Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting
Gertrude Abercrombie’s painting Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting was made in 1946 with the medium of oil paint. During her time period racial tensions were high and racism toward black people was common. Gertrude Abercrombie was involved in many artistic groups including Jazz, she was friends with Charlie Parker for this reason. Unlike many people of the time Abercrombie was not racist and was openly against bigotry and the practices that resulted as a byproduct. “Gertrude Abercrombie’s Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting is the work of one of the many white allies who joined the interracial coalition to end lynching”(Bowles 1). In this painting she expresses her opposition to lynching by highlighting the practice through her use of color in the painting.
Abercrombie was commercial artist for some time before focusing on painting. This fact relates her to many black artist who also worked in the commercial setting without owning their identity. During the peak of jazz music there was a lack of black artists as corporate designers due to discrimination, lack of
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opportunity, and a tendency towards self-isolation. Many black artists had to downplay their identity in order for their art to make it into the corporate setting, while black artists who did not make this attempt had their art consumed mainly as “outsider art”. Black artists were attracted to abstract painting and surrealism because it allowed them to express themselves and their alienation from society. (Dougherty, 2007) Abercrombie also withheld her creativity to work in the commercial setting. When these artist break away from corporate art activist art like this painting can be created. Lynching in the United States from 1882 to 1968 was responsible for 4,743 deaths according to the NAACP. The practice also included torture before the actual death. The lynchings often had many spectators. For example in “1899 approximately two thousand white men, women, and children participated, as both witnesses and active agents, in the murder of Sam Hose in Newman, Georgia”(Young 639) Artists are often influenced by the political climate of the time as well as history and this is true for Gertrude Abercrombie. Abercrombie was a twentieth century American magic realist. Magic realism is a type of surrealism but unlike in its primary mode of construction. Unlike imaginative surrealism, such as the works of Salvador Dali, magic realism “simply reorders reality to make it seem alien”. Magic realism was predominant in the United States art world from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Many people in America dislike surrealism at the time because they preferred a more technical, real, or relatable form of art, typically upholding the traditional values of art. “Magic realists try to convince us that extraordinary things are possible by simply painting them as if they real”(Wechsler 293) Every piece found in Abercrombie’s painting can be found in the real world but the way she uses color cannot be found because of the unnatural use of light. Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting has an ambiguous background that could be seen as the sky, water, or both. Her color choice is very distinct because everything except the noose and the crate is dull as though complimentary colors were mixed as to not draw much attention to those aspects. The noose and the crate are a bright yellow, which highlights what Abercrombie was trying to focus on with this painting, as well as it being in the center of the painting. Abercrombie used the meaning of the different colors in her painting to her advantage. Majority of the painting is blue, creating an overtone of sadness and negativity “…and blue is melancholy, sadness, sentiment”(Burton 44) as discussed by Wolfgang Goethe. The focal point of the painting, the yellow noose and crate, can also be explained by Goethe’s idea that “Yellow represents lucid or rational thought…”(Burton 44) Using that idea the noose and the crate are the rational meaning of this painting or the clear subject. Abercrombie did not need to paint the horrors of lynching by using people or gore she accomplished, highlighting the evil practice, showing her own feelings towards it, and influencing the feelings the viewers ought to have. The blue projects the sadness of the subject and the yellow shows the real problem. One of Abercrombie’s many motifs, the ladder, shows up in this painting as a primary piece of this composition.
