Tate Modern: Transformed Visions, Facing History

Transformed Visions, Facing History: Leon Golub and Hrair Sarkissian

The Tate Modern exclaimed 'This room brings together two bodies of work that confront the violence and atrocities of contemporary war and ciivl society'. 

Leon Golub

Golubs' monumental painting named Vietnam II, shows the Vietnam war of 1973 and belongs to a series of tree large paintings. Golub was involved in the protest movement against the war and wanted his paintings to remain universal and timeless. I found this painting very interesting as it is very expressive and clearly shows the impact of war on people. It is bold and large and very in-your-face to almost intimidate you, this makes you aware of how frightening war is. 

Hrair Sarkissian

Sarkissian's 'Execution Squares' depicts the sites of public executions in Syria in 2008. He took these photos early in the morning where the streets were quiet in Damascus, Aleppo and Lattakia. The subject of an execution will usually be brought to the square at 4:30am but their body is routinely left there in full view until around 9:00am. Sarkissian came up with this idea when he saw his first execution when he was a child walking to school and saw three bodies hanging in the street.

These pieces of art work well together in the same room and facing each other because they depict the same subject but in different ways. Golub is very bold and obvious in the way he depicts the impacts of war, whereas Sarkissian's work is less obvious and we only realise what is being shown when we read the title of the piece. They work well in the same room because it shows how long war has been going on for and how hardly anything has improved in the last 40 years because war is still going on and still has the same amount of impact on people. Sarkissian's piece shows that war is still happening right under our noses even though we might not know about it, and this is modern day war. The pieces also compare 2008 to 1973 and make us feel as if our present day is still old-fashioned and war is still affecting people. The whole room gives us a comparison of the past and the present.