Ukraine 2022: By Peter Kennard

  • 'Ukraine 2022’ by Peter Kennard is made In collaboration with the School of Arts and Humanities, Royal College of Art where he is Professor of Political Art, and Richard Saltoun Gallery.

    all proceeds going to The Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. 
  • 'The Ukraine flag is now lodged deep in my memory. Daily, film of thousands of women and children fleeing merciless...

    "The Ukraine flag is now lodged deep in my memory. Daily, film of thousands of women and children fleeing merciless bombing through piles of rubble has a grip on my consciousness. How as an artist do I picture the horror of war in Ukraine? It’s impossible. How to show the level of Putin’s murderous cruelty? Impossible. These prints are my visceral response to daily atrocity, they are not an analysis of geo-politics leading up to war. What’s not impossible for me is to make marks becoming figures, walking, standing running in front of their flag. The flag doesn’t change, it’s resilient, it’s now a symbol of resistance.  The prints don’t look away but they can’t look directly. They are made to raise money for the Red Cross in Ukraine, to express solidarity with people whose lives are being destroyed. Each print sold is a tiny fragment towards helping people live through and then reconstruct their shattered lives."

     

    - Peter Kennard

  • “PETER KENNARD'S WORK IS HAUNTING. ESCHEWING WORDS, IT INSISTS UPON NOT BEING FORGOTTEN. HE IS A MASTER OF THE MEDIUM OF PHOTOMONTAGE. HIS IMAGES ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO CONVEY WITH WORDS BECAUSE OF THEIR UNMISTAKABLE VISUAL TEXTURE, PURE AND DIRTY, SUGGESTING A STRANGE AMALGAM OF X-RAY, SATELLITE IMAGE AND SLAG. THE FUTURE - WHICH FOR SO LONG WAS A MINE OF GORY RHETORIC FOR THOSE HOLDING POWER - TODAY DEPENDS UPON THOSE WHO INSIST UPON LOOKING BEYOND THEIR LIFETIME. AND TO DO THIS WE HAVE TO SCRUTINISE, LIKE PETER KENNARD, OUR NIGHTMARES AND SUPPRESSED HOPES. HIS ART CANNOT BE IGNORED.”

    – JOHN BERGER, THE GUARDIAN
  • 'Peter joins with his gallery Richard Saltoun and the Royal College of Art, where he has long taught socially engaged...

    "Peter joins with his gallery Richard Saltoun and the Royal College of Art, where he has long taught socially engaged students as a professor in fine art and photography, to produce a suite of prints to benefit humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. The six prints produced that comprise Ukraine 2022 are a collaboration between the School of Arts and Humanities at the Royal College of Art, Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and, in a direct way, you. As Europeans, we are all part of the struggle in Ukraine. This is something we can do."


    - John Slyce

  • “PETER KENNARD HAS BEEN PRODUCING HIS POLITICALLY RADICAL PHOTOMONTAGES FOR 50 YEARS. WE NEED PEOPLE WHO CARRY ON FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT. PEOPLE WHO KEEP THEIR FOCUS DESPITE THE CHANGING CULTURAL AND POLITICAL LANDSCAPE. THE MESSAGE IS CONSISTENT – THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR – THE MESSAGE IS TRUE. THE MESSAGE IS UNCOMPROMISING, BRUTAL AND HARD-HITTING – BUT ALSO VERY BEAUTIFUL, IT’S BEAUTIFUL BECAUSE IT WANTS TO KEEP US ALIVE. IT’S A JOLT OF ELECTRICITY. A SHOT IN THE ARM. A KICK UP THE BACKSIDE. YOU KNOW WHAT? IT’S A WAKE-UP CALL.”

    – JARVIS COCKER
  • Since the late 1960s, Peter KENNARD has made powerfully political work that is a visual manifestation of resistance against economic...

    Since the late 1960s, Peter KENNARD has made powerfully political work that is a visual manifestation of resistance against economic inequality, war, climate change and injustices, both local and global. Initially trained as a painter and fuelled by his activism against the Vietnam War, Kennard turned to photomontage in the 1970s and the legacy of John Heartfield to deconstruct the imagery and language of the mass media in order to break-up the monopoly they persistently hold on ‘truth’. Internationally renowned for the photomontages he constructed in support of CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) across the '70s and '80s, Kennard has produced iconic images for left publications and social protests that are firmly lodged in the collective consciousness and still potent and as powerful today. 

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