Her ladder is also seen in her landscapes works represent her desire for escape from the real world. The use in this painting can be inferred two ways. One being a more practical use of the ladder as an object for the aid of the lynching. “…a bare tree, noose, and a ladder tell the story of another causality in the racial strife…”(Eldredge 30). The other meaning represents Abercrombie’s desire for the American people to escape the practice of lynching and leave it behind. In her work Two Ladders she props the ladders against the moon and a cloud, as if you could climb away from the Earth and into the sky. Although in Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting the ladder is not reaching to the sky the meaning stays the same due to her historical use of the
object. Abercrombie also makes use of another one of her motifs in this painting. The barren tree is a common theme in other works. In Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting the tree is used as a prop for the ladder and its branch has the noose tied to it. In other paintings the bare tree is usually alone. This hints at its meaning of loneliness and the bareness symbolizes death, especially in this painting. The tree’s interaction with the main subject of the painting enhances its meaning of death more because of the use of the noose. It can also be inferred, despite the lack of people in this painting that being the victim of a lynching is a very lonely experience right before death. Despite there being people around the victim at the time the victim feels the injustice and loneliness of the lack of outrage or help. Abercrombie’s tree shows the viewer that loneliness of the victim. The title of the painting also holds significance because of her relationships within other artistic circles. Charlie Parker is a black jazz player who almost single handedly created Bebop jazz music. Because this painting is depicting a practice that targets black people it is powerful that Abercrombie would title this a black person’s favorite painting. Her friendship with Parker allowed her to use this title because it was actually his favorite painting. Design for Death is an alternate title for this painting. This title holds significance as well because it justifies the painting’s simplicity and meaning. As noted Abercrombie’s painting lacks people, but pairing it with the title Design for Death it makes sense that there are none. The “design” does not need people. It is a setup for death. The ladder, the tree, the crate, and every other aspect of the painting including the color, creates the design of a victim’s death. In paintings against lynching the viewer typically expects attention grabbing anguish flooded imagery, but Abercrombie does the opposite as noted by Eldredge “Abercrombie’s is stark in its simplicity. With no representation of human form, dead or alive…”(30). Art and photographs made to oppose lynching were common in the 1930’s and 1940’s. While each side of lynching, the side in support of it and the side against it, used the art in different ways the intended effect of art did not always come across. People who were for lynching used photographs and art depicting horrific scenes as a trophy or souvenir.(Parr 215) The simplicity of Abercrombie’s painting removes that option from the side in support of lynching. Gertrude Abercrombie, a twentieth century artist, painted Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting alternately titled Design for Death as an opposition of lynching. Her magic realist style affected her use of color and composition in this painting. Using a dull background and bright yellow for the noose and crate she creates a focal point for her painting. The emotional meaning of the painting can be inferred using the color ideas of Goethe. The motifs she uses in other painting such as the ladder and bare tree suggest a deeper and more personal meaning than what meets the eye. Abercrombie’s involvement in multiple artistic circles influenced her art including the title of this painting. Lynching was a current and historical problem during the time she created this painting. She was influenced by the injustice and like other artists created politically charged art to share her opinion and shed light on it. Compared to other anti-lynching art Abercrombie’s was extremely simplistic in composition. She forgoes the inclusion of the human form and uses color and composition to tell the story.
Alice Neel’s painting Suzanne Moss was created in 1962 using oil paint on canvas. As the title suggests, the painting depicts a woman’s portrait. Now resigning in the Chazen Museum in Madison, WI, this portrait of a woman lunging is notable for the emotional intensity it provokes as well as her expressionistic use of brush strokes and color. The scene is set by a woman, presumably Suzanne Moss, dressed in dull back and blues lounging across a seat, staring off to the side, avoiding eye contact with the viewer. The unique style and technique of portraiture captures the woman’s piercing gaze and alludes to the interior emotions of the subject. In Suzanne Moss, Alice Neel uses desultory brush strokes combined with contrast of warm and cool shadows
Elizabeth Catlett`s art documents history, but particularly the experiences of the black and brown working class women.. She combined what she has learned of African art, African American art, and
Research by Benny Andrews Andrews wanted to express black experience through his art, but he found it a very difficult thing to do. He was using nonfigurative expressionism, which became a personal movement for him. Andrews wanted to convey himself in a different way from other artists in order to create his own exclusive personality. I think his works are delicate, and cherished. He is a visual artist, writer, and teacher.
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.
... point. This point is the white building in the painting. The lines all end at his point in order for the eye to follow the line down to this particular building.
Similarly important was the role black women on an individual level played in offering a model for white women to follow. Because black men had a harder time finding employment, black women had a history of working ou...
...t she has put on a new “costume” and is now a completely different person. The stockings are “night-black” representing the backyard and its negative connotation. In line twenty, the author writes that she wants to “strut down the streets with paint on [her] face,” again emphasizing Brooks’ new rebellious nature since crossing over into the backyard. The “paint” suggests that her rebellion is just and act, and as soon as she removes the paint, she can return to the front yard if she pleases. The repetition of “and” at the beginning of the last three lines illustrates Brooks’ desire to completely rebel against her mother and the front yard life since it shows how she wants to rebel in so many ways. The main theme of the poem highlights the desire people have to experience what they do not have and live life on their own terms.
