Creative Engagement - Utopian Art Gallery

   I've been reading the current discussion going on about the potential for More's "Utopia" to be translated into a play and I'm inclined to think it's possible, but not at all probable.  However, I started thinking about other mediums which would be more condusive to depicting "Utopia".  This lead me to discovering a whole slew of art (paintings and scupture especially) that are entitled "Utopia" or have obvious references to "Utopia".  It's really interesting to see the variety of art that stems from this one concept.  Some are colorful and optomistic while others are extremely macabre and weird.  And,of course, there's everything in between as well.  Every artist has THEIR ideal world. 
   I've posted a few of the pieces that most intrigued me below.  They're not at all famous, but the point is that someone is trying to show us their idea of what "Utopia" is or should be.  My commentary is just my personal interpretation.  I have a lot of fun figuring out what art means.  The stranger and more avant-garde the better, really.  I'd like to invite you to have some fun doing the same.  Do a little searching and add your own discoveries either directly here, or perhaps post the art to your blog and then post a link below this post.  Hopefully, we'll end up with a "utopian art gallery" of sorts highlighting as many incarnations of the concept as possible. 



"Utopia" by Barbara Mendes

   This painting, like Mendes' other work is vibrant and full of life sprouting from practically every crevice.  Behind the main woman in the front, the rectangular gardens remind me of the tidy gardens of the Utopian's in More's book.  I get the impression that Mendes' idea of a utopia would be full of beauty, art and a symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.  Also, since the only figures I see here are women, she would probably wan't women to be in charge (most graciously and wisely) of just about everything.

"Communist Utopia" by Tom Hornung

    Definitely dark!  This painting puts me in mind of the book "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwel. The artist lived for years under a communist regime in what used to be Czechoslovakia and admits on his blog that this influences much of his art.  A "communist utopia" requires everyone to submit to the will of the state "for the greater good" but this requires that the eyes of the government be everywhere and in everyone's business. Suspicion runs rampant (all the eyeballs) and the individual (the lone figure) is cruely suppressed.



"In the Grave of Intergalactic Utopia" by Basim Magdy

    I'm sure you all can find lots of other meanings for this one.  It's modern art and pretty out there, but still, I think, more thought provoking than it is purely strange.  I've always found it interesting that some people are so excited at the possibility of the human race leaving earth, living on other planets and populating the universe.  They don't realise that we're just going to take all of our problems and vices with us.  I think this is at least part of what this peice is trying to say.  For example, if we're tied to our TVs here, we'll probably do the same if we lived on Mars.  What do you think of the cage and the dogfood bowl?  Is this saying we'll become like animals compared to the alien life forms we meet...?




"Utopia" by Gregor Ziolkowski

    This one is a bit harder for me to interpret, but I think that the artist is trying to say that the concept of utopia is just a kind of flimsy poster that we put up to cover over the reality of the world as it is.  The girl in the painting looks ragged and distraught.  She sits in the rubble of the stone wall and looks up at what she thought was the blue sky and finds it torn apart.  Yes, the wall (society?) might be crumbling, but the birds (natural order of the universe?) still find a way to break through the facade and continue on with there existence.  Can you think of a different interpretation?