The Adventures Of A Would Be Arms Dealer (PDF) is an eight-page comic illustrating how an illegal arms deal works in practice. Via.
posted by Fiasco da Gama on Jul 28, 2009 - 16 comments

Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory , an online exhibit of comtemporary textiles created (mostly) by women living in war zones.
posted by Miko on Jan 9, 2009 - 4 comments

Peace and War in the 20th Century is an ambitious, in progress, massive assemblage of posters, photographs, propaganda, ephemera, letters, diaries, paintings, sketches, stories, letters, music and related items, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The collection is international in scope. Some of the nodes lack content, and the navigation is a little confusing, so the jump I list some of my favourite case studies from their site. [more inside]
posted by Rumple on Jan 2, 2009 - 4 comments

New Zealand War Art showcases about 1,500 images of New Zealanders at war beginning with World War I. Lots and lots and lots and lots of images in a wide variety of media by a long list of artists. [more inside]
posted by marxchivist on Jul 6, 2008 - 2 comments

Kathe Kollwitz, printmaker and sculptor, on The Peasants War (historical background, prints), war and death, mothers and children, herself and the death of her son Peter in WWI.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Jan 2, 2008 - 11 comments

Mark Wallinger has won the Turner Prize for 'State Britain' his recreation of Brian Haw's Parliament Square peace protest. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Dec 5, 2007 - 12 comments

“Iraq War Memorial: Death of Prince Harry" features the in fact hale and hearty royal scion "laid out before the Union Jack with pennies placed over his eyes and head rested on the Bible...Prone with his unfired gun still holstered, Prince Harry is represented clutching a bloodied flag of Wales, and holding to his heart a cameo locket of his late mother, Princess Diana, while a desert vulture perches on his boot...a bronze casting of Prince Harry’s 'severed ears' also set for display at the Trafalgar Hotel will be offered on eBay." Via.
posted by Abiezer on Oct 11, 2007 - 50 comments

New Work from artist Mark Bryan's Sideshow [more inside]
posted by hortense on Oct 2, 2007 - 2 comments

The Face2face project. JR, an "undercover photographer", and Marco, a technology consultant, had 41 people - israelis and palestinians - mugging for the camera and plastered the huge, unavoidable pictures on both sides of the Israeli West Bank barrier, pair by pair : one israeli, one palestinian, both having similar jobs and posing in a similar fashion (+an imam, a rabbi and a christian priest). See also the trailer (YT, other videos available on the main site).
posted by elgilito on Sep 17, 2007 - 15 comments

Church chandeliers made from bullet casings and cannon parts Until today I'd never heard of trench art. From the second link: Pieces described as ‘trench art’ have the following distinctly different origins: 1. War souvenirs collected by soldiers or non-combatants during the war and during the demobilization period and modified in some way to serve as a remembrance of the war. 2. Souvenirs crafted by soldiers during the war. 3. Souvenirs made for sale to soldiers by other soldiers or civilians during the war. 4. Souvenirs made by prisoners of war in exchange for food, cigarettes or money. 5. Mementoes of the war made by convalescent soldiers. 6. Post-war souvenirs made for tourists visiting the battlefields. 7. Post-war souvenirs made by commercial firms in ‘trench-art style’.
posted by SassHat on Aug 17, 2007 - 11 comments

Born to War is a series of paintings of American women killed in Iraq. The combination of the increasing role of women in the American military and the blurring of lines between combat and non-combat roles in Iraq have made this the first war in which female US soldiers have died in direct combat. The focus on a smaller number of women provides a more approachable view of casualties than more general sites like Iraq Body Count and raises some interesting questions about the role of women in the US military.
posted by scottreynen on Feb 23, 2007 - 13 comments

Et in Arcadia ego (flash). Photographs of the scars of war (Afghanistan/Iraq/Bosnia/genocide/Israel-Palestine/Liberia/refugee camps). Also: Afghanistan (no flash version), Thailand/tourism/raves.
posted by carter on Jun 5, 2006 - 9 comments

World War II Posters from the large collection at the Northwestern University Library.
posted by Gamblor on May 30, 2006 - 19 comments

In Memoriam and in Protest --why not use an online deathmatch as a pedestal for speaking out against a war? Artist/Professor uses US Govt-developed America's Army (...placing Soldiering front and center within popular culture and showcasing the roles training, teamwork and technology play in the Army. ... ) as protest and art space. DeLappe's homepage (and jpgs) here
posted by amberglow on May 30, 2006 - 135 comments

They come to life playing out scenarios which are in many ways less ridiculous than the reality of the politics they parody. [via]
posted by If I Had An Anus on Feb 21, 2006 - 2 comments

At least one commander told him, "Follow the soldiers' instructions, because they'll put their lives at risk to save you." But no one tried to censor his drawings or discourage him from going out on missions. -- Steve Mumford is a New York painter who was embedded as a "combat artist" in Iraq. The archives of his Baghdad Journal make for fascinating reading. He has recently published a large book of the art he created on this voyage.
posted by Gator on Dec 18, 2005 - 9 comments

The Emperor's Bunker. "The Japanese, with sadness and irony, stressed that Hirohito couldn't even speak properly. This was partly to do with the fact that he didn't have to speak - people spoke in his name and he was isolated from real life". "The Sun", the third part in Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov's 'Men of Power' tetralogy after the gloom of Moloch (1999), about Hitler and Eva Braun, and the despairing tones of "Taurus" (2001), focused on the wheelchair-bound Lenin in his death throes, "The Sun" seems almost upbeat. This, after all, is a film about reconciliation. More inside.
posted by matteo on Sep 13, 2005 - 21 comments

