Golub, Leon

GOLUB, LEON (1922–2004). Leon Golub, one of the preeminent political artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, spent a career using his art to depict the excesses of human depravity and the abuse of power throughout the world. From his earliest artistic moments, he vigorously rejected the formalism of abstract expressionism. Well-known for his large-scale canvases on upstretched canvasses addressing human horror and torture, he was one of the finest figurative artists of his generation.

Born in Chicago, he encountered Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” as a 17 year-old student in 1939. That majestic painting made a powerful impression on him, showing how a monumental artwork could engage politically with the pressing world issues. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1942. After serving as a cartographer in the U.S. Army during World War II, he earned his BFA and MFA degrees at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and 1950. In 1951, he married Nancy Spero, another major socially conscious American artist, with whom he collaborated for the remainder of his life.

Early on in Chicago, Golub’s expressive works with other artists in the region brought him recognition for his use of occasionally gruesome mythological content. From 1959 to 1964, he and Spero decided to live in Paris, hoping that Europe would be more receptive to their art. There, Golub produced larger works focusing on themes of power, reflecting the French tradition of visual historical narrative.

His return to New York marked a significant turning point in his career as a political artist. With the escalation of the Vietnam War, Golub became active in Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Vietnam. He produced some of his most powerful works during that time, including “Napalm I” and Napalm II.” These paintings among others on the war are angry, uncompromising, shocking, and unambiguously political. They intentionally sought to evoke horror and revulsion among their viewers. He sought, above all, to use his art to condemn the barbarism of American torture with napalm and its imperialism generally. His artworks were reminiscent of the finest works of Goya, Dix, Rouault, and other iconic anti-war artists.

Leon Golub’s Vietnam’s catalyzed his emergence into his most productive political period as a visual artist, solidifying his stellar national and international reputation. He turned his focus to critical individual portraits of political leaders throughout the world and to terrorism, torture, militarism, racism, and related social and political themes. These latter large works established him as a provocative visual force.

His depictions of torture especially resonated in an era of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Paintings like “Interrogation 1, II, and III” are disconcerting images of men who cavalierly abuse bound and naked prisoners and are stark reminders of the torture in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Iran, and elsewhere in the late 20th century. They are also chilling renders of contemporary world of the uncomfortable reality of American complicity in these disgraceful activities in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo more recently.

Likewise, Golub’s artworks about mercenaries called attention to yet another evil force in world politics, adding a dynamic dimension to his artistic career. At his death in 2004, he had become one of the most recognized artists of social justice in the world.

Bird, Jon. Leon Golub: Echoes of the Real. Second edition. London: Reaktion Books, 2011.

Golub, Leon, edited by Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Do Paintings Bite? Selected Texts 1948—1996. Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 1997.

Golub, Leon. “Artist.” The Broad. https://www.thebroad.org/art/leon-golub

Kuspit, Donald. Leon Golub, Existential/Activist Painter. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1985.