
The overall well-being of the earth and its environment is an important issue that people need to care about. With an increase in production and factories, pollution is a major factor in the downfall of the environment and overall health of this amazing planet. In “Stop Pollution” by Paweł Kuczyński, a Polish art satirist, the idea that people must come together to help clean the environment is presented to the viewer by using, color, line and spacing.  

Color is very important in this picture because it displays the significance of pollution in both the picture and society.  In terms of the smoke, there is a very noticeable difference in color.  While most of the pollution smoke is black and dirty, there is decent amount that’s white and appears to be cleaner. The contrast in color of the smoke shows the two sides of earth’s environmental issue, contamination and purity. The contamination is the black part of the smoke. The viewer can relate this color to represent death, evil, and darkness.  Essentially the black pollution is causing death and darkness on the world, because of the harm it’s causing on the atmosphere.  The white part of the smoke represents purity.  White is associated with goodness, safety and purity.  Because this contrast happens right after the smoke approaches the workers in the picture, the viewer knows that the people in the picture are working to clean up the pollution problem and have an influence on the safety of the environment. 

Kuczyński also uses color in a way to show a change of culture that could help the world’s environmental issues through the workers in the picture.  In this painting he illustrates the workers in yellow to signify a new hope in humanity.  Yellow symbolizes joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.  This representation of happiness means there is a bright new future in the human race. Just as yellow symbolizes intellect, the workers who represent the human race are also gaining more knowledge about the effects of pollution on the environment.  As people gain more and more knowledge on the harm caused to the environment, people will more likely switch their mindset to saving the place they call home.  Not only do the workers stand for the new ideas of people, but they also stand for new innovations that will transform the current environmental state.  The viewer knows this because yellow represents energy. Helping clean up the pollution is alternative energy source.  While alternative energy sources already exist such as solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal energy, it is suggested that in order to clear up the environment humans must be “bright” and “intelligent” by realizing they need to start using these alternative energy sources instead of non-renewable ones like coal and oil, which are damaging the earth’s environment. 

Spacing is a key element Kuczyński uses to symbolize not only the issue of pollution in the environment, but also the solution to cleaning up the problem.  He does this mainly through the smoke and workers.  The smoke is engulfing the upper left part of the picture of the sky.  This shows that the smoke and pollution is almost out of control and taking over the world, just as it is taking up a majority of the painting.  The fact that the pollution is so large and out of control in the picture shows the viewer the urgency of the issue and the importance that people need to start working to lessen harmful emissions and hopefully put an end to them in the future.  The spacing of the workers is also important to note, as it provides even more proof of the symbolism in the workers.  In the painting the workers are on a scaffolding  that is similar to the ones window washers use to clean industrial buildings. They are cleaning the pollution making it cleaner like the workers who clean windows.  Because they are suspended in the air just like window washers, there is a connection to the difficulty of switching to more eco-friendly energy sources and the difficulty of workers cleaning an entire skyscraper.  There are also two workers on the scaffold, which symbolize that fixing the environmental problem isn’t a one-man job, but something that needs to be taken care of by everyone who wants a better earth. Kuczyński is telling the viewer that cleaning the environment is going to be an industrial sized task, but if people work together in one unit they can repair the broken environment, which has slowly been deteriorated by large amounts of pollution. 

Kuczyński uses the element of line as a way to enhance the connection between the simple lines in the painting and the solution to the issue of pollution.  There is no linear structure to the smoke, which shows that the pollution is an ongoing issue that is uncontained and is affecting everywhere. While the smoke has no set structure, Kuczyński provides the viewer with a clear source of the problem.  He does this by showing the smoke coming out of a straight pipe, which can be inferred to be a factory smokestack.  One can assume that Kuczyński believes factories are the cause for the start of pollution and harmful emissions because of the placement of the smokestack being on the bottom right of the painting.  It can also be noted that the order of movement in the painting is diagonally from the bottom right to the top left.  The element of line is also used additionally with the surface the workers are standing on.  Because the scaffold appears to be completely flat and stable, this symbolizes that the future is bright and on track if people continue working hard to clean the environment.

Pollution is a severe issue that has caused a decline in the environmental health of the world for a while.  Through the use of color, spacing and line Kuczyński shows the viewer that because of the industrial revolution and factories there is an ongoing pollution and environmental contamination issue that needs to be solved by people working together using environmentally friendly energy sources.
