War and Art

Prehistoric communities fighting each other for the control of food and land gradually evolved into tribes and eventually lead to the formation of nations. In modern times, war is defined as the armed conflict between nations. Some time the conflict is between various groups inside the nation itself. These conflicts resulted in civil wars. The history of the world is primarily the history of war because the boundaries of nations were established through wars.

This violent method of solving conflicts between nations reached its pinnacle in the twentieth century in the form of two world wars. Millions of people got annihilated during those wars and many more got dispossessed from their home lands. With the development of nuclear weapons, the bloodshed during war crossed its limits. The Artists’ Muse
We always consider war as the mother of all evils. But even the worst things have a positive outcome. War is no exception. It leaves its footprints in art. For most artists, the turmoil generated by war functioned as stimuli in many ways:

For some artists war is only a subject with immense possibilities to exhibit their skill and control over the medium. The presentation of large number of figures in action presents the artists with a formidable technical challenge. Sometimes wars never fought also become the subject of art. In India, war described in the epic Mahabharata was a favourite subject for artists. M. F. Hussain’s famous Mahabaratha series is an excellent example of this kind. In western art there are so many works depicting Trojan War. ‘The building of Trojan horse’, a painting by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo richly illustrates a crucial scene from Homer’s ‘Illiad’. Even the artists of the prehistoric era, depicted the scenes of such conflicts on the walls of caves. The first recorded wars between organized armies fought by the city states of Sumer in the third millennium also leave such artistic remains on clay tablets.

Another genre of artists (usually commissioned by Rulers or inspired by the spirit of nationalism) celebrates war victories with their paintings and sculptures. The Assyrian clay relief (650BCE) which adorned the walls of the palace of the Assyrian Emperor Ashur Banipal at Ninnaveh celebrates the Assyrian triumph over the Elamites. ‘The Alexander mosaic’ (anonymous) of 333BCE, illustrating the victory of Alexander the Great over Darius III at the battle of Issus also is of this kind. Such paintings and reliefs simply neglect the horrors of war and glorify the achievements of the conquerors.

A third kind of artists use their artistic skills to attract the attention of their fellow beings towards the brutalities of wars. Paul Peter Ruben’s ‘The consequences of war’ belongs to this sort. Such works always support the pacificist movements all over the world and declare the social commitment of the respective artist. The most famous antiwar painting – Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ depicts the misery of modern war in general as for atrocity in the Spanish war. It was inspired by the bombing of the Basque civilian town Guernica by German bombers on 26 April 1937. Half of the town got devastated and nearly 1600 defenceless civilians lost their lives and many more got wounded. This tragic incident was the sole inspiration behind this great cubistic painting. It proclaims the dreadful consequences of war to the inhabitants of this planet.

Artists like Francisco de Goya use their medium to express the anxiety and pain experienced by them during the days of war. When he gets trapped in an era of darkness, Goya etched a series of 76 plates titled ‘The disasters of war’ which shares a disturbing insight into the monstrosities of Spanish war of independence (1810-14). A work by the surrealist Salvador Dali ‘Spain’ expresses the sorrow and distress felt by him during the Spanish civil war (1936-39) with the help of the universal language of art. A single stroke of brush by a talented artist can convey a lot more than a book on antiwar movement.

Art as Protest
In modern era, many artists use their brush as a means of protest, especially the Graffiti artists. They display their discontent on public places which can reach the public more effectively than a work exhibited in a gallery or a museum. If the Graffiti is photographed and shared in social media or published in print media then its impact will be unimaginable. This power is the root cause of repulsion experienced by Graffiti artists from authorities. Rulers usually treat them as antisocial elements, particularly during war or proxy war situations. During Vietnam War (1961- 73), an avalanche of such anti American- antiwar protest by the artists got triggered. These protests played a key role in the ultimate withdrawal of the American force from the Vietnamese soil. The undeclared war of Israel against helpless Palestinians also gets support from empathetic group of artists globally. ‘The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist’ (2018), a recreation of the stone statue of Lamassu by Michael Rakowitz at Trafalgar Square (London) also serves the same purpose. The original statue was destroyed by ISIS in the year-2015.

The impact of war on the movements in art is also worth mentioning. It is clearly visible in the post war era following the Second World War. Movements such as existentialism sprout from the chaos created by that Global disaster. In that dark period, humanity lost its faith on values and morals. The entropy of the time certainly reflects in the work of art during that era. War is always barbaric, but throughout the history, attempts have been made to control its excess. Artists play an important role in these pacifistic movements; directly or indirectly. ∎

Jerly K. J. (Jerly Mash, as affectionately called by his students) is a teacher, environmentalist, musician, painter, author, columnist and above all a great human being.