There seems to be a lot of violence around, and art is no exception.
But this has always been the way. The realistic depiction of wars
and atrocities occur in early pictures, and Soutine's hanging meat
carcass paintings are more recent examples.
The question is, "How do we react to violence?" Some artists show
the horrors explicitly, others become even more altruistic, focusing
on the positive aspects of human behaviour.
Personally, I react violently to violence. I wonder what the effects
of these pictures are on the viewer?
Sociologists and psychologists seem to agree, that violence begets
violence. History would seem to prove this as well. Surely the role
of the artist is to comment, but not perpetuate violence itself, and
this is a tricky matter. A comment such as the following, by an
artist, is therefore disturbing to me, "I want people to be hurt
when they look at these photos. To be hurt the way the children are
being hurt by having to watch their mothers being beaten." (232)
Action or
reaction?
232. Arts Access, Spring, l992, West Vancouver, B.C.
