satire

(noun)

A literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change; humor is often used to aid this.

Related Terms

Examples of satire in the following topics:

  • Neue Sachlichkeit

    • Their art was raw, provocative, and harshly satirical.
    • The verists developed Dada's abandonment of any pictoral rules or artistic language into a "satirical hyperrealism," as termed by Raoul Hausmann, and of which the best known examples are the graphical works and photo-montages of John Heartfield.
    • Satirical scenes often depicted a madness behind what was happening, depicting the participants as cartoon-like.

  • The Armory Show

    • Art critic Julian Street wrote that the work resembled "an explosion in a shingle factory" while cartoonists satirized the piece.

  • New Media for Art

    • Performance artists often challenge the audience to think in new and unconventional ways, break conventions of traditional arts, and break down conventional ideas about "what art is. " As long as the performer does not become a player who repeats a role, performance art can include satirical elements (compare Blue Man Group); utilize robots and machines as performers, as in pieces of the Survival Research Laboratories; or borrow elements of any performing arts such as dance, music, and circus.

  • Soviet Constructivism

    • Mayakovsky worked for the Russian State Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) creating — both graphic and text — satirical Agitprop posters.

  • Political Art: LGBT Rights and the AIDS Crisis

    • Some of the earliest attempts to bring attention to the new disease were staged by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a protest and street performance organization that uses drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality .

  • Painting

    • Artists often depicted working-class activities as heroic, and many conveyed a message of social or political protest edged with satire.

  • Art of the Igbo

    • Masks have a wide variety of uses, mainly in social satires, religious rituals, secret society initiations (such as the Ekpe society), and public festivals, which now include Christmas celebrations.

  • Photography during the Great Depression

    • The movement was largely a style of painting that typically conveyed a message of social or political protest edged with satire; however it also extended to the art of photography.

  • Goya

    • "Charles IV of Spain and His Family" has been interpreted by art historians as a satire.