Protest/Political Art

After reading the Guerrilla Girls excerpt, I started thinking about other kinds of political and protest public art that have made an impact on the world, and are quite recognizable today.

For the most part, political public art is in the form of posters, or it is associated with a particular figure or image, as in the Vietnam war with certain photographs.  One interesting political piece of art that has been around for a while, and has even been used in different situations is the image of Che Guevara.

This image is familiar to most people today.  Che Guevara was a prominent figure in the Cuban Revolution, yet has been used for different purposes today.  Protest bands, like Rage Against the Machine, have associated his image with their band.  This is ironic because the band placed his image on a T-shirt to sell, and fuel a capitalist economy, while Che Guevara was a supporter of communism.

Different forms of political and protest artwork exist today.  The interesting thing to think about, however, is if they will carry the same meaning decades from now, or be used for an entirely different purpose.