Wk 4: Jacob Lawrence

Self-Portrait 1977 by Jacob Lawrence 23 x 31" National Academy of Design, New York

This painting is of Jacob Lawrence himself just sitting at a desk.  In his hands he has what appears to be four paint brushes.  In the background you can see a painting right behing Lawrence's head.  I think that this means he always has art in the back of his mind.  He has his head resting in his right hand, looking off in the distance.  He seems to be thinking about what his next piece of artwork is going to be.  Behind his left shoulder, there are different tools, pictures, and paint.  It shows us that he must be sitting in his work place.  The smile on his face tells us that he seems to be a very happy person when he is working.  His bright colors represent his mood. 

Jacob Lawrence was very determined to show the world of the lives of African Americans through his paintings.  In his youth, his life at home was not happy.  He would go to the Library, the Harlem Art Workshop, or the Metropoitan Museum of Art.  After studying at the Harlem Art Workshop for two years, he realized what he was going to do.  When he was twenty he had started exhibiting his work. 

"My belief is that it is most important for an artist to develope an approach and pilosophy about life- if he has developed this philosophy he does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on canvas." (pg.174)

Title: Jacob Lawrence
Quoted from Jacob Lawrence
Source: Living With Art, Eigth Edition, Copywrite 2008

Wk 3: Sky Garden

Sky Garden 1969 by Robert Rauschenberg 91 1/2 x 44 1/4" x2 1/8" Smithsonian

This photo depicts the image of a blueprint of a rocket.  In the background towards the middle top, there is a picture of an actual launching rocket.  In the top left corner there is a picture of palm trees that almost seem like paradise.  In the top right corner, there is a type of bird painted on a blue background but seems to be covered with a thin layer of red paint making it harder to see the bird.  The bottom two-thirds of the picture is painted red.  There are many things in painted in white in the background but the easiest to see is the face of a man.  The contrast between the blue and the red are what catch the viewer's eyes.  The thing that sticks out most is the orange fire drawing the eye to the picture of the rocket.  As you look closer into the red, you can see the white writing that shows you the different parts of the rocket.  This picture was inspired by NASA to remember the first trip to the moon.

The blue print of the photo is to represent the model of the rocket that was first flown to the moon.  Robert Rauschenberg was making history more easy to remember when he first painted this.  NASA had been hiring artists to work in their department just so they could get the feel of the environment before they would actually put it on a canvas.  The purpose of this was to show the world the all the new technology that was going on and how it could change the lives of many people.  This is ironic because technology hasn't stopped changing after that point and it still affects everyones lives today.

Week 2

Shibboleth

http://www.flickr.com/photos/treacletart/2352037446/

Shibboleth is a piece of art work done by Doris Salcedo at Tate Modern Museum in Turbine Hall in London, England. The picture shows a simple crack in the concrete that goes through the whole building. The crevices are covered with a steel mesh material that is supposed to show tension between the two elements. The artwork represents racism and colonialism in the modern world. Shibboleth means belonging to a particular social group. The long stretch across the hall shows the long path of racism that has been going on in our world. The crack is dark, jagged, but the top layer is a bright gray color.


I think the purpose of this piece is to show how the world is affected by racism. Everything may appear to be perfectly fine on the surface, but if you look closer you can see the cracks. The cracks are portrayed as gloomy and rough, to represent the way racism affects people. The mesh fence against the concrete are two completely opposite components that don’t fit well together, kind of like how human equality and racial comments don’t fit well together.

This has helped people to see how the world really appears when you take a closer look. It makes a person think, “Did I help create this crevice in the world?”  ?” According to http://www.tate.org, “For hundreds of years, Western ideas of progress and prosperity have been underpinned by colonial exploitation and the withdrawal of basic rights from others.”



Title: The Unilever Series: Doris Salcero, Shibboleth
Source: Internet:  http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/dorissalcedo/default.shtm

Week 1

Racism in the United Nations

http://www.flickr.com/photos/osvaldo_zoom/3535636353/

The artwork depicts racism in politics in the United Nations. The artist uses great visuals that make the picture very powerful. For example, the background is very dark and makes it focus more on the theme. This piece of work shows the side effects of racism in other countries. The white foot is untouched and clear but the black foot has an allergic reaction all over it and it is dark and not as clear. On the black foot there is a label that says "Allergique au Racisme," meaning allergic to racism. The artist succeeded in making the label pop out at the viewer by using a bright red button on the dark skinned foot.


This piece is based on the topic of racism. In my earlier years, my brother had a friend who was black. We had nicknames for each other, I would call him poop head and he would call me peehead. I was little so saying things like that did not register in my mind. Now I realize that if I were to say something like that to someone who didn't know me, I could get in trouble because racist comments like that are taken serious.

This picture talks about the pain and struggle that colored people might have to deal with in politics. Racism in politics has been a world wide struggle. According to Eva G. T. Green, Cristian Staerkle, and David O. Sears on their artical titled, Symbolic Racism and Whites' Attitudes towards Punitive and Preventive Crime Policies, "If the perpetrator was Black, sentences was harsher than when the perpetrator was White. In capital cases, however, there is clear evidence that defindants whose victims are White face an enhanced risk of reveiving a death sentenced compared to defendanst whose victims are Black."