Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, an exhibit currently on display for the general public at the Brooklyn Museum, is something I’d recommend anyone here in the Tri State area to go see. While unsure what exactly to expect before arriving, it took me by surprise as to how well it was put together.
The show’s organizers, Teresa A. Carbone (the museum’s curator of American art) and Kellie Jones, did an exceptional job of strategically placing the artwork in relevance and relating topics to one another. When I arrived, the exhibit was empty and I actually had the opportunity to meet Ms. Carbone, who was on hand at the museum’s entrance.
Upon entrance into the exhibit, your mind is captivated and thoughts begin to form in your head. The first piece of art in the exhibition, Honor Roll made by May Stevens, is a list of what appears to be student’s names placed in sequential form. But upon further analysis and the reading of the description, you see that the names inscribed are actually of Black activists from the 1960s who fought for racial integration on the university level.
Albeit not hands on, the exhibit is very interactive. There are some videos included, with one being the beginning synopsis of what is to come.
One of the pieces my girlfriend and I both appreciated was Norman Rockwell’s New Kids in the Neighborhood. The paining is polarizing because of the elements from within and the strategic juxtaposition of the children. There are three Caucasian children accompanied by their dog on the right hand side who appear to be investigating where the two Black children and their pet cat have come from. The moving truck behind them, in my estimation, would suggest that they have recently moved in and are integrat...
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... and intent on overcoming anything in his way that provides resistance. I believe the image, in all of its subtlety, encapsulates the true power and strength of Mr. Muhammad Ali.
Gordon Parks, Muhammad Ali, photograph, 1966.
The Witness exhibit is definitely worth a visit. It is quite informative and thought provoking as to what these people went through during that era. Miss Carbone did an exemplary job in the minimalistic approach to the arrangement of the exhibit. There is not much going on around outside of the art, with the wall encompassed by either artwork or excerpts providing information; she allows the viewer to really zero in and focus on the art at hand. Overall, I think the goal of the exhibition was to display what troubled times these were for people of color and to portray their intestinal fortitude and strength to overcome these obstacles.
As I waited to observe the audience as they filled the seats with pencil in hand, I was amazed by the amount of diversity I saw before me. By the time the lecture was ready to set foot, I observed that nearly the entire lecture hall was filled. I would say that the hall where our discussion was being held in could probably hold around 300 people. The majority of the audience was not students forced to write a paper on the Brown v. Board Commemoration events, but rather scholars who were on average in their mid-40s. It seemed as though everyone knew each other to some degree. At one point, I saw a woman walk in with her young son and they were greeted by one of the first presenters. Oftentimes, groups of 2 or 3 walked into the room and they would sit down in no particular section of the seating and proceed to talk moderately loudly and peacefully. There was a sense of joy and rejuvenation in the air. After making my final observations of the crowd, I noted that it was a predominantly white showing! Not something I would expect to see when attending a discussion on slavery. It was a spectacle for me to see a group of Asian Americans nodding in unison when points were made during the seminar relating to black and white race relations. I would say that African-Americans wer...
When I entered the hall where the famous civil rights leader was going to speak, the crowd filing in reminded me more of a church congregation than of a university campus audience. The general mood had an air of formality about it and many people were dressed up for the occasion. Conversations were going on around me but in quiet, almost respectful tones as everyone located their seats. The surroundings at Smith Memorial Hall helped to set this formal mood, too, because the hall could be mistaken for a church with organ pipes in the background and flower arrangements set up on the podium. Unfortunately, any expectations that I had about Julian Bond giving a high-powered, energetic speech about the exciting days of the civil rights movement were fading fast even before the event got started, and I braced myself for a boring Friday night.
DeWitte, Debra J. et al. Gateways To Art. New York City, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.
As indicated above, the exhibit is theme-based, centered around a historical period of time. Because of this, there is a large proportion of text, revealing background history, in relation to the actual artifacts. In my second, more thorough run-through, I certainly found myself reading more than looking at "things". In fact, it seems as though the exhibit only tells the true chronological history to those patient enough to read all of the text. A less thorough visit to the exhibit will undoubtedly result in a skewed view of the past. I will address this issue later in the Critical Assessment section.
