Do you have a fire? The iconology of smoking in art history

Smoking people and luxury foods as image motifs have fascinated mankind for over 1,700 years when the Mayas created the first artistic representations of tobacco around 250 AD. This early connection between art and the consumption of tobacco has developed into a multi -layered cultural phenomenon over the centuries.

Maybe mirrors n The representations of smoking in the imaging art of profound topics such as power, authority, gender roles, addiction, privileges and even colonialism.

The presentation of luxury foods in paintings, sculptures and installations found remarkable forms of expression, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. Contemporary artists such as Xu Bing transformed 500,000 cigarettes into an impressive tiger carpet, while Sarah Lucas created provocative sculptures that represent her own lungs.

While authors such as Albert Camus and Ernest Hemingway to Tabak used to express freedom and rebellion in the literature, the visual art has developed in parallel. However, the representation of smoking in art has changed significantly over the decades. From a symbol of glamor, status and a sophisticated lifestyle, it has become a critical comment on social values ​​and health risks, as Mandy Owens' installation from cigarette filters demonstrated impressively.

The beginnings: how cigarettes came into art

Art is not the use of a beauty canon, but what instincts and brain can grasp beyond any canon. ”

The world -famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso once philosophized. Whether he had luxury foods in mind remains in the dark. In any case, the statement can be transferred to our topic.

The connection between tobacco consumption and artistic expression goes far back into human history. While tobacco is often viewed critically today, he had a deep spiritual and social meaning in previous cultures that were reflected in numerous art forms. Early representations at the Mayas in Central America show that it was probably the priests of the Maya who were the first to recognize and use the mystical power of the blue haze. *

In the Maya area there are numerous artistic representations of smoking deities. CHAC Mool , the rain god of the Maya, which was considered a passionate smoker - was particularly remarkable The Maya culture interpreted cosmic phenomena through the prism of smoking:

• They saw thrown away cigar stubs in their gods in shooting stars
• Thunder and lightning they interpreted as the fire of the gods to light their smoke rolls
• Tobacco served as a medium for communication with the world of gods

The Balamkú cave in Chichén Itzá is the place of storage for a variety of Maya artifacts. So far, the vegetable components in the caves have been largely unexplored. Nevertheless, studies have shown that tobacco was burned in the caves in ceremonies in order to nourish the souls of the underworld and to provide protection on earth. The close connection between the Maya and tobacco becomes clear in ritual and secular customs over the centuries.

According to their conviction, smoking as a spiritual act was able to provide experiences that lead human consciousness into the realm of gods, which was important for spiritual development and at the same time offer protection against natural gods and support them in healing processes.

Your belief system and practices are of immense value in order to plant the relationship between shamanistic communities and to understand the earth better. The plant genre Nicotiana belongs to the family of nightshade plants and originally comes from the Andes of South America. It spread through religious rites and trade relationships over the entire continent. *

Renaissance and Baroque: tobacco as a status symbol

After America's European discovery, the cultural importance of smoking changed fundamentally. In Europe, tobacco consumption was initially an exotic privilege of the upper class. The English seafarer and poet Sir Walter Raleigh should not have dispensed with smoking even in the face of death. "Smoking Parties" in London *

Smoking developed from the religious ritual to the social status symbol.

Industrialization and the popularization of smoking

With industrialization, tobacco became widely available and increasingly found its way into art. The French poet Théodore de Banville cultivated the image of the dandy , for which the cigarette was of artistic life. Jean-Paul Sartre used tobacco as a philosophical symbol for the "acquired object" in his work "that being and nothing".

The artistic importance of smoking spans an impressive arch: from the Dutch genre painting from the 17th century to the film Noir , from French symbolism to Andy Warhol . Baudelaire's literary vignettes of smoking women in particular with "male cynicism" and "oriental indifference" shaped the aesthetics of the 20th century. *

Cigarettes as a symbol of art

For centuries, artists have used the cigarette not only as an everyday object, but as a multi -layered symbol in their works. It goes far beyond mere illustration - every smoke procession tells its own story.

