupy Wall Street movement, c. 2011.

66. Posters from Occupy Wall Street movement, c. 2011.

67. Posters from Black Lives Matter movement, c. 2012.