ART INSPIRED BY THE 1850’s A look into art from the Pre-Civil War period and after
CONTENTS Introduction...................................................................................3 Over The Years.....................................................................4-5 Kara Walker............................................................................6-9 John Stuert Curry............................................................10-13 Bibliography.......................................................................14-15
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Remembering New Orleans This is a painting by William Henry Brooke depicting an auction of slaves, artwork, and goods. New Orleans was known for their cotton and their slave market.
INTRODUCTION The Pre-Civil War years (1820-1860)
Slave Medallion Thomas Wedgwood, an abolitionist and member of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, had these slave medallions commissioned to raise awareness. The bottom says, “Am I not a man and a brother?”, asking the viewer to understand the slave’s humanity.
were a time of significant changes in the United States. Many different trends came about during these years. First there was a shift from a farming and agriculture economy to one where people would sell and by goods from one another. In other words, a Market Revolution. The North at the time especially began industrial advances with the steamboat and the railroad. Second, the society was urbanized. More people started to move to the cities in the North for the industrial jobs. America’s first middle class had been born and with that, many started different movements to reform the society such as reducing the consumption of alcohol and improving education. Third, the debate over slavery grew stronger and stronger. It was the time when most northerners began to realize the horrors of slavery and did not stand for it. They didn’t necessarily want them to have the same rights as the whites, but they did want them to be free. Southerners, on the other hand, did not want to let go of their cotton based economy which relied on slavery. Ultimately, these trends broke the North and the South farther apart, eventually bringing them to war.
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OVER THE YEARS... Art through the period of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
AFRICAN DESIGNS While enslaved, the African American men and women had little opportunity to do art, but some found ways to express their creativity through the making of metal, pottery and cloth. The women would focus more on patchwork quilts which would sometimes have coded messages in the patterns such as the way to freedom in the complex designs.
JOSEPH CINQUE The artist, Nathaniel Jocelyn painted a portrait of Joseph Cinque. Cinque was a leader who led a revolt against an Amistad slave ship. Jocelyn depicts him proud and fearless while wearing a Roman toga.
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WILLIAM BLAKE William Blake was an English poet, painter and engraver. He was very against slavery and would create graphics about his view including this one, Flagellation of a Female Samboe Slave. Along with these graphics, he would write poems about slavery.
SERVANTS Most African-American’s during this time were looked at as servants. Art has then reflected this view. French painter Edouard Manet depicts this in his painting, Olympia.
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KARA WALKER Pushing limits and taking risks in the art world
If
there was one artist that stood out while visiting the Spencer Art Museum this year in class, it would be Kara Walker. Kara Walker is an African American artist who does all kinds of art, but specializes in making silhouettes that explore gender, sexuality, and most commonly race. She was born in Stockton, California to Gwendolyn and Harry Walker. Her father was an artist and an influence to her at a young age. She says, “I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that, too,’ and I pretty much decided then and there at age 3 that I was an artist just like Dad.” Her family eventually moved to Atlanta, Georgia when she was around 13. This was a culture shock for the young girl as there were KKK rallies and was called derogatory names. Because of this, Walker felt alone and unwelcomed into a culture that didn’t seem fitting. She spent a lot of time reading up on books about the South to understand their traditions and customs. When the time for college came around, she decided to go to the Atlanta College of Art for her BFA. It was hard for Walker to address race in her art during her early college years, but eventually integrated it into her art by the time she went to Rhode Island School of Design for her MFA. Walker’s career took off quickly. Her silhouettes of cut black paper figures against a white background address slavery, racism and stereotypes through violent and uncomfortable pictures. Walker explains her work “says a lot with very little information” and plays tricks to one’s eye. She is also known for her works with gouache
and watercolors. At age 27, she became the second youngest recipient of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius” grant for her art and won the United States Artists Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship award. Her work is featured all over the world from New York to Rome. There has been some controversy about her work. The Detroit Institute of Art removed her The Means to an End exhibition that presented a silhouette of a plantation scene but was later put back. The Newark Public Library also had a piece of her work covered as some questioned the meanings. Walker stood up for her art and did not hide from the difficult subjects she illustrated. The art was later uncovered. Other artists have said her work is “revolting and negative’ and care too much about stereotypes. This has not stopped her. Currently, Walker lives in New York City and is a professor of visual arts at Columbia University. She continues to create art and be inspired by past artists like Andy Warhol and his Pop Art and Vincent Van Gogh. Walker has created a legacy for herself. Her work has stimulated awareness of race and stereotypes and pushed these kinds of conversations forward. Her purpose is to make the viewer uncomfortable and feel out of their comfort zone. She will continue to inspire and open the world’s eyes for years to come.
