Gamin Art Critique
One of Augusta Savage’s most captivating works of art is “Gamin”, a sculpture made of painted plaster. This is an image of a young street urchin who is thought to be Savage’s nephew, Ellis Ford. This sculpture represents the many young African American men of Harlem who roamed the streets. This sculpture is not very large. It is only 9 in. x 5¾ in. x 4⅜ in., but it is a suitable size considering the subject is a young urchin. He is wearing a shirt that appears to be wrinkled and a loose fitting hat. He appears to be poor and hopeless. He looks as though he is looking at something that is far away or just looking for someone to restore his hope again. His face shows loneliness or sadness. If you look closely,
the expression on his face could even be one of calm composure. If you were to break this sculpture down bit by bit, you would notice that the young boy’s figure started as many shapes. The hat could be an organic shape, an oval could make up the tip of the hat, the head of the young boy could be an oval, his eyes could be ovals with the pupils being circles, organic shapes could make up the nose and the mouth of the boy, and the ears could be represented by half circles or half ovals. Towards the bottom half of the sculpture, the shirt could be made up of a square, and a rectangle could be the shirt collar. The structure of the young urchin creates an asymmetrical balance. This is necessary to give the sculpture the look that makes it so appealing. Even though this master artwork is plastered in bronze, if you look closely you will notice that bronze is not the only hue used. Brown and forest green are also used. Looking at this sculpture, you realize that these hues are all neutral and dull hues. This gives you a feeling of boldness and darkness. Light is coming from one source on the left side of the boy. This is giving a core shadow on the left side of the boy and a highlight on the right side of him.
Kehinde Wiley was born in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. He is a New York visual artist who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of black people in heroic poses. As a child, his mother supported his interest in art and enrolled him in after school art classes. When Wiley was 12 years old he attended an art school in Russia for a short time. At the age of 20 he traveled to Nigeria to learn about his African roots and to meet his father. He has firmly situated himself within art’s history’s portrait painting tradition. He earned his BFA at San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and he received his MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2001.
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.
One of the major factors that can help for analyzing the meaning of this sculpture is the artist himself. However, more important than the artist himself, are his experiences, which greatly shaped the intended meaning of the piece. Rodin’s life consisted of several impactful events such as being rejected from colleges, visiting Italy to study the art of Michelangelo, being diagnosed with poor eyesight at a young age, and experiencing World War I (Auguste Rodin Biography). All of these early life-impacting events caused Rodin to search for an inspiration, or a getaway from the war scenery and his past failures. This getaway trip was found wh...
The exhibition is not too large as it only contains around eighty artworks. These works all have African Americans as the main subject since Marshall believes that African Americans deserve more attention in art because they are almost “invisible” in a way. Mastry is arranged chronologically, starting with Marshall’s earlier works and then leading to galleries with themes such as beauty or the civil-rights struggle. Mastry should be visited because it allows a person to learn about African American art which is underrepresented and underappreciated. The general idea or thesis of this exhibition is that African Americans have been looked down on throughout history and viewed as subhumans, or even invisible. Marshall’s exhibition is about appreciating African Americans and viewing them as what they are: humans.
In order to add something to their lives, [black families] decorated their tenements and their homes in all of these colors. I've been asked, is anyone in my family artistically inclined? I've always felt ashamed of my response and I always said no, not realizing that my artistic sensibility came from this ambiance.... It's only in retrospect that I realized I was surrounded by art. You'd walk Seventh Avenue and took in the windows and you'd see all these colors in the depths of the depression. All these colors.
work can make the theme more apparent. “Images emerge as more and more important…certain images, or colors…keep coming up…. Bit by formal bit, we think we begin to see a theme emerging from the work.” (Guerin, 74-75). Young Goodman Brown is the story of an innocent young man who realizes the imperfections and flaws of the world and its people,
She is a fairly modern artist who explores ideas of race, gender, violence, and identity through silhouettes. Born on November 26,1 969 in Stockton, California, Kara walker eventually graduated and started making art (Shaw). Her work (fig. 2) is very simple and clean, but looking closer you find the images she makes are very horrifying. Walker often in her work plays with the abject. She draws her creativity from the history of the American south. Her story references within her work are form firsthand accounts of slave testimonials and history books (Shaw). These works often show images that are either violent of sexual in some way. Walker does this to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and uneasy. The images draw you in with it’s stark black on white and clean lines. But as you look closer the viewer is forced to face the ugly truth these images show. Walker’s work in whole is about racism in the present day and the huge inequalities within social classes (Shaw). She is a person that is working towards representation and understanding through her work. Walker wants her viewer to know that in America there is still economic and social inequalities that are often driven by underlying racism. By making her work, she is changing the perception of black people in history and the
John Gardner: Making Life Art as a Moral Process. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. 86-110. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed.
