Fragmented canvas and exposed linen Symbolism

Censorship, piecing, and the mediated nature of the event/image.

Common Themes

Colonialism & empirePropaganda & ideologyMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Originality, authorship, and appropriationPower & authorityMortality & transience (memento mori)War & conflictLandscape & place

Artworks Featuring This Symbol

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian by Édouard Manet

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian

Édouard Manet (1867–1868)

Manet’s The Execution of Emperor Maximilian confronts state violence with a <strong>cool, reportorial</strong> style. The wall of gray-uniformed riflemen, the <strong>fragmented canvas</strong>, and the dispassionate loader at right turn the killing into <strong>impersonal machinery</strong> that implicates the viewer <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.