Weaponising Art
It is surprisingly easy to find a political element in a work of art.
Usually it is implicit
One way of uncovering the political is to ask: Does this artwork support or challenge the status quo?
Sometimes that political content is unintentional, even accidental.
And sometimes it is quite deliberate - Art which is created to comment on a situation or theme.
Art historians often call this polemical art.
Look at this painting
Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep)
Holman Hunt
1852
A fairly typical Pre-Raphaelite painting, depicting a rural drama: some sheep have wandered perilously close to a cliff edge; some are already entangled in brambles. There are black sheep amongst them.
Metaphorically miles away from this painting, a situation was fermenting in the theology departments of universities and among the Bishops of the Church of England. In Germany, theologians were using science and literary criticism to challenge central tenets of the Christian faith: the Divinity of Christ, the inspired nature of the Bible and so on. These ideas were spreading into England, and some churchpeople saw a crisis looming. In fact, a few years after this painting in 1860 a collection of articles were published under the title Essays and Reviews which promoted these and other radical ideas. It outsold Origin of the Species in weeks. Added to this, Roman Catholicism in Gt Britain had about it new energy and enthusiasm. Those who feared for the orthodoxy and security of the Church of England believed that the Bishops were failing in their duty as Guardians of the Faith; as shepherds of the flock. Within that febrile atmosphere was this painting by Holman Hunt, a devoted Anglican.
Art has long been seen as a suitable and legitimate means of making a point.
Here are two examples: