Art: frivolous or necessary in the face of reality
The act of creation as resistance, a symbol of hope,
or even just a grasp at sanity.
Art often seems like a ridiculous frivolity.
What’s the point of drawing or sculpting in the face of political unrest, violence, war? What good does a painting do for you or your friends as they struggle with depression, breaking marriages, health issues, eating disorders, toxic relationships, debt? Why spend that time or share your work?
As far back as anyone can find, the artist has found that he cannot help but create, regardless of circumstances. One’s craft is binding, ever calling with its siren song, sometimes to a mission or a crusade, sometimes in a seemingly arbitrary way. Is the artist’s call one that should be answered at all times? Or are there seasons to set it aside, to ignore it?
Someone once told me a story about a man that lived in a ghetto during the pogroms in 1930s Europe that would paint in the street. He would go out day after day, regardless of cold or rain, sitting amidst the bombed-out wreckage of the neighborhood and, using what he could find or make, paint brightly colored landscapes and flowers. Someone once asked him what the point was, if everything would soon be nothing but ruins while they all died off from enemy fire, starvation, or disease. He answered simply, saying “Someone has to paint the flowers and remind humanity that there’s still color and beauty in the world, even here.”
I’ve never been able to track down that story’s origins. It’s possible that this particular story is only a legend, or that it’s a conglomeration born from a hundred different stories, but my search for it revealed to me countless artists that have used art as resistance, as a symbol of hope, or as a grip on sanity throughout history and around the world.
Stories of Resistance, Hope, & Sanity
Following its liberation, the Nazi concentration camp at Theresienstadt revealed hidden paintings and drawings by Czech-Jewish painter Malva Schalek. Portraying fellow inmates and their life there, these works likely served Schalek as an emotional and mental outlet before she died in Auschwitz after refusing to paint a collaborationist doctor.
Jewish-Polish artist Gershon Iskowitz stayed up in his bunk drawing after everyone had gone to sleep during his time at the Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps. After his liberation, he was asked about this habit and responded, “Why did I do it? I think it kept me alive. There was nothing to do. I had to do something in order to forget the hunger. It’s very hard to explain, but in the camp, painting was a necessity for survival.”
During the ‘70s and ‘80s, during Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, a group of women textile artisans or Arpilleristas created a collection of embroidered scenes on burlap sacks that depicted the injustices they were suffering, such as poverty, hunger, and loss using bright colors. The contrast of the somber themes with the lively colors further emphasized these women’s search for the hope of a better future for their people.
Just a couple of years ago, Ukrainian artist Gamlet Zimkivskyi wanted to enlist to fight for his homeland against the Russian invasion but received an unexpected response. “Gamlet, just pick up your paintbrush, and go paint in the street,” Vsevolod Kozhemiako, the commander of the volunteer Khartiia battalion remembers telling Zimkivskyi. “Because the power of his art is much stronger than taking a machine gun and assaulting or defending trenches. His art could empower the people defending the city,” Kozhemiako explained in an interview. Zimkivskyi proceeded to paint his way through a year in the war, using walls and public spaces as his canvas. He quickly noticed passersby, including fighters and volunteers, stopping to praise his work, thank him for doing it, and encourage him to keep going. “That’s when I understood how much people needed it,” Zimkivskyi said later in an interview.
Syrian graffiti artist Aziz al-Azmar has taken on himself to paint his bombed-out city of Binnish in Syria, driven by a deep desire to share the story of those who died there and those who still live there amidst the constant threat of air raids. Neighborhood kids often join him in painting, and when he’s not at work on the walls, he brings visits local orphanages to share his gift and art materials.
These are only the stories of a handful of resilient artists, but they show nearly a hundred years of the artist’s tradition even in the direst of circumstances: to create.
The fact is that the artist cannot help but create, so if you have the urge to paint, draw, write, compose, sculpt, bake, do so. If you live in a peaceful nation, surrounded by political and social stability, wealth, and safety, create. If you live in a wartorn hellscape, create. If you live tortured by the reality of those less fortunate than you, create. If you live free from mental illness or plagued by it, create. It won’t fix things. It won’t right what’s wrong with this broken world nor erase trauma, depression, or darkness. But it will feed your soul, giving you a respite and an outlet for everything within you.
And if you feel the urge to share your work, do so. It will speak to those around you more than you know, whether the work is a commentary or an escape from reality, whether it’s abstract or realistic, whether it’s dark or full of light.
I don’t mean to say we shouldn’t take action to fight injustice or seek help or protect our natural world. We should absolutely fight for what we can, but there’s no reason to set aside our creativity. In fact, creativity often fuels the fight, even if it only shows up as a quiet poem in a private journal at home or a pencil sketch in a notepad on a long bus ride.
Art is treated by our society like a luxury, but it’s a necessity. It’s a necessity for the artist, who can’t help but create. And it’s a necessity to humanity. So next time you want to share your latest painting on social media but feel intimidated by the influx of crazy world news, go ahead and do it anyway. You can’t keep it inside. And you never know who it might speak to.
After all, Someone has to paint the flowers and remind humanity that there’s still color and beauty in the world, even here.