Before the war started, a wealthy white man by the name of John Hammond worked to integrate black and white music.1 Since his childhood, he enjoyed the music of numerous black artists, and he wanted to share his love with the rest of America. He used much of his inherited fortune to make this possible. He went against the general opinion of society and his parents, who despised black people. Hammond refused to ignore black artists’ musical abilities because of their color, “I did not revolt against the system, I simply refused to be a part of it.”2 He used his money to organize the most eclectic group of musicians ever assembled, for an integrated audience of his time. Hammond’s efforts made an indelible impact on the music industry. The musicians Hammond introduced in...
Winslow Homer (1836–1910) is regarded as one of American’s greatest artists in the 19th Century. Many of his works, such as “The Cotton Pickers,” “The Bright Side,” and “Prisoners from the Front,” are still very well-known and famous pieces of art. At the start of his artist career, he was a print maker and design chief for Harper’s Weekly Magazine; but during the course of the Civil War, his art took on a much deeper meaning as a result of it (“Winslow Homer and his paintings”). Homer’s works began to reflect on the effects the Civil War had on the nation, her people, and himself (Wood). “Near Andersonville” is one of Homer’s least known works (having gone unknown of until the 1960s) that had been one of his first works focusing on the African
Angela Davis became an icon I could appreciate for in her I saw the drive of a warrior and the fierceness of a lady who would not give in and give up in the face of racism and sexism. Her Afro was the very essence of defiance, instead of bending towards the will of a Eurocentric ideal beauty, she instead adorned the Afro to show how blackness was beauty and how the very things which were used to degrade black people--the nappy hair--could be used to symbolize beauty. Angela Davis symbolized the alternate vision for bl...
This research focuses on how corporations use Mainstream agencies (General Markets) to target African American consumers. Mainstream and General markets are defined as ad-speak for "White" as in general market agencies (Brandweek, 12/06/99). Also defined in Brandweek (12/06/99) is the word targeted which is ad-speak for "Ethnic/Urban" examples being Blacks, Latinos, and Asians. A majority of corporations have two main problems when targeting the African American community. First, most corporations use Mainstream agencies instead of hiring African American-owned agencies or hiring people who specialize in African American marketing. The African-American market is served by its own specialized media, and national studeis have shown that black consumers are more suscep...
During the 1940’s, the world found itself dealing with World War II and in the United States ,a huge African culture movement swept throughout the north-eastern states. One specific artist that captivated the “Nightlife” of African Americans during that era was Archibald Motley Jr. He painted a series of paintings that involved African Americans and their culture. In the painting, “Nightlife” we see a group of African Americans dancing at a club/bar, enjoying life, and swaying their hips to the music. Perhaps, in this painting, Motley wanted his public to notice the breakthrough, blacks had during the 1940’s and wanted to show how music took their mind on a different stroll apart from the troubling issues the world was dealing with. Archibald wanted the world to notice the dynamic and exciting Negro culture.
(2011). Jazz as a Black American Art Form: Definitions of the Jazz Preservation Act. Journal of American Studies, 45(1), pp. 113-129. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/artshumanities/docview/854847335/85B97DDA6F0F40B1PQ/1?accountid=3783
One reader in particular, Emaguerra, notes in his analysis of the short story that he is intrigued that Poe used the portrait of the woman to “send his message” (Par. 8). The message this reader is referring to is that of enjoying life and all the passions it offers, but to keep others in mind as they are also trying to enjoy their own lives. This message could be taken in a metaphorical sense in “The Oval Portrait” as Poe never explicitly states that one should not take people for granted, it is simply implied. The woman in the portrait is said to be madly in love with her husband, the painter, but he is too devoted to his art. The great juxtaposition within this story however, is that the husband/painter deeply loves his wife as well and this is the reason why he wanted to paint her beautiful portrait in the first place. The wife’s passion for her husband caused her to fulfill his desire rather than to pursue hers. The Painter’s passion for his art accidently overshadowed his passion for his wife and in turn he did not notice her untimely
Through the end of the 70’s and 80’s, Coe’s work focused more on social injustices, such as civil rights and apartheid. They had little color, and any words were usually hand written or collaged. The majority of them are also photo etchings. These early works include pieces like “Charlie Parker Watches his Hotel Room Burn” and “Charlie Parker Going to Wash Dishes at Jimmies Chicken Shack in Harlem”. They focus on an African American man, presumably Charlie Parker. In one, he is standing above a white man’s bed, while flames can be seen burning out the window, and an arrow has been drawn pointing to the side of the picture with the words “Fire Escape: Whites Only”. The other appears to just be a portrait o...