080031 SE Visual Art and Political Propaganda in the 20th and 21st Century (2023S)

The course "Visual Art and Political Propaganda in the 20th and 21st Century" deals with the question of what role the different media of visual art (paintings, photography, monuments, posters, prints etc.) have for the propagation of political claims. In doing so, it will become clear that the visual media are not merely exponents of predefined political ideologies, but have an essential part in communication due to their specific possibilities. Starting with a brief discussion of the situation in the early modern period, an overview of media history will be given along the main lines of political development in the 20th and 21st centuries. At the same time, the topics are intended to raise awareness of current issues. The introductory units form an in-depth preparation for the presentations. All images will be posted on moodle before the beginning of the course.

Presentation topics:

1. history and meaning of the term "propaganda" and brief presentation of the relevant visual genres (paintings, monuments, films, postcards, etc.)
2. the mechanisms of propaganda in the visual arts of the early modern period (e.g. King Louis XIV of France, Emperor Charles VI)
3. image propaganda in the European monarchies of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (e.g. Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen Victoria of Great Britain)
4. photographic image propaganda in the First World War: photography as systematic support for warfare (official press and private photographs)
5. the "imperial and royal war press quarter" in the First World War (from 1914 onwards): the monopoly position of the photographic office in Austrian propaganda
6. the production of posters and postcards in the First World War as strategies for visualising alleged cultural superiority
7. the unmasking of political propaganda in the interwar period: George Grosz, Otto Dix and Dada
8. political monument art before 1945 in Europe (e.g. former Revolution Monument in Berlin [1926]; Monument "à la gloire de l'Armée française", Paris-Trocadéro [1936], Lueger Monument in Vienna [1926])
9. Monuments after 1945 - an art genre that reinvented itself? From war memorials (US Marine Corps War Memorial, 1954) to the "Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation" (Paris, 1962) to the "Holocaust Memorial" in Berlin (2005)
10. The Second World War in Caricatures
11. the Image Propaganda of the Nazi Regime
12. US propaganda up to the present day: from the "New Deal" to the Marshall Plan and the Vietnam War
13. socialist realism: Soviet propaganda from 1932 to the end of the USSR
14. artists of the Nazi era who continued their careers in the FRG after 1945 (e.g. Arno Breker, Hermann Kaspar)
15. the "Cold War" critically examined: Jörg Immendorff's "Café Deutschland - series of pictures" (1977-1982)
16. The "turning year" 1968: european and global (revolution and counter-revolution): new symbols and images between ideologies and historical documentation
17. "Kunst am Bau" - Vienna's municipal buildings from "Red Vienna" to the present: art promotion and/or municipal image propaganda?
18. 11 September 2001 - a turning point for global image propaganda?
19. election posters and their iconographic traditions
20. propaganda and democracy - possibilities and limits of a difficult relationship: between political street art (e.g. Shepard Fairey) and the redesign of parliaments (e.g. Vienna, Berlin)

The students have familiarised themselves with a specific art historical topic and have received the relevant specialist literature in an independent and critical manner. They are able to observe and precisely describe art historical phenomena, meaningfully narrow down topics, pose research questions, form hypotheses and discuss them in discussion with the specialist literature. They are also able to convincingly present the results of their research, observations and reflections in oral and written form.