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How does the **war** impact **visual art** in the 21st century? ++ //**War**// [ wawr] -noun = a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air. (from dictionary.com) //**Art**//  / ɑrt /    [ ahrt ]   -noun = the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. (from dictionary.com)

__//History Through Art //__ War and art sound like such contradicting subjects. How can war influence art? It was after the Enlightenment in 1700s when artists started to look for inspiration in the material world. Some artists showed interest in science and social issues while others emphasized a new innocence toward individuals. Then later on, traumatic events like wars started to have a great impact on artists. Artists depict military campaigns and several other wartime events through paintings and sculptures, and their work help other people to understand the experience and the sacrifice of war. In the previous century, modern technology such as photography, film, digital images have been used to record the conflicts of war, though<span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);"> traditional methods are still the most widely used such as prints, paintings and sculptures. You probably have seen works from American Civil War and World War's battle scenes and leaders in medias, books, and historical magazines. Artists back then have been hired to <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">record events happened in all wars. Today, the same practice of hiring artists to record events indicates the fact that war does influence art. Contemporary artists also make a <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">personal statement through their work with political and social views and try to fascinate the masses. This <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">ability of expression had improved tremendously since the last few years. Some are very <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">critical and mortified and still in some countries like China, artists are sent to jails for condemning the government and more. Well, what current wars are an effect on artists today?

- Afghanistan War - War in Darfur**
 * - Iraq War

<span style="display: block; text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-color: rgb(233, 53, 53);"> Let's learn more about these wars with Mr. Brightman's good old **CCC**! (Cause Course Consequence) __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Iraq War ** __ **(2003-present)** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">United States' attack in Iraq did not begin in 2003; the tension had been created since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. United States and Britain were waging an undeclared war averse to Iraq for twelve years in order to procure the control of Iraq's abundant oil resources at this time. Then on September 11th, 2001, an event had spaked an additional war. Three thousand people who were in World Trade Center and the Pentagon in New York City were effortlessly killed by the terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden called the Al-Qaeda network. U.S. government sent media information to the public to persuade them that it was Iraq behind all these attacks.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"... about 50 per cent of the population now believes that Iraq was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. This has happened since September 2002. In fact, after the September 11 attack, the figure was about 3 per cent. Government-media propaganda has managed to raise that to about 50 per cent. Now if people genuinely believe that Iraq has carried out major terrorist attacks against the United States and is planning to do so again, well, in that case people will support the war. " — Noam Chomsky //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In 2003, the United States army officially invaded Iraq after numerous conflicts going in between with Iraq. WIth the reports of Saddam Hussein organizing the "weapons of mass destruction", it frightened all the countries in the world. Saddam Hussein was a dangerous man. He was the wealthiest man with billions of dollars for his large deposits of oil. Although he had everything, his citizens were still living in great poverty and he often perpetrated heinous acts on his own people such as rapes and mass murder. Mass graves of the casualties were once revealed and it was displayed on the news Moreover, back in 1990s, Saddam Hussein tried to build nuclear weapons and said he is going to take over Isarel and annexed Kuwait. From all this, George W. Bush, former president of United States thought Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 however, even after CIA, DIA and State Department investigations, no evidence was found. And same thing happened to the "weapons of mass destruction". Iraq's claimed weapons were no where to be found as well after months of investigations. After Saddam Hussein's regime was removed from power, U.S. forces insisted on with the search of "weapons of mass destruction".

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Bush administration officials exaggerated the threats from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and failed to uncover any links between President Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a private nonpartisan research organization concluded in a report released yesterday [2004-01-08]. ////<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> — The Boston Globe //

