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The Shoemaker
Jacob Lawrence, was one of the most creative and extraordinary artist of the 20th century. He died June 9, 2000 at the age of 82. Jacob’s experience and use of the Cubism style, which was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, made him one the first artist of color to receive world renowned recognition at the age of 21. Jacobs further defined his style as Dynamic Cubism. The use of bold water-based paints, angular forms on boards and paper were his self-taught methods of expressing his creations. Jacob’s “Urban Experience” interpretations are simple but complex in that each considers the human experience. Growing up in Harlem, Jacobs creations often captured the beauty and the challenges that he had to face. This is often brought in the faces of the images that artfully press to paper.
I chose to describe Jacob Lawrence because of the theme of relatable characteristics that each painting that I reviewed to brought to my remembrance For example the Barber Shop rendering from Jacobs spun my thoughts back to the simpler times of my youth. I would spend hours at the barbershop listening to all the stories and news of the day. Many of relatives had paintings similar to Lawrence’s style and looking over Mr. Lawrence’s work has a certain familiarity that I find comforting. Additionally, his attention to color, pattern and his detail research prior to producing a painting, certainly peaked my interest in becoming more familiar with the man and his works. His works were more recently viewed at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Nebraska at Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, and Museum of Modern Art (Phillips Collection)
Description/ Analysis
I chose to analyze Lawrence’s work “The Shoemaker”. The shoemak...
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Works Cited
Bearden, Romare, Sam Gilliam, Jr., Richard Hunt, Jacob Lawrence, Tom Lloyd, William Williams, and Hale Woodruff. "The Black Artist in America: A Symposium." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 27, no. 5 (January, 1969).
Josef Albers and Ad Reinhardt to Ives-Sillman. Romare Bearden and Harry B. Henderson, Jr., A “History of African-American Artists”, p. 300. Nesbett L77-5.
Lawrence, Jacob. “Jacob Lawrence Talks about Color.” Jacob Lawrence: Over the Line. Flash ed. Phillips Collection, 2001. Web. 12 Mar. 2009.
Lawrence, Jacob, The Shoemaker, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1945.
Paul, Stella. "Modern Storytellers: Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Faith Ringgold". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/most/hd_most.htm (October 2004)
Ernie Barnes was and still is one of the most popular and well-respected black artists today. Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, in 1938, during the time the south as segregated, Ernie Barnes was not expected to become a famous artist. However, as a young boy, Barnes would, “often [accompany] his mother to the home of the prominent attorney, Frank Fuller, Jr., where she worked as a [housekeeper]” (Artist Vitae, The Company of Art, 1999). Fuller was able to spark Barnes’ interest in art when he was only seven years old. Fuller told him about the various schools of art, his favorite painters, and the museums he visited (Barnes, 1995, p. 7). Fuller further introduced Barnes to the works of such artists as, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Correggio, which later influenced Barnes’ mannerist style of painting.
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.
Herberholz, Barbara. "Jacob Lawrence: The Glory of Expression." Arts and Activities 129.1 (2001): 12. ProQuest. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.
My first piece of artwork that I found interesting is called “Portrait of a Collagist” by an African American artist name Benny Andrews in 1989. His artwork is mainly abstract impressionism and realism and the medium he likes to use and is using in the particular piece is oil and collage on canvas and stands roughly 92inx51in. In this piece his work is abstract and realism, as is most of his pieces. (Source?)
Regardless of taste, an appreciator of art should be able to recognize when an artist exerts a large amount of effort and expresses a great amount of creativity. Understanding the concepts incorporated by truly talented artists helps the viewer better understand art in general. Both Van Eyck and Velasquez are examples of artists that stood out in their time due to their unique vision and their innovative style, and are therefore remembered, recognized, and praised even centuries after their works were completed.
Lange’s photographs often reflect people of the less fortunate. Jacob Lawrence grew up in poverty, experienced racism and his father abandoned the family at a very young age. Jacob Lawrence paintings often reflected on Harlem social life as well as poverty, brothels and pool halls in Harlem where he grew up. The “Blind Beggars” reflected on the social issues of poverty of this elderly blind couple. Grant Phillips Jacob Lawrence used various styles for the “Blind Beggars” painting such as realistic style, because it makes you see the real world as it is, the issue of poverty.
