The artist Fred Tomaselli arranged an assortment of objects “Airborne Event” in 2003, and the talented Bettye Saar, “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” in 1972. I will be comparing these two pieces. This essay will consist of the explanation of each piece of artwork, and the comparison of each piece in my own opinion.
The American artist Fred Tomaselli arranges pills, leaves, insects and cutouts of animals and body parts to create his pieces of art. His incorporation of items are arranged to suggest a level of perception along with a heightened visual experience. This gives me, the viewer, a sense of Energy. The perception of color that Fred uses gives a gravitating feel. If you take a look at the heart of this piece you can instantly visualize the different items Fred incorporates into the piece.
The artist Bettye Saar uses belittling derogatory images of African Americans, which are now called black collectables. She tries to challenge stereotypes and racists myths. In the Saar’s assemblage “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima” she uses images of Aunt Jemima. Aunt Jemima was considered a domestic servant, which has been used to sell commercially prepared pancake mix. In the above mentioned piece, Saar uses three versions of Aunt Jemima to turnaround such images. The first image you would probably see is the largest image of Jemima’s figure, this Jemima holds a rifle and pistol as well as a broom. A Black power fist at first glance may not be seen, but as you gaze at the image you may notice that it is something you should not have missed. The next image is the one of Jemima holding up a crying child. In the background there is an image of a lighter complexioned Jemima, this image can be interpreted as a thinner lighter more appealing more marketable Jemima.
Each viewer’s interpretation of these two different pieces would be based on their own inner feelings. The reason I chose these two pieces is that I see them as total opposites. Each of these artists chooses to portray an image of a human like object in two different ways. In one side you have Fred Tomaselli using different items to express openness while you have Bettye Saar using her artistic skills to express a struggle of freedom. Since these images defined how Blacks were often perceived by Whites and were often times the source of how Blacks saw themselves.
Henry Tanner and Alice Barney were both exceeding talented artists. Great artistic ability can be seen in both “The face of a Jew in Palestine and “the face of a Negro Boy’. While their painting techniques are similar, the two artists have their differences. In comparing these two works of art, I have learned that each artist possesses their own unique way of expressing their talent, even if it is art work of the same medium and style.
An artwork that stood out in the exhibition was School of Beauty, School of Culture (2012) . It portrays women and two children standing in a beauty salon and school with green walls and a red floor. The walls have posters promoting black beauty with one that reads, “it’s your hair” and under this statement are the words love, dark and lovely. There are mirrors against the wall and in the reflection a camera flash is shown from a person who is taking a picture of those in the salon. Red, black, and green, the colors of the Afro-American flag, border the top of the wall, symbolizing the black power movement . The focal point of this piece is a woman who stands in the center, posing for the person taking a picture. To her right, towards the floor, is a “floating” head of a white woman which is compressed and 2-dimensional. This is a tribute to Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors (1533) because in Holbein’s piece, there is a 2-dimensional skull painted in the same fashion. Just how the skull in The Ambassadors is a reminder of death, the head in Marshall’s
When Saar was a teacher at the University of California including Otis Art Institute since then has been changed to Otis College of Art and Design. When Saar started she used larger, room-size scale, which she created specific installations that may had altered shrines exploring the relationship among the technology and spirituality, also including the interests in mysticism and Voodoo. Saar discussed while continues to challenge the negative ideas of African Americans. Saar had done of the master a piece that is titled “The Liberations of Aunt Jemima.” This is a picture that was originally made out of a wooden box that had a full-figured, smiling black mammy, in a kerchief wrapped around her head. It shows Mammy holding broom in one hand and a gun in the other. Yet, Saar still resides and works in Los Angeles; she is the mother of Alison and Lezley Saar, both who are artists. In the Saar shop or known as studio is scattered with art all over the place. Tables and shelf are all scattered with mysterious objects and materials, pickanninny dolls, tiny minstrels, including slices of watermelon made from painted wood.
While visiting the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the works of Archibald Motley caught my attention. Two paintings by the same artist are the focus of this compare and contrast paper. Both are oil paintings during the same time period. Portrait of my Grandmother was painted in 1922 and Hot Rhythm was painted in 1934 only 12 years later. Although the paintings are by the same artist and have similarities, there are also differences which make the artist’s work interesting. Portrait of My Grandmother and Hot Rhythm are two paintings by Motley that capture different emotions (aspects would be a better word) of African Americans.
Rutt and Underwood used many different ways to exploit this new image. They used posters, live appearances, memorabilia, and of course on the product itself. These two men practiced advertising in a way where it quickly linked image and product in such a way that a lasting impression is created in the public's mind. They used a clever promotion strategy that promoted the idea that Aunt Jemima was a real cook who made the best pancakes in the south. To know the history of the stereotype about African American women and why they spent so much time in the kitchen there has to be an understanding of how African American women were thought to be able to handle heat better because of their darker skin, so that that is why they were assigned the jobs closest to the furnaces and stoves. Aunt Jemima's relationship with the South was intentionally full of romanticism and intrinsic values. She was made to represent the splendor of the Old and New South. Those who might have been prone to believe that the New South had nothing of quality left to contribute after war and slavery needed to look no further than Aunt Jemima's pancake mix to see otherwise The way they did this was by taking the image of a stereotypical depiction of African American women as servants, and portrayed these servants as fat, unattractive, but happy. Aunt Jemima is a characteristic ...