The Art of War is a beautiful British National Archives online exhibit of propaganda illustrations, posters, and films (Dance, Nazis! Dance!) by the Ministry of Information during World War II. Related: more posters, and Alfred Hitchcock also did propaganda films.
posted by kirkaracha on Jun 3, 2005 - 4 comments

Matthew White's Historical Atlas of the 20th Century. One of those amazing internet reference sites created by some guy (okay, Matthew White). Lots of fascinating, incredibly researched stuff: complete lists of all manmade megadeaths in the 20th century, the 100 most important works of art of the 20th century, maps showing changes in the types of government by decade, comments on Wikipedia, and much more. Also, some fun stuff, like what the US would look like if every secessionist movement succeeded. Previously posted in 2001, but much updated and worth a second look
posted by blahblahblah on Jun 2, 2005 - 15 comments

+WAR +Iraq Poster Exhibit Graphic designers from multiple political POVs collaborate, and the gallery is up to 17 pages of thumbnalish posters since March, 2003. [via jennet.radio]
posted by billsaysthis on Dec 26, 2004 - 15 comments

Peace Art Project Cambodia --turning the detrius of war into art, in hopes of a more peaceful future. More info here, and here. "You can't help but think about what this machine has done to affect so many lives." And that is really the point. These sculptures are political art at its most powerful - relics of a violent past transformed into expressions of hope for a more peaceful future.
posted by amberglow on Dec 25, 2004 - 6 comments

"Hi. My name is Tony Kushner, I'm a playwright ...Ladies and Gentlemen and Supporters of MoveOn: the first lady of the United States, Laura Welch Bush". About a year and a half ago Kushner, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of Angels in America, published the first act of a new play, Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy (full text). In it, Laura Bush reads Dostoyevsky to a classroom full of ghosts of dead Iraqi children. Now, (in Salon, I know, I know) the first lady metacriticizes Kushner's play. (more inside)
posted by matteo on Aug 4, 2004 - 11 comments

London designers Steve Mosley and Dominic Wilcox present War Bowls. The conglomeration of warriors melted together in agonizing shapes could be taken as a statement of some kind.
posted by rcade on Apr 23, 2004 - 5 comments

War Rugs woven by Afghanis often depict tanks, planes and guns, but a new set of imagery has appeared recently: the WTC in flames. More in this Forbes article.
posted by me3dia on Feb 10, 2004 - 11 comments

20 days in Spring 2003 one artists response to 20 days in spring 2003 that have reshaped the world we live in.
posted by specialk420 on May 29, 2003 - 18 comments

How to make a protest sign
This past weekend thousands of Americans took to the street to protest or support the war - many with protest posters. Making a protest poster isn't that difficult but the web makes it even easier with sites on the web that offer protest posters for every angle on the issue. Another Poster for Peace has a collection of posters from some of the top names in graphic design available royality free. Insta-protest offers a collection of 80 posters printable on your laser or inkjet printer from their Flash interface. Mike Flugennock has cartoon posters critical of the war and a number of other topics. The Propaganda Remix Project has been mentioned here before for their WWII remixed posters. Finally Anti-War offers a gallery of posters in color and black and white.
For those of us who are supporting the President in this war you might want to print out one of these. There's got to be others in support of the war - but where are they?
Designing protest posters can also be part of your high school history class with this Art as Political Protest lesson plan. So, what sign are you?
posted by DragonBoy on Mar 24, 2003 - 10 comments

Saigon Poster Art. "A Growing Collection of Pictures"
posted by hama7 on Mar 12, 2003 - 18 comments

The Power of Art? This interesting article becomes extremely clever if you think about some of the basic history of "Guernica". Little-known artist Picasso (see '37 for initial ideas, '45 for completed painting) was commissioned to paint it after the horrific slaughters of the Spanish Civil War. “...Picasso's tour de force would become one of this century's most unsettling indictments of war.” (more inside)
posted by valval22 on Feb 6, 2003 - 11 comments

Poets Against the War At Sam Hamill's Poets Against the War, the story of the recent cancellation (link to Canada's Globe and Mail), by Laura Bush, of a Feb. 12 poetry symposium at the White House. From the G and M article: Stanley Kunitz, poet laureate 2000-01, told reporters, "I think there was a general feeling that the current administration is not really a friend of the poetic community and that its program of attacking Iraq is contrary to the humanitarian position that is at the centre of the poetic impulse."
Hamill is gathering contributions from poets around the world, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Yusef Komunyakaa and W.S. Merwin, National Book Award winner Marilyn Hacker, novelist Ursula K. Le Guin, and Adrienne Rich.
This post is not intended the fan the flames of 'War on Iraq: Yes or No', but to explore Kunitz's contention: Is there at the centre of the poetic impulse a particular type of humanitarianism? Is there a space for poets and poetry in political debate? Are poets the "unacknowledged legislators of the world"? [more inside]
posted by jokeefe on Jan 31, 2003 - 35 comments

Art Fights Back — an exhibit of poster art at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa — displays images dedicated to the memory of September 11 and support of the Unites States and its troops. Seems like a typical thing to do around war time, right?

Take a close look at the actual poster design. Don't they seem rather non-American in their artistic style? In fact, they recall an era of poster design for a dramatically different context than what was typically thought of as U.S. patriotism.
posted by Down10 on Mar 11, 2002 - 39 comments

Speaking of Veterans Day, here in Chicago we have the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum. Art by Vets about the War. Most pieces are on-line with a short essay. The Above and Beyond memorial is impressive to say the least.
posted by skallas on Nov 11, 2001 - 2 comments

"No Sir, I Am Not A Monkey" (But I play one on TV.)
posted by holgate on Dec 15, 2000 - 5 comments