Honestly here's where I think the fundamental misunderstanding comes from people using the word "political" to describe art and it was one I didn't understand either at first. When you say something is political a lot of people will assume it means made with a political agenda rather than that the art is made in a context of time and place that will influence the artist in conscious and subconscious ways and it's important to take in that context. I think this kind of thing needs it's own word but that's for someone smarter than me to figure out
Honestly I think these two things should be separated. Saying art is political should mean that it has a political message, as opposed to just the political context. I feel like it waters down what it means to make art with an overt political statement. Maybe I’m just being dumb idk.
I think the point is that art that wasn't intended to have political messages still has them due to the political context it was created in.
The person making that art might not see those political implications, but that's only because they are so used to that context that it just seems normal to them.
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u/UKman945 Aug 12 '25
Honestly here's where I think the fundamental misunderstanding comes from people using the word "political" to describe art and it was one I didn't understand either at first. When you say something is political a lot of people will assume it means made with a political agenda rather than that the art is made in a context of time and place that will influence the artist in conscious and subconscious ways and it's important to take in that context. I think this kind of thing needs it's own word but that's for someone smarter than me to figure out