The 41 small tempera paintings dramatize the struggle of Haiti’s newly-obtained independence and the exploitation of farm workers. That artistic tribute to the freedom fighter, exposed in the paintings with vibrant colors, geometric shapes, and abstract patterns established the distinctive style that made him famous [Dynamic Cubism]. Lawrence also painted pictures about the typical colored people, and he presented them as heroes, full of dignity that was obtained in the struggle. Lawrence was married to painter Gwendolyn Knight on July 24, 1941. In October 1943 (during World War II), he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and served in the first racially integrated United States Coast Guard (USCGC) Sea Cloud team. While he was in the Coast Guard, he was able to paint and draw what was happening during World War II. Lawrence completed the set of sixty narrative paintings titled “Migration of the Black.” Those series were about the migration of thousands of African-Americans from the South to the North after World War I. It was exhibited in New York and brought him a national award. In the 1940s, Lawrence made his first major exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and became the most famous African-American painter in the country. Lawrence taught at several schools, and continued painting until a few weeks before
Spending time looking at art is a way of trying to get into an artists’ mind and understand what he is trying to tell you through his work. The feeling is rewarding in two distinctive ways; one notices the differences in the style of painting and the common features that dominate the art world. When comparing the two paintings, The Kneeling Woman by Fernand Leger and Two Women on a Wharf by Willem de Kooning, one can see the similarities and differences in the subjects of the paintings, the use of colors, and the layout
Thomas Cole was born on February 1, 1801 in Bolton, Lancashire, England. Due to financial problems his family endured, Cole, at the ripe old age of just fourteen, had to find work to assist with the family needs. He entered the work force as a textile printer and wood engraver in Philadelphia. In 1819, Cole returned to Ohio where his parents resided. Here, a portrait painter by the name of Stein, would become Cole’s primary teaching vehicle and inspiration for his oil techniques we’ve come to be familiar with. During this time, Cole was extremely impressed by what he saw in the landscapes of the New World and how different they were from the small town of England from whence he hailed. Self taught, art came naturally to Cole.
Shea, R. 2004. Marcia Myers: Twenty Years Paintings & Works on Paper 1982–2002. Manchester, United States: Hudson Hills.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
When I imagine an artist, I picture a Parisian dabbing at a sprawling masterpiece between drags on a cigarette seated in an extravagantly long holder. He stands amid a motley sea of color, great splashes of vermillion and ultramarine and yellow ochre hiding the tarp on the studio floor. Somehow, not one lonely drop of paint adorns his Italian leather shoes with their pointed toes like baguettes.
Hokusai’s artistic career was of much difference compared to the urban African-American artist Jacob Lawrence. The art works of these two very much different artists were both influential in the upbringing of the art era. Beginning with Hokusai’s art work, he was best known as the most surpassing Japanese artist, while also being recognized as Japan’s “leading expert in Chinese painting”. With over 30,000 pieces of art work throughout his life, including silk paintings, woodblock prints, picture books, illustrations, paintings, and sketches. Being most influenced by Western art and Dutch landscape and nature. As a result of this, Hokusai’s art works had an impact on Western artists, such as Vincent Van Gogh. Hokusai's best-known work, and Japan's
This painting by Vincent Van Gogh is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, in the Impressionism exhibit. There are many things going on in this painting that catch the viewer’s eye. The first is the piece’s vibrant colors, light blues and browns, bright greens, and more. The brush strokes that are very visible and can easily be identified as very thick some might even say bold. The furniture, the objects, and the setting are easy to identify and are proportioned to each other. There is so much to see in this piece to attempt to explain in only a few simple sentences.
The Red Shoes ‘The Red Shoes’ is an imaginary and unreal story by Hans Christian Anderson. Anderson makes effective use of fantasy to teach moral lessons. He builds up the story in such a way that the reader does not care about the validity of the incident. The moral lesson is that the proud and the disobedient must suffer. Disobedience is a sin, and according to the Christian belief it is what started the demise in the heavens above, so anybody who commits it must suffer.