The narratives in the work speak to the racial and social inequalities in America in the nineties. This deep concern with the coloured experience and the struggle for civil rights is seen in the images and sculptures she creates. Especially of women, as she lived through a time of widespread segregation, so her work was created from the place she knew most intimately.
The pictures say a lot, however, with petite information. The artwork she displays are somehow complex, and one gets to understand their meaning over time as she uses vivid imagination to bring out facts and fiction together.
Wolfskill, Phoebe. "Caricature and the New Negro in the Work of Archibald Motley Jr. and Palmer Hayden." Art Bulletin 91.3 (2009): 343-365. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 31 May 2010.
The right side is almost purely white, with blue and gray shadows; the rest of the body is black, dark brown, and navy. The profile of a white woman obscures the left half of the black face, facing to the right of the piece; her hair is in a large braid and she wears a simple pearl earring. The black woman has long, flowing, bright blue hair, as well as full red lips. The black woman’s body has a rose over it, and the white woman is wearing what looks like a straw bikini; the figure is wrapped in a thick rope from the waist down. The stark contrast between the white and black meet with a definitive line; there is no blending between the two colors, which amplifies the feelings of separation and difference between the two halves of the woman’s
She is supposed to be representing freedom for the whites and making it known that the blacks have none. The naked woman symbolized a form of freedom. The white men brought in a naked woman with an American flag painted on her and if any of the black boys looked at her they were going to be in a lot of trouble. A lot of the black boys couldn’t look because unlike the white men staring and drooling the black boys had feeling and they felt her pain. The white men used her as a toy just like they were using the black boys for their own enjoyment. When the narrator finally was able to look up at her he saw the pain in her eyes. He knew she was dying inside and was trapped and had no escape just like him. Even though she was a white woman she had no freedom she was like a slave, a show for the white men. Written below it shows how one guy took control over the naked women and had his way with her unlike the black boys. They had more decency to look away and try to treat her with the respect she deserved. Unlike the white man who took control over the white women the grandson stated that “I noticed a certain merchant who followed her hungrily, his lips loose and drooling”. The white women even though they were white they were slaves to the white men just like the black boys were. The white women were only good for certain things like cooking, cleaning and waiting hand and foot for the white males. The worst part of it all was that the white males talked down upon and treated them like sex objects rather than human beings. Not only blacks had it bad so did the women they surely didn’t have the life they truly
The painting clearly refers to the period of slavery, presenting the unequal roles between black and white individuals. The artists paints the image in a way that both exposes and ridicules the actions of the white man. A black woman being kissed by a white man suggests that she is a slave and therefore in a relationship that was enforced and sexually violent. African American women, as slaves, were subject to the practice of sexual exploitation in the 19th century. Women were treated as property as they were continuously harassed, raped, and beaten by masters as white men with authority took advantage of their slaves. While women were appeared to be consenting to the mistreatment, no safeguards existed in order to protect women from such abuses, and were left with no choice but to engage in sexual activity with their masters. The black man in the image, on the other hand, is subject to being hit, a way of enforcing slavery. The two black figures, are in essence, a form of “luxury” for the white men as the black man is being deprived of his rights by his owner and is used as a tool through work in the fields, while the woman is used as a “luxury” that satisfies her owner through fulfilling the white man’s sexual
Meta Warrick Fuller’s sculpture “Ethiopia Awakening” served as a metaphoric yearning for African culture, a symbolic image of emancipation, an awakening of African Americans diaspora identity, resurgence of Fuller’s artistic career and as a self-portrait of Fuller. The Progressive era, from 1890 to 1920, forms the backdrop to Fuller’s life and art. This period has come to symbolize the reform efforts of the middle class. White middle class progressives sought to reengineer industry and government, pushed for economic and social reforms. The Progressive era was also a time of intense contradictions and ambiguities. Race was the blind spot of white progressives. 1 At the turn of the twentieth-century African Americans continued to be caricatured and stereotyped as buffoons, servile menials, comic entertainers, threatening sub-humans which led to African Americans being objectified.2 When white Americans confronted African Americans in any meaningful way, they did so through the filter of a web of racist images that they placed over the black face of humanity like a mask over an actor. African American intellectuals understood that one of their central tasks to counter the negative representation of African Americans in art would be through the reimage of the physiognomy of African Americans. The task was an enormous one, especially since African Americans had only the most minimal control over the mass production and dissemination of information. In addition, the manufacture of products that displayed stereotypical and derogatory images of African Americans was particularly lucrative.3
I believe these two stories can be compared because they are both dealing with young black people trying to figure out why they are being discriminated just because of their skin color. They both feel like they should be just as free or equal as white people and not judged so harshly for being born black. They both are attending school during a rough time for colored people. They both just want to make a difference and make people realize that they are not bad people and that they are just as smart as white people. I would say that they both were very unlucky to be born colored during this time period because of the hatred but at the same time they are the ones who could have the biggest impact on changing lives and making it better for colored
Both novels demonstrate the characteristics of gender, race, and family relations. Black culture has endured through challenges as represented in these books. Both books present the struggle that individuals go through regarding slavery or society changing. They present diverse stories regarding things actually falling apart in both books.
What happens when the artist or viewer has a different sense of vision. Looking at three different cases in Oliver Sacks An Anthropologist on Mars; Seven Paradoxical Tales, “The Case of the Color...