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The Culture of Liberty vs. the Culture of Authority I:
"Reflections on Liberty and Power in Modern Art."
A Lecture by Dr. David M. Hart

[Created November 9, 2010]
[Updated July 21, 2022]

 

A Lecture given at the Westervelt-Warner Museum of American Art, Tuscaloosa, AL, November 15, 2010

The lecture has four parts (with a sampling of images discussed in the lecture below):

  1. Liberty: Depictions of the "People at Liberty"
  2. Power: Depictions of Heads of State (European & American)
  3. Liberty: Marianne and the Revolution for Liberty
  4. Power: War and the State
Liberty: Depictions of the "People at Liberty"
Pieter Breughel the Elder, "The Corn Harvest" (1565)
Charles Conder, "Holiday at Mentone" (1888)
Camille Pissaro, "Boulevard Montmartre" (1897)

 

Depictions of Heads of State - European
Jacques-Louis David, "The Emperor in his Study in the Tuileries" (1812)
Bismarck - the Blacksmith of German Unity (with Germania)
Christian Furr, "Queen Elizabeth II" (1995)

 

Depictions of Heads of State - American
Official Portrait of George Washington (Landsdowne, 1796)
The Apotheosis of Lincoln (with G. Washington) (1860s)
Herbert Abrams, "G.H.W. Bush" (1994)

 

 

Liberty: Marianne and the Revolution for Liberty
"Liberty has defeated the hydra of tyranny and smashed the yoke of despotism" (1793)
Delacroix, "Liberty Leading the People at the Barricade" (1830)
Edward P. Moran, "THe Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty" (1886)

 

Power: War and the State
Francisco Goya, "The Disasters of War (37)" (1810-20)
Winslow Homer, "The Veteran in a New Field" (1865)
Pablo Picasso, "Guernica" (1937)