Drawings in Lascaux Cave, Warhol Soup Cans and Other Paintings That Changed the World

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Usually, an object of art is viewed from the point of view of entertainment - it pleases the eye, can cheer up or entertain a person. But art is also capable of making real changes in the world. Pablo Picasso once even said: “No, painting is not done to decorate a home. She is a tool of war to attack and defeat the enemy! Several works throughout history have completely changed the way people think about politics, social issues, and even art itself.

1. Lascaux caves, 17,000 years ago

One of the oldest paintings in the world made a splash, but it happened 17,000 years after it was painted. In 1940, a group of young people took a tour of a cave in a French village. Inside it, they discovered one of the most unusual examples of prehistoric art in the world. While not the oldest example of rock carvings, it is one of the earliest examples of exquisite painting, demonstrating that people have always strived for art.

2. Research of the fetus in the womb. c.1510, Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is considered a real genius thanks to his works, but today we will not talk about just one of them (more precisely, not about the one that can be seen in art galleries). "Research on the fetus in the womb" may have had a greater impact on the world than "Mona Lisa" or "The Last Supper." With his anatomical drawings based on real autopsies, Leonardo challenged the moral and artistic conventions. Leonardo's discoveries and methods changed the way artists and scientists studied the human body.

3. Meninas. 1656, Diego Velazquez

This is not a standard court painting. In this portrait of Princess Margherita Teresa and her "Menin" (maid of honor), Spanish artist Diego Velazquez raised complex issues of illusion and reality, as well as the uncertainty of the connection between the viewer and the characters. For example, the picture shows not only the 5-year-old Infanta Margarita with the maids of honor, but also her parents - King Philip IV of Spain and Marianne of Austria. Their reflection can be seen in the mirror on the back wall. Also on the canvas is the artist himself (to the left of the scene at the easel). The influence of Velazquez's painting on the history of art was enormous. It was the above questions that gave birth to Cubism 250 years later, and Picasso was so fascinated by the Meninos that he wrote 58 versions of this painting.

4. Death of Marat. 1793, Jacques-Louis David

This painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David can be considered the first truly political canvas. It depicts the aftermath of the assassination of revolutionary leader Jean Paul Marat, who was stabbed to death in his bathroom. David essentially decided to make his dead friend an icon of political propaganda. And he succeeded quite well, since they began to make engravings on the picture, which became widespread among the public.

5. Olympia. 1863, Edouard Manet

This example of radical "nude" is often seen as a rejection of patriarchal views in art. In fact, Edouard Manet's painting is based on the Renaissance artist Titian's "Venus of Urbino", which became famous for its shocking sexuality. But there are significant differences in it. Firstly, Olympia, unlike Venus, looks directly into the eyes of the viewer, which many considered extremely provocative. And secondly, her hand closes access to the genitals, and does not lie on them in the gesture of "invitation".

6. Black square. 1915, Kazimir Malevich

Many people think the hype surrounding this picture is silly and absolutely not worth it. In some ways they are right, because it is really just a black square. But the work of Kazimir Malevich is considered the first painting in which nothing is depicted at all. The artist wanted to completely abandon the idea that art should depict reality or the imaginary. Malevich's painting and ideas continued to inspire countless artists throughout the twentieth century, and were also the foundation upon which many abstract and conceptual art movements were created. Of course, they did not change the world, but they managed to change art forever.

7. Campbell's soup cans. 1962, Andy Warhol

In contrast to the previous picture, this work by Andy Warhol was made in honor of a very specific product. And the one that you least expect to see in the picture. Andy Warhol set out to transform what Americans saw every day into a gallery-worthy piece of art. At the same time, the artist also managed to question many ideas related to art.

8. Guernica. 1937, Pablo Picasso

No piece has become as important a symbol of anti-war movements as this heartbreaking painting by Pablo Picasso. The artist depicted in his work the night bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The government of the Spanish Republic commissioned Picasso to create a work of art about this terrible event for the World Exhibition in Paris. Today, a replica of this painting, the size of a full-length tapestry, hangs at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

9. The problem we all live with. 1964, Norman Rockwell

Illustrator Norman Rockwell made a career out of portraying ordinary American life in the mid-20th century, both good and bad. The painting, painted in 1964, shows a black girl named Ruby Bridges on her way to a white-only school. The girl is accompanied by law enforcement officers because of the racial hatred caused by the fact that she was allowed to study at such a school. She also walks past the racial slurs written on the walls. The painting became a true icon of the Civil Rights Movement, and Barack Obama hung it on the wall when he invited Bridges to meet him at the White House in 2011.

10. Do women have to be naked to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1989, Guerilla Girls

The Guerilla Girls are an anonymous group of artists who work with a very specific purpose. For the past thirty years, they have been fighting racism and sexism in the art world with their works. They do this simply by stating the facts. In this case, the fact is that "less than 5% of the artists in the Contemporary Art section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are women, but 85% of the naked people in the paintings are women." This poster has become a symbol of the advancement of women in art institutions.

11. Lord, help me survive among this mortal love. 1990, Dmitry Vrubel

In 1979, the famous photograph was taken of the Secretary General of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev and the leader of the GDR Erich Honecker, who merged in a "socialist brotherly kiss." Artist Dmitry Vrubel decided to paint this image on the Berlin Wall, accompanied by a contradictory epithet. This painting is a symbol of how art can be an expression of the power of people who can change the direction of politics.