Art as Commercial Propaganda:
Mona Lisa Through the Ages
Ó Dr. Tina Yarborough, Asst. Professor of Art History & Interdisciplinary Studies
Georgia College & State University
Background Information:
In our world today art is a very powerful form of commercial propaganda. Recognizable works of art are often used in all kinds of advertisements. In fact, today’s culture which has been called a "promotional culture" (Wernick) is replete with art objects that promote commodities. This has been called "commodity imaging" which is deeply imbedded in our promotional culture. As Andrew Wernick has noted, "Promotion of some kind—even if it is only a matter of heaping apples on a road-side table to indicate that they are for sale—is necessary to complete an object’s instantiation as an item of exchange…. [and] what is promoted cannot be disentangled from what promotes it, even in principle." (Wernick, 189-90). In other words, when an object is promoted by using a famous work of art, part of the product is the idea of sophisticated culture. We see this everywhere today; in fact all one needs to do to see artworks promoting commodities is look at any catalogue or visit any museum gift shop. How many of us have used a coffee mug with an artwork pictured on it, or seen a tie with a famous painting emblazoned on its front? There seems to be no end to the use of famous paintings as advertisements.
As you go through this unit, please find a famous work of art that images some kind of commodity and bring it into the class with a short written analysis. [What and why was this artwork used? To whom do you think the commodity is targeted? Is the promotion effective and why?]
Another aspect of the imaging of commodities in our promotional culture is what this process does to the work of art that is appropriated. Keep this problem in mind because the answer to this question has been a source of much debate in the art world. I would like for you to debate this topic as you progress through the unit. Please post to your discussion group as many discussion messages as you would like, but at least one is required. To understand the imaging process I want to introduce several vocabulary words that will be frequently used in our unit. Please commit them to memory—and make them part of your active vocabulary.
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PROPAGANDA PROPAGANDA
PROPAGANDA |
Propaganda suggests strategies of manipulative persuasion, intimidation, and deception. In European languages, the word propaganda refers to advertisement and is less tendentious [or loaded with a particular meaning]. Art can become propaganda through its function and site and is not always inherent in the art itself and also may not stem from the artist’s intentions. |
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KITSCH KITSCH KITSCH KITSCH |
Refers to the low-art artifacts of everyday life. It encompasses lamps in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, paintings of Elvis Presley on velvet, and the lurid illustrations on the covers of romance novels. The term comes from the German verb verkitschen which means to make cheap. Kitsch is a by-product of the industrial age’s astonishing capacity for mass production and its creation of disposable income (Atkins, 94). |
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ICON ICON |
Originally meant a religious, devotional image; now means a sign that implies instant recognizability & can be either a person [Michael Jackson; Elvis] or a thing [MacDonalds Golden Arches; The Mona Lisa] |
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Commodity |
The form products take when production is organized through exchange; each commodity has a certain amount of value. In commerce, this means any article that is bought or sold. |
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IDEOLOGY Ideological |
Generally refers to a system of beliefs, the ideas or manner of thinking characteristic of an individual or group; especially, the ideas and objectives that influence a whole group or national culture, shaping especially their political and social relations; ideology also means false consciousness - in other words, ideology is a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence: things aren't really what you think they are. |
Now to make this promotional process more clear I want to examine the
life of the world’s most famous work of art; I say that self-consciously
because it is not just the Western world’s most famous work -- its influence
and notoriety extend beyond the borders of the Western Renaissance as
is indicated by this photo of a shop in a Tokyo department store.
And that work is the portrait of the Florentine woman, my lady or "ma
donna", shortened to Mona Lisa Giocondo, better known to us as
La Gioconda, or Mona Lisa, although her identity is still the subject
of scholarly debate.
copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.