The Terry Project Podcast #14: The Art of War
In this week’s episode of the Terry Project Podcast, The Art of War: A Visual History of Propaganda and Dissent since the Bombing of Guernica. Visiting host Eric Wright and Sam Fenn speak to historians, critics and artists about those works of art that hang like spectres in the halls of power and have galvanized antiwar movements–from the bombing of Guernica in 1937 to the Invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Hosted by: Erik Wright and Sam Fenn
Produced by: Gordon Katic, Sam Fenn, Jordan Fernandez, and Chirag Mahajan
Research Assistants: Alexa Gygax, Emily Holzman, Kamil Somaratne, Katherine Tyson, Lauren Mak, Marion Benkaiouche, Miguel Testa, Rachel Gutman, So Young Chang, Stephanie Kelly
Marketing Coordinators: Jessica Tam and Kevin Lam
Technical Assistance: Jacqueline Siu
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Chapter One: The Price of War. Theodore K. Rabb a professor emeritus of history at Princeton university tells us his theory on how the severing of artists from commission led history’s greatest artistic masters to gradually move away from painting glorious depictions of generals and battles and, instead, began to use their art to oppose war.
Chapter Two: A Genealogy of Guernica. UBC Professor Eli Goicoechea and writer and museum consultant Reesa Greenberg place Pablo Picasso’s famous anti-war paintings in their historical perspective. How did the advent of totalitarian politics in the 1930s and 40s shape modern art? We discuss Picasso’s iconic Guernica and its legacy.
Then, Chapter Three: “Even More Total.” We discuss totalitarian art and dehumanization with scholars Willard Bohn and David Livingstone Smith.
In Chapter 4 we speak with Carol Wells, the curator and founding director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, about a highly publicized conflict between the Italian street artist Blu and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Wells also walks us through a history of visual dissent in America through some of the most iconic images in her massive collection of antiwar posters and pamphlets.
Finally, in chapter five we talk to Scott Waters and Michael Markowsky two Canadian artists both of whom who have given the title “Canada’s official War Artist” by the Canadian Forces.
Gordon Katic was away, but this is a good one nevertheless!
