Peter Kennard

Peter Kennard was born in London on February 17, 1949. He is also a photomontage artist and Senior Research Reader at the Royal College of Art in London. Kennard is clearly very anti-war and he contributed largely to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. His works are very plain as they are only in black and white. But, being that the issue is a very serious one, I believe this was his intention. Kennard wanted people to realize that the effects of war and especially nuclear missiles are black and white. The continued fighting and bombing of one another could only lead to the destruction of the Earth. Another one of his works gives us some insight into his beliefs for a solution. One of the images shows a peace sign cutting a missile in half, suggesting that peace is the only way to prevent the destruction. The first image is a play on greed and the ones who wage war. Kennard is proposing that if war continues, the only thing they will have left is their money and that will not be able to feed them when everything else has been destroyed.

John Holcroft

John Holcroft is a famous British illustrator with many drawings that deal with issues from corporate greed to society’s dependence on technology. He has worked for many well-known employers such as BBC, Reader’s Digest, The Guardian and the Financial Times. All of his works look aged and old-fashioned because of his style which is based on advertisements from the 50’s.  However, the issues at hand in his art are problems that we are facing today. The first image shows a student with his head on his desk, but his brain is out of his skull walking away from the child. This fits perfectly into the rationale for arts integration because without education challenging students to think critically, children will just go through the motions of school while never really reaching their potential or truly learning. In another one of his pieces, there is a man in a suit walking around in a bubble filled with his office supplies. Holcroft is displaying how obsessed our society has become with work. Ambition has taken over the average family man whose primary concern is now making the most money. So much so that he cannot leave his work alone; it is now a part of him. 

Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik (July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was born in Seoul, South Korea and graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1956. Early on, Paik was trained as a classical pianist but today, he is widely considered the father of video art. His art always contains televisions with video and music. They are intricate pieces with each television screen displaying something that is an important part of the piece. Many of his works are recognized around the world. I see most of his pieces as social commentaries that play on the dominance of media and television today. Paik is also credited with coining the phrase, “super highway.” His piece “Electronic Superhighway” is now currently at the Smithsonian museum of art. It’s an incredible display of the diversity throughout our country. He knew that each state held something to heart that they believed was their own while still being a part of a greater whole. The television screens show a variety of these things that have importance in each state. The colorful lights represent the highways that allow us to travel coast to coast and see what the many states have to offer. Paik also knew that film and television were vastly influential on our culture and it remains so today.

C.S. Stanley

Charles Shane Stanley is a contemporary stencil artist who was born in Indiana in 1977. His most popular works are political commentaries. A lot like Pawel Kuczynski, he has an overall negative viewpoint of the government and more specifically, law enforcement. Many of his works deal with the corruption and abuse of power that exists today in many forms in law enforcement. Stanley likes to use movies to illustrate these themes. Most of his works are fairly plain with black drawings on a white background and very little color. However, I think this adds to the overall meaning of the works. These are very serious topics and the lack of color keeps the focus on the issue rather than the art itself. One of his pieces shows five cops standing in a police lineup and the only color in the drawing is the blood on one of their batons. While looking at the piece, I was immediately focused on the theme of the work instead of its artistic characteristics. Another one of his pieces shows a group of policemen standing in a formation. They are all drawn in dark colors except for one man in the middle of them. He is dressed in a white Klu Klux Klan outfit. He uses the contrast in colors to bring the viewer to central theme of the drawing. Stanley’s work caught my eye because of the simplicity and relevant meaning to today’s society. 

Pawel Kuczynski

Pawel Kuczynski was born 1976 in Szczecin, Poland and is a satirical artist who usually focuses on major political and societal issues. But he does so in a very ironic, cartoonish manner. Kuczynski graduated from the fine arts academy in Poznan in 2002. All of his works are very thought provoking but I chose a few that peaked my interest. Many of the images make us question the morality of everyday actions that have become commonplace. Personally, I find the works incredible. He points out some of the ironies that exist in everyday life. These are issues that must be addressed and Kuczynski does a great job of setting the scene for many of these issues. For example, in one of the images he presents the difference in how we treat our household pets in comparison to the animals that we use for food and other purposes that serve our society. In another, he paints several soldiers pointing vacuums at a man, sucking the money out of his pockets. At first glance, the painting appears to be quite radical but after further interpretation, he is illustrating the massive amounts of money we spend on a military even in times of peace. His paintings interest me because of the issues that are contained within them. He tends to focus on political corruption and greed but also pays mind to societal norms and the morality of human nature.