10 Political Artworks That Shocked the World

Key facts

• Käthe Kollwitz's 'The Survivors' (1923) is a woodcut condemning World War I, depicting grieving women and children.
• Diego Rivera's 'Man at the Crossroads' (1933) at Rockefeller Center included Vladimir Lenin and was destroyed by order of Nelson Rockefeller.
• Rivera recreated the mural in Mexico City as 'Man, Controller of the Universe'.
• Martha Rosler's 'House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home' (1967–72) used photomontage to contrast American domesticity with Vietnam War violence.
• Anita Steckel's 'Giant Woman' series (1970–72) placed nude female figures in New York skyscrapers and with US presidents, leading to censorship and her founding the Fight Censorship Group.
• Keith Haring's 'Crack is Wack' (1986) mural in East Harlem criticized the War on Drugs; Haring was arrested.
• Barbara Kruger's 'Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground)' (1989) was created for a pro-choice demonstration in Washington, D.C.
• Dmitri Vrubel's 1990 Berlin Wall mural shows Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker kissing, satirizing Cold War politics.
• Ai Weiwei's 'Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn' (1995) documents him shattering a 2,000-year-old urn as a critique of state control over culture.
• Banksy's 'Girl Frisking Soldier' (2007) stencil in the West Bank shows a girl frisking an Israeli soldier.
• Georgia Lale's 'Neighbourhood Guilt' (2021) is a pink-and-white Greek flag sewn from bedsheets donated by domestic violence survivors.
• The flag was displayed at the Greek Consulate in New York in December 2023 and removed after political outcry.
• The flag was projected on Athens City Hall for International Women's Day in 2024 and 2025.