Equality (1999) is a mixed media assemblage. Equality shows Aunt Jemima as the media had portrayed the African American woman with the word equality. Saar is showing that even the so-called Aunt Jemima needs equality. Equality is supposed to be for everyone and this piece illustrates that great truth. Pour Vous Madame (1999) is a mixed media assemblage. The title of this piece is French for “For you ma’am.” This work shows two servants and one is handing grenades to the other. This artwork is a direct satire of the age of slavery in American. The piece is symbolizing empowerment to all African American people. Grandma’s house (1972) pays homage to Saar’s grandmother. Saar spent summers with her grandmother when she was young and it was there that she found a lot inspiration for her art work. Keep for Old Memoirs (1976) is a mixed media assemblage. Saar was famous for making collages from things that she had found. She would collect things that she found at in her grandmother’s yard when she was young and make gifts for her family. The joy that she got from doing this carried over to many of her artistic pieces such as this one. Eye of the Beholder (1994) is a mixed media artwork. This piece is visual form of the old adage “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Historically, African American people were not considered beautiful or handsome and this dates back to early European monarchies. Europeans thought that pale skin and light hair was the only real form of beauty. Saar is challenging this ancient and misguided belief about beauty. Long Memory (1994) is a mixed media work. This piece demonstrates that African Americans have had a very long and rough past that included slavery and prejudice. Unfortunately, a lot of prejudice still exists in today’s society. The hand in this
Art and Literature connect in a multitude of ways, including style, message, and creative vision. Yet, it is not often that these two converge in a way that heightens the messages of both. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Cugat’s cover art exhibit the synthesis of these two expressions. By writing the cover into the story, Fitzgerald blurs the line that separates these two pieces of art and merges their message of change to culture and the true nature of that culture. With the artistic aspects of blue shade, bright imagery, and raw emotion, Fitzgerald provides the inspiration for Cugat to paint the realistic picture of the 1920’s, while Fitzgerald constructs the world of the West and East Egg,
In the performance of life, one cultural representation that captivates and entrances people more fluently and describes the human experience more eloquently is that of artistic expression. It imposes itself unto the face of society through the individual who creates it as a reflection of any one or combination of personal, emotional, or physiological effects society or one’s own environment has inflicted onto them to compel them convey their feelings to the public. The essential argument, is whether graffiti has a place in the grand context of society. One end of the spectrum paints it as a nuisance to property owners and city officials allow for a criminal perspective of the practice. While at another end you can view it as the artist in a sense blessing others with the fruits of their inner consciousness. An artistic expression no matter what the viewpoint of society, in an anthropological context graffiti is essential to modern society and its impact is one that cannot be forgotten or lived without.
Overall, the painting “Nightlife” was one of the few paintings that were celebrated to Archibald Motley. Coming from an African American culture, Motley wanted to capture the warmth and richness belonging to their culture. In this painting, we truly discover the heightened tensions felt during that time by the intricate patterns and skeptic perspectives Motley presents. However, by including warm tones such as red and violet, we get the feel of the liveliness and carelessness of the Negro culture through music. We understand that music such as jazz was an escape from everyday racism. Motley successfully executed a painting that sends a message and makes the person wonder the motives for his selections.
Aaron Douglas was an African-American painter and illustrator who played a prominent role during the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that had emerged in the early 20th century where many African-Americans were striving for equality. Of the many different paintings at the De Young Museum, Aspiration (1936) seemed to be the one artwork that had caught my attention. This painting, Aspiration, is one of two extant paintings from a four-part mural that Douglas had created and represents the path from slavery to freedom that the African-Americans took.
As I enter the Gioconda and Joseph King Gallery at the Norton Museum of Art the first thing that Caught my attention was a painting measuring approximately at 4 ft. by 10 ft. on the side wall in a well- light area. As I further examine the painting the first thing I notice is that it has super realism. It also has color, texture, implied space, stopped time, and that it is a representational piece. The foreign man sitting on the chair next to a bed has a disturbed look on his face and is deep into his own thoughts. It’s as if someone he loved dearly just experienced a tragic and untimely death. He is in early depression. I could feel the pain depicted in his eyes. A book titled The Unquiet Grave lying open on the floor by the unmade bed suggesting something is left unresolved. The scattered photos and papers by the bedside cause redintegration. The picture of Medusa’s head screaming on the headboard is a silent scream filled with anger and pain, yet it cannot be heard. I feel as if I am in the one sitting in the chair and I can feel the anger, and regret.
The artist accurately exposes the poverty of the two stonebreakers and creates a strikingly authentic scene that suggests concern and compassion on his side.