ARTISTS AT WAR

Abstract

At least since Antiquity, art and war have interfered. The most common aspect to consider is the propaganda associated with it. At the same time, artists took a stand for/against certain wars (or the concept of war) according to their personal values, beliefs, and experiences. The first part of the paper investigates how arts, war, and propaganda intertangled during the past two millennia. The Second World War, the most complex one to this date with globally diverse implications, seems to prove most how important artists are involved in times of war. This paper investigates how artists reacted to war and propaganda during the past two millennia. It includes a case study that analyzes the Russian aggression in Ukraine through the eyes of various artists. It follows how Russian, Ukrainian, and foreign artists responded to this shocking event. As expected, many Russian artists are supporting the war, on various grounds: they fear negative consequences, they believe the official perspective and propaganda, etc. Nevertheless, Russian artists – still living in Russia or who left the country immediately after the beginning of the war in Ukraine – are an important opposition voice despite the risks they take to express their views. It is even more relevant since the common political lines of action seem not to be possible in present-day Russia. As expected, most Ukrainian artists are publicly expressing their opinions against the war. Their art has benefited from wider attention than previously, especially in the EU, where many of them live as refugees of war, and in the US. The internet is, as expected, an important platform that gives voice to artists and allows the wide distribution of their work. In this facilitating framework, memes are also flourishing and getting viral, informing about and influencing attitudes to the war. The investigation also identified numerous foreign artists who took a public position, in most cases for Ukraine, especially in the first months of the war. The way artists reacted and related to the war, both on the Russian and the Ukrainian side, shows the complex relationships society and, above all, the arts have with war. In arts, as in society, war is both hated for its suffering and praised as a feat of patriotism.