Therefore Bush was apparently aiming at Iraq's oil reserves and to establish military bases in Iraq to eventually to conquer the Middle East, and eventually all countries that relied on oil, and also to remove Iraq's threat on Isarel. There are also other reasons. Iraq wanted to start receiving all oil payments in euro, which was a disincentive for the economy of United States. Thus by dominating Iraq, they hoped that they would change the currency to dollar again. Minority say the reason George W. Bush insisted on the war is because he is a psychopath and he was delighted by deaths of thousand people. Furthermore, wars are a great opportunity for those companies to sell weapons. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Iraq War is still ongoing today and Medical Journal estimates 100,000 civilians became casualties in Iraq War. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> -- __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Afghanistan War ** __ **(2001-present)** After numerous bombing attacks in United States including the 9/11, United States had been trying to locate Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda. Afghanistan was U.S.’s strategy of sending military troops since this country was the home base of Al-Qaeda network. Since 1996, the strict Islamic government that controlled most of Afghanistan, the Taliban had served bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. "In return, bin Laden helped Taliban to retain power by providing soldiers in their civil war against the Northern Alliance, a alliance of anti-Taliban Afghan factions." (Modern World History Textbook) The United States ordered the Taliban to turn over bin-Laden however, they refused. This controversy led United States to initiate military action in order to reach their ultimate goal: to find bin Laden, to destroy Al-Qaeda and to end the Taliban rule. In October 2001, United States set in motion bombing Taliban air defenses, airfields and command centers along with Al-Qaeda training camps. United States first relied on Northern Alliance and later, the Eastern Alliance, anti-Taliban groups first, to perform most of the fighting against the Taliban. These Afghan groups were supported by U.S. air strikes against Taliban military positions and by a small number of U.S. Special Forces troops and marines. In December that year, the Taliban were finally driven from power but the friction to destroy Al-Qaeda still continues today. Concurrently, the United Nation worked with Northern Alliance and other Afghan Groups to establish an interim government to deputize the Taliban. By January 2009, 5,220 foreign troops, 7,552 Afghan soldiers and police are killed, and about 30,000 estimated civilian in Afghanistan killed, 80% of them caused by the Taliban.

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"> War in Darfur ** __ **(2003-present)** Darfur’s area makes up one-fifth of Sudan, which is Africa’s largest nation located in northern area. This region is home to ethnically mixed tribes of nomadic herders known as Arab and mix sedentary farmers and nomadic herders known as non-Arab tribes. Tribal disputes over land and water rights have been around for a while. In February 2003, two Darfurian rebel groups launched a revolt against the government in Khartoum, exasperated by poverty, neglectfulness and discrimination by the government. The government deprecated the revolt and responded with fearful campaigns against the innocent civilians in Darfur. They also recruited the janjaweed to carry out the attacks, which is a militia obtained from members of Arab tribes in the region. "Non-Arab tribal fighters on the government side use the word, janjaweed, though Sudan’s government denies responsibilities saying that janjaweed are traitors with exaggerated atrocity. Since February 2003, the janjaweed have used rape, displacement, starvation, threats against aid workers, and mass murder to kill more than 400,000 and displace 2.5 million," (STAND) which is considered as genocide. Violence disease and displacement continue to kill hundreds of people each day. A United Nations resolution in August 2006 authorized the deployment of a force of over 17,000 troops to Darfur. However, the UN has demanded on securing the national sovereignty of Sudanese government for such a force. For its part, the government of Sudan recently launched another attack in Darfur, in violation of the May peace agreement, uncompromisingly refusing the deployment of an effective force.

<span style="display: block; text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-color: rgb(233, 53, 53);">Now that we are familiar with these wars, I will demonstrate THREE contemporary artists who are greatly influenced by war happening in the 21st century: <span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">☮ An-My Lê ☮ <span class="wiki_link"> Jenny Holzer ☮ <span style="font-size: 180%; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"> <span style="font-size: 150%; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Banksy

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">__//Representation in Art//__ I hope these artists became an influential depiction of how artists in the 21st century are affected by these major wars. War representation in art is very important in today’s world because it not only helps to inform people about the past, but it also brings awareness in <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">morale of soldiers and <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">civilians while involved in war to the <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">public. In addition, by looking at these artworks you can get a sense of people’s <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">divergent stances. because zrt responds on how <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">open or closed the society is in general. By virtue of our political openness, there exists a much richer <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">variety of artistic and media expression. Nevertheless, there are still countries where artists are strictly <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">forbidden to express their <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">viewpoint of their world. These artists are punished ruthlessly when they express themselves even slightly over the <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">government ’s boundary.

In my personal opinion as a high school artist, I believe there is no point of art when there is restricted freedom of <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">expressing oneself. These wars meant significantly to these <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">distinguished artists and we should appreciate their<span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);"> deep thoughts and <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">time they spent to represent their opinions. And we should appreciate our freedom of expression and <span style="color: rgb(203, 21, 21);">contribute to make a better world in the future.

<span style="font-size: 156%; font-family: Georgia,serif;">//**Express**// <span class="show_ipapr" style="display: none;"> / ɪkˈsprɛs / <span class="pron_toggle" style="display: inline;">  <span class="show_spellpr" style="display: inline;"> [ ik- spres  ]   -verb = To set forth the opinions, feelings, etc., of (oneself), as in speaking, writing, or painting

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