There was silence. Except for my dubious observation that it was indeed the display we were looking for. If the large black on white lettering describing the exhibit wasn’t enough, the black and white photography would alone have been a dead give away. I couldn’t help but think: ‘how cliché.’ There were a series of maybe six photos of two women: one white, the other black. The series showed them in confrontation over a chair. Who had the seat, or “power” so to speak. It wasn’t a terribly innovative piece in my mind. How many times have we seen the struggle between the two races in varying artistic genres? It was very straightforward and too simplistic for my tastes. The message was very blatant and clear, though, that the struggle between whites and blacks is indeed far from over.
Jackson, P. (1992). (in)Forming the Visual: (re)Presenting Women of African Descent. International Review of African American Art. 14 (3), 31-7.
The civil rights movement in the 1960’s was a very powerful time period in this country. Birmingham, Alabama was in the heart of the struggle for equal rights. African Americans protested and fought for what they believed in through peaceful and violent protests. In this picture the struggle is shown on how difficult it was for African Americans to gain equal rights. The photo was taken in the midst of a protest which adds dramatic effect, the people in the photo show pain and the people not pictured make them a faceless foe and the lack of colors in the picture helps send a powerful message.
The 1960’s were one of the most significant decades in the twentieth century. The sixties were filled with new music, clothes, and an overall change in the way people acted, but most importantly it was a decade filled with civil rights movements. On February 1, 1960, four black freshmen from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College in Greensboro went to a Woolworth’s lunch counter and sat down politely and asked for service. The waitress refused to serve them and the students remained sitting there until the store closed for the night. The very next day they returned, this time with some more black students and even a few white ones. They were all well dressed, doing their homework, while crowds began to form outside the store. A columnist for the segregation minded Richmond News Leader wrote, “Here were the colored students in coats, white shirts, and ties and one of them was reading Goethe and one was taking notes from a biology text. And here, on the sidewalk outside was a gang of white boys come to heckle, a ragtail rabble, slack-jawed, black-jacketed, grinning fit to kill, and some of them, God save the mark, were waving the proud and honored flag of the Southern States in the last war fought by gentlemen. Eheu! It gives one pause”(Chalmers 21). As one can see, African-Americans didn’t have it easy trying to gain their civil rights. Several Acts were passed in the 60’s, such as Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. This was also, unfortunately, the time that the assassinations of important leaders took place. The deaths of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., all happened in the 60’s.
At last, I found the time to visit the museum! While the collection of artifacts is mainly used for cadet academic instruction, the collection also educated a college freshman, like me, who is studying US History. I was able to appreciate the exhibits and connect the artifacts to the class material and lessons. I found the exhibits and the stories behind the artifacts the most remarkable.
Terror and mockery come together in the portraits of Cindy Sherman on display at the Crocker Art Museum. Walking into the large, dimly lit ballroom, one may begin to feel a slight sense of trepidation as the viewer looks around to find nine sets of beady eyes watching one’s every move. Sherman produced her History Portraits during the late eighties and early nineties, nine of which are displayed at the museum. In her portraits she uses lush fabrics, lavish jewelry, and false body parts to decorate herself in these self-portraits. Her portraits have been know to cause discomfort in the viewers who find the general stereotypes, depicted in her portraits, amusing, yet confusing and terrorizing.
These artist cover two separate events so we all can witnesses the history with them. There was snapshots from the effects of discrimination, to the peaceful protests and violent conflicts (Adams). Their ability to inform with in the setting stir up the audience emotions about the events happening. Hearing Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. voice makes the room more realistic. Building their audience emotions helps get their purpose across.
In an expressive voice, Ms. Angelou paints a memorable picture of a small black community anticipating graduation day fifty-five years ago. She describes the children as trembling "visibly with anticipation" and the teachers being "respectful of the now quiet and aging seniors." Although it is autobiographical, an omniscient voice in the first six paragraphs describes how "they" - the black children in Stamps - felt and acted before the omniscient voice changes to a limited omniscient narration in the seventh paragraph. Her eloquent voice skillfully builds the tension as she demonstrates bigotry destroying innocence.
My first experience at the museum was a good one. I had so much fun even after we were done with the Norton-Simon. Being a business major, I did not know that art could speak to me as it did. It has not influenced me so much as to change my major, but it did open my eyes to a whole new world. Now when I look at art, I do not just see a pretty picture, but what the artist is actually trying to say.
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
Traveling back to the 1920’s African American Art was at its’s height. At the time there were two typical styles of art that were widely used, Folk Art and High Art. While both styles were different, artist of both sides had disagreements of which art style better represented Racial Pride.