Las Meninas, 1656, Diego Velazquez
In this portrait of the Princess Margarita and her “meninas”. or ladies in waiting, Spanish
artist Diego Velazquez raised complex questions of viewpoint and viewer involvement in painting. Is
the pictured Velazquez painting us? Are we the king and queen reflected in the mirror on the back
wall? Its impact on art history has been profound: these are the kinds of questions raised by cubism
250 years later, and Picasso was so fascinated with Las Meninas, he painted 58 versions of it.
The Death of Marat, 1793, Jacques-Louis David
This painting by French artist Jacques Louis David, could be considered the first truly political
artwork. It depicts the aftermath of French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat’s murder, who was
stabbed in his bathtub. David took a poignant political moment and painted it with near-
photographic simplicity; his painting of his dead friend went on to become a pertinent piece of
political propaganda, seeing it turned into an engraving which was widely circulated among the
public.
, Olympia, 1863, Edouard Manet
This radical nude is frequently hailed as a rejection of the patriarchal gaze in art. When
Edouard Manet sat down to paint Olympia on her bed, artists had been painting reclining nudes for
hundreds of years - but Olympia was going to be different. The pose is directly based on Venus of
Urbino by Renaissance painter Titian, a painting famed for its shocking sexuality. But rather than a
come hither look in the eyes of the subject, Olympia is confrontational, her stare hard. Her hand is a
barrier to her genitals, not a gesture of invitation.
Guernica, 1937, Pablo Picasso
No artwork has become as important a symbol of anti-war movements as this heartbreaking
painting by Pablo Picasso. The work depicts the overnight bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica in
1937, during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso had been commissioned by the Spanish Republican
government to create an artwork, and was so disgusted by the atrocity that he chose it as his subject.
, The Problem We All Live With, 1964, Norman Rockwell
Illustrator Norman Rockwell made his career depicting the normalities of American
mid-century life - both the good and the bad. Painted in 1964, the work shows a young black girl
named Ruby Bridges walking down the road, on her way to attend an all-white school. She is flanked
by security due to the racial hatred this incited - she walks past racial slurs written on the walls. It
became an iconic image of the Civil Rights Movement, and Barack Obama had it put on display when
he invited Bridges to meet him at The White House in 2011.
Guerilla Girls, 1989, Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?
The Guerilla Girls are an anonymous group of artists with an important message. This art
collective meets activism group has spent the last thirty years vocally fighting racism and sexism in
the art world. They do this by simply stating the facts - in this case that “less than 5% of the artists in
the Modern art section [of the Metropolitan Museum in New York] are women, but 85% of the
nudes are female”. This poster has become a symbol of furthering female representation in art
institutions.
In this portrait of the Princess Margarita and her “meninas”. or ladies in waiting, Spanish
artist Diego Velazquez raised complex questions of viewpoint and viewer involvement in painting. Is
the pictured Velazquez painting us? Are we the king and queen reflected in the mirror on the back
wall? Its impact on art history has been profound: these are the kinds of questions raised by cubism
250 years later, and Picasso was so fascinated with Las Meninas, he painted 58 versions of it.
The Death of Marat, 1793, Jacques-Louis David
This painting by French artist Jacques Louis David, could be considered the first truly political
artwork. It depicts the aftermath of French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat’s murder, who was
stabbed in his bathtub. David took a poignant political moment and painted it with near-
photographic simplicity; his painting of his dead friend went on to become a pertinent piece of
political propaganda, seeing it turned into an engraving which was widely circulated among the
public.
, Olympia, 1863, Edouard Manet
This radical nude is frequently hailed as a rejection of the patriarchal gaze in art. When
Edouard Manet sat down to paint Olympia on her bed, artists had been painting reclining nudes for
hundreds of years - but Olympia was going to be different. The pose is directly based on Venus of
Urbino by Renaissance painter Titian, a painting famed for its shocking sexuality. But rather than a
come hither look in the eyes of the subject, Olympia is confrontational, her stare hard. Her hand is a
barrier to her genitals, not a gesture of invitation.
Guernica, 1937, Pablo Picasso
No artwork has become as important a symbol of anti-war movements as this heartbreaking
painting by Pablo Picasso. The work depicts the overnight bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica in
1937, during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso had been commissioned by the Spanish Republican
government to create an artwork, and was so disgusted by the atrocity that he chose it as his subject.
, The Problem We All Live With, 1964, Norman Rockwell
Illustrator Norman Rockwell made his career depicting the normalities of American
mid-century life - both the good and the bad. Painted in 1964, the work shows a young black girl
named Ruby Bridges walking down the road, on her way to attend an all-white school. She is flanked
by security due to the racial hatred this incited - she walks past racial slurs written on the walls. It
became an iconic image of the Civil Rights Movement, and Barack Obama had it put on display when
he invited Bridges to meet him at The White House in 2011.
Guerilla Girls, 1989, Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?
The Guerilla Girls are an anonymous group of artists with an important message. This art
collective meets activism group has spent the last thirty years vocally fighting racism and sexism in
the art world. They do this by simply stating the facts - in this case that “less than 5% of the artists in
the Modern art section [of the Metropolitan Museum in New York] are women, but 85% of the
nudes are female”. This poster has become a symbol of furthering female representation in art
institutions.
