Skip to main content
Artist in residence of the human conscience
JAN WOOLF applauds art that has not only documented the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement but been an integral part of it 
Peter Kennard, (L) The Gamble, 1986; (R) Protest and Survive 1980

Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent
Whitechapel Gallery, London

SINCE the early 1970s, Peter Kennard’s art has not only documented the anti-war/ anti-capitalist movement but been an integral part of it; both as revelation and stimulus. 

Indeed, he reveals their links and stimulates the processes of resistance. He may be the only artist whose art — and it is art, not propaganda — has appeared on the streets and aloft at demonstrations as well as in newspapers and galleries. You could consider him the artist in residence of the human conscience. 

“My art,” he says, “erupts from outrage at the fact that the search for financial profit rules every nook and cranny of our society. Profit masks poverty, racism, war, climate catastrophe and on and on …” 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A panel from the Palestinian History Tapestry
Exhibition Review / 1 October 2024
1 October 2024
MARJORIE MAYO recommends an exhibition that asserts Palestinian history, culture and creativity in the face of strategies to erase them
(L) Chilean academic and photographer Luis Bustamante; (R) C
Exhibition Review / 11 July 2024
11 July 2024
Co-curator TOM WHITE introduces a father-and-son exhibition of photography documenting the experience and political engagement of Chilean exiles
Gabriele Münter, Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin, 1909; L
Exhibition review / 28 June 2024
28 June 2024
CHRISTINE LINDEY guides us through the vivid expressionism of a significant but apolitical group of pre WWI artists in Germany
Edgar Degas, Young Woman with Field Glasses, 1866-68, detail
Exhibition review / 7 June 2024
7 June 2024
HENRY BELL steps warily through the collection of a Glaswegian war profiteer to experience his collection of Degas’ remarkable images of working people