Art and war can sound complete opposites — war oppresses and destroys while art creates. But they actually coexist and war is a crucible of art. Art has been used in war situations in a number of ways…before, during and after. Why? Because art is an influencer of thought that reaches all segments of societies and sends out a powerful message for or against warmongering. It provokes, so it can change the way people feel and think.
War art can be made to support it, oppose it, to demoralise opponents and to recover from the catastrophe of it. Artists blend colours, textures and patterns to depict wartime ideologies. Art has been carved from the wreckage of the battle — bullets, shell casings and other debris — often producing unsettling accounts of the calamity. Tools of cruelty have been turned into swords of compassion and the dead have also lived on in the hands of the artists.
Political leaders — monarchs, dictators and democrats have commissioned artists to create propaganda in order to garner support and to urge the public to make material sacrifices and take risks. These artists have depicted the opposing side as aggressive and brutal in order to stimulate critical reflections of animosity for the opposing side. To evoke a sense of nationalism and pride among the citizens, they have depicted battlefield victory and glory.
On the other hand, anti-war organisations have commissioned artists to subvert sympathy for wars. Also, some artists have been official appointees in war situations, sent by their governments to create a record of what was going on or to offer visual slogans to aid morale.
The lessons of art and war are entwined, and art stands as a constant reminder of the hard learnt lessons of the past & present, and the direction of the future.
As we stand now in 2022 with Russia’s war on Ukraine entering the second month, RtistiQ has decided to use art and the power of technology to run an NFT art auction of the works of Ukrainian artists to raise money for them. These artists are suffering the horrific consequences of the assault in Ukraine. It is a pragmatic but a different use case, and we hope it can help garner support for these artists thanks to a world of cyber-liberate population. It is also an opportunity for the speculators of this initiative to own tradable and investible alternative assets which ought to prosper in times to come. Refer to our blog article: Sending Help to Ukrainian Artists In This Hour of Maximum Need Through A Charity NFT Art Auction to learn more about the whys of this initiative by RtistiQ
We hope through RtistiQ we can continue to use our platform in innovative ways to power the future of art experience around the world while the world is signalling the move to a web3.0 era.
References:
https://politicalviolenceataglance.org/2018/01/05/five-ways-art-and-war-are-related/
