Example Of Additions To The Clients Paper Essay

For art to resonate with the viewer, it must incorporate elements of the political, because art cannot take place in isolation. In a way, this has always been the case, but for centuries, art was in the hands of institutional leaders, as they were the ones who had the wherewithal to fund artwork. The masterworks from the Renaissance through the early part of the nineteenth century were made on order for political and religious leaders, and so the works had to promote agendas that those leaders wanted to be seen. This is why so many of the masterworks from this time period are religious in nature; not only was the Church one of the primary clients in terms of commissions, but the Church also held power over political leaders in ways that today are archaic. To remain in the good graces of the Church, though, political leaders would have religious works of art commissioned.
In our own time, art can now provide responses to political stimuli that are unfettered by the ideological demands of clients. The recent protests over the grand juries’ failure to indict police officers in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, for their involvement in the deaths of two black men have sparked a number of different forms of art. One young man in Oregon made a “Free Hugs” poster designed to bring more warmth to the public discourse, and when a white police officer took him up on his offer, the image went viral, as viewers found a catharsis in that image that all of the looting and shouting have been unable to produce. Some members of the St. Louis Rams football team took part in some performance art, walking out of the tunnel before the game with their arms held up in the iconic “Don’t Shoot Me!” posture that many protesters have used. Technology has increased the number of art forms, the number of people in the virtual audience, and the number of people who can create artistic responses to the events around them, and responses like those are always political in nature.