Rebellion and non -conformity

expressed in pop culture James Dean shaped the image of youthful rebellion with the cigarette hanging in the corner of the mouth. In "... because you don't know what you are doing" (OT: Rebel Without a Cause), he embodied non -conformity and protest against social expectations. In fact, cigarettes were often used as a symbol for "rebellion, loneliness and passion" and associated with properties such as "Coolness, Melancholy or Protest" .

In transit and death

The rising smoke - fleeting and fleeting - serves artists as a perfect metaphor for the finiteness of life. Especially in film scenes, slowly flying the smoke underlines the transience of the moment.

The smoke, which is distributed in the room and finally disappears, can represent moments and the inevitable offense of life. ”

This vanitas symbolism can already be found in still life of the 17th century, where tobacco pipes appear as symbols of transience.

Sexuality and gender roles

During the 19th century, a smoking woman was considered a provocation. The women's rights activist Louisa Aston (1814-1871) consciously used this:

I smoke cigars and don't believe in God "

- a sentence that caused male indignation. Cigarettes later became a symbol of female emancipation. From the 1950s, this brought many emancipated women to taste. At the same time, cigarettes in art were used as phallic symbols.

The way a smoker leads the cigarette to the mouth, holds between the lips and enjoys the smoke can arouse associations with oral sex. ”

Power and social position

Film legends such as Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable used cigarettes such as Marlboro as a symbol of authority.

These men did not just pipe - they prevailed. Every movement, every train symbolized a relentless presence that dominated the room. "

In contrast, actresses such as Bette Davis or Lauren Bacall the smoke a tool of seduction . Sean Connery as James Bond showed sovereignty and elegance with his cigarette, while Tony Montana in "Scarface" demonstrated his claim to power and wealth by smoking a cigar.

Artistic clashes with smoking

Numerous important artists have dealt intensively with smoking and used a wide variety of approaches and materials. Your works range from provocative social criticism to subtle interpretations of everyday objects.

Sarah Lucas: sculptures made of cigarettes

The British artist Sarah Lucas uses cigarettes as the central element of her provocative art. Her sculptures are particularly remarkable, in which she tinkers breasts completely from cigarettes and stuffed into a bra. In addition, she specifically places cigarettes between the legs of torsso figures to question social taboos.

Lucas mainly works with simple, easily accessible materials - in addition to cigarettes, it uses tables, light bulbs, beer bottles and even toilet. She herself describes her gluing of sculptures with hundreds of cigarettes as "a form of masturbation" because it extremely satisfies them.

XU Bing: Tobacco Project

The Chinese artist Xu Bing created an impressive trilogy with his "Tobacco Project" , which was presented in Durham, Shanghai and Virginia. His monumental work "1st Class" consists of around 450,000 cigarettes, which have been arranged into a huge tier carpet.

With tobacco as a material and topic, Xu Bing explores a wide range of questions - from global trade to irony of advertising for harmful substances. His personal connection to the topic becomes clear in "Calendar Book", where he printed the medical records of his father who died of lung cancer on flat -pressed cigarette boxes.

Irving Penn: Photographs of cigarette remains

In the early 1970s, the renowned fashion photographer Irving Penn to an unusual motif: cigarette -stumbling. Penn collected tips from the streets of New York and carefully photographed them in the studio. This work was contrary to his earlier works, in which he photographed people while smoking or even cigarette advertising.

When his exhibition opened in Marlborough Gallery , the pictures initially met with incomprehension. However, with his platinum printing technology, Penn converted these waste products into exquisite abstract works of art of surprising beauty and depth.

Peter Blake: cigarette packaging as a pop art

British pop art artist Sir Peter Blake used found cigarette packs as art objects. His series, which became lovingly known as "Fag Packets" , embodies Blake's conviction that beauty can be found everywhere - even in objects that many would consider as trash. The cigarette packs underline the iconic design and branding of the 20th century, a key element of the pop art movement.

Édouard Manet: Subtle symbolism in painting

Édouard Manet painted a Gypsi with a cigarette - one of the earliest examples of the representation of smoking women in modern art. Manet used the cigarette as a subtle symbol, which expressed both modern independence and a form of rebellion against social conventions.

His representations of smoking women became an important motive that the changed role of women in the society of the 19th century against mirrors te.

The change in perception: from glamor to criticism

The truth cannot exist. If I look for the truth in my pictures, I can create a hundred pictures with this truth. Well, which one is the real one? Those who serves as a model for me, or those I paint? "

Again Pablo Picasso.

Over the decades, the social perception of smoking has changed dramatically. What was once considered an epitome of elegance and style is increasingly critically considered today.

Cigarettes in advertising and pop culture

When the initial warnings of harmful effects of tobacco smoke appeared in the 1920s, the industry reacted skillfully: Lucky Strike invented "throat protection" , while RJ Reynolds simply claimed: "Doctors smoke camel more than any other cigarette brand" .

This strategy was underpinned by fake certificates of "real" doctors. In fact, cigarettes were considered a fashionable status symbol at the time. Hollywood also played a crucial role in this - canvas idols had a huge influence on the fact that old and young picked up the glow stem. *

Legal restrictions and social pressure

Since the 1950s, the proportion of smokers in Germany has decreased from just over half to 29 percent (Source: Deutsches Ärzteblatt * ) . Especially in men, the proportion fell drastically: in 1950 almost nine out of ten men still smoked, today it is only 33 percent.

The attitude towards smokers began to change in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1975 only 29 percent of the West Germans had the impression that smokers were sometimes considered wrong, there were more than half in 1986. Today, especially people from households with low incomes and educational background smoke - while the upper class has changed significantly with only 19 percent smokers.

Cigarettes in contemporary art as a warning

While the cigarette advertising used to use modern art, the sheet has turned. Today artists create works that warn of smoking. The WHO exhibition "KunstSchück" presented works by twenty European artists on the subject of "smoking and tobacco cessation" . The topics ranged from the presentation of the risks of smoking to the demasking of misleading advertising.

It is noteworthy, for example, Thomas Ruff's large -format poster of a red -baked boy with the words "Papa no longer smokes" - a picture that was produced in 110,000 copies symbolically one of the people who died every year in Germany.

Cigarette packaging as a nostalgic object

Through strict legal regulations, cigarette brands became increasingly “brandless”. The second law decided in 2020 to amend the Tobacco Products Act brought far -reaching advertising restrictions * . As a result, the once iconic packaging such as the Marlboro-man lost their advertising work.

Nevertheless - or precisely because of this - old cigarette packaging has now achieved a new status as collector's items and are estimated as nostalgic design objects.

Blue haze with artistic echo

The artistic representation of smoking has undoubtedly changed fundamentally over the centuries. From the spiritual smoke ceremonies of the Maya to the critical installations of contemporary artists mirrors T, the flue art always resembles social developments. While the smoke in the past was a symbol of elegance, power and rebellion, today it is primarily for health risks and social problems. Nevertheless, the fascination of the artists for the fleeting, transient character of the smoke remains.

In fact, the works of artists such as Sarah Lucas or Xu Bing reveal a profound examination of the complex legacy of tobacco. The change from the glorified status symbol to the critically questioned object is particularly remarkable. The once iconic cigarette packs, which Peter Blake celebrated as pop art objects, are now disfigured by warnings and have largely lost their glamorous status.

In conclusion, it can be seen that hardly any other consumption product has experienced as multi -layered artistic processing as the cigarette. Although smoking itself increasingly disappears from public life, his artistic echo remains - as a testimony to a social phenomenon that shaped culture, status and identity for centuries. The art of smoke reminds us of how narrow art and society are interwoven and how artists act as seismographs of social changes.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and managing director of Kunstplaza . Publicist, editor and passionate blogger in the field of art, design and creativity since 2011. Successful conclusion in web design as part of a university degree (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expression painting and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

www. kunstplaza .de/