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A Subtlety (2014) This sculpture is a giant African American woman in the form of a sphinx made completely out of sugar. It is supposed to reflect the unpaid and overworked artisans who work in the sugar cain fields. It was on display in the Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, New York.
“I think really the whole problem with racism and its continuing legacy in this country is that we simply love it. Who would we be without the ‘struggle’?” Cotton (1997) This engraving was made to represent the controversy over cotton as well as hint on slavery and race.
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Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994) This is one of Walker’s most famous works. The title is related to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Though it’s hard to tell what is really going on in this silhouette, she hints at images of sex, such as the person being carried in the air with a huge erection and violence with the scene in the background of the image.
Untitled (John Brown) (1996) In this work, Walker is depicting a significant figure from history, John Brown. He is most known for his abolitionist actions and his raid on Harper’s Ferry. Historians say that on the day of his exile, a mother and her child came to see him on his way out and he kissed them both. Walker takes another approach to this story. John Brown is half naked while the black mother is forcing her child to be kissed by him. Walker is hinting here by the arrangement of Brown, the child and the mother of interracial sexual relations between masters and the slaves. She wants us to rethink his hero status.
The End of Uncle Tom and the Grand Allegorical Tableau of Eva in Heaven (1995) This is one of Walker’s works that is displayed in a curved space. It is inspired somewhat by the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The work depicts the horrors of the past including racial inequalities such as reenactments of torture, murder and assault. Walker hints that these inequalities still happen in our country today.
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JOHN STEURT CURRY
John Brown (1939) One of Curry’s most profound paintings was the mural he did in the Kansas State Capitol. It pictures John Brown, a controversial figure, who devoted most of his life to fight slavery.
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“I show the beauty of the real things John
Steurt Curry was born November 14th, 1897 in Dunavant, Kansas to Margaret and Smith Curry. He was the oldest of five children. In his childhood, he loved caring for the animals on their farm and playing sports. His parents had paintings by Peter Paul Rubens in their home and these inspired Curry to like art. At the age of twelve, they put him in his first art class. For college, Curry first attended the Kansas City Art Institute and then later attended the Art Institute of Chicago. After staying there for two years, he transferred to Geneva College in Pennsylvania. Once he graduated, he worked as an illustrator for magazines such as Boys’ Life, St. Nicholas, Country Gentleman and The Saturday Evening Post. Eventually he moved to New York where he fell in love with Clara Derrick. Together, they moved to Connecticut, but sadly she died in 1924. Curry then spent most of his life in his studio. He also spent time traveling with the Ringling Brothers Circus with the acts featuring some of his work. After,
he got remarried to Kathleen Gould in 1934. By this time, Curry was very popular regionally. A group of newspaper editors pushed for him to paint murals in the Kansas State Capitol. His image of John Brown he painted is one of the best known public art works in the world. In his later life, Curry was a teacher in Wisconsin. He died August 29, 1946 in Madison Wisconsin and was buried in Winchester, Kansas. Curry has left an impact on many artist who came after and will always be known for his great use of detail in his paintings.
Ajax (1937)
Self-Portrait (1928)
Curry featured an Ajax in many paintings referring to his home town of Kansas. This one in particular was painted after the Dust Bowl to reassure Americans of farming and life.
This is a self-portrait of Curry supposedly showing his newly found confidence and self-assurance. One can tell this by his facial expression and use of bold lines.
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under the hand of beneficient nature� Tornado Over Kansas (1929) Curry painted many scenes from his hometown of Kansas. He also painted many works with human frailty in natural disasters. This painting was done right before the Great Depression.
Our Good Earth (1942) Curry was asked to create a monumental image during WW11. He chose to paint a farmer with two carefree children. This is supposed to show how farming was contributing to the war effort.
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BILIOGRAPHY Abrams, Eve. “Remembering New Orleans’ Overlooked Ties To Slavery.” NPR, NPR, 18 July 2015, www.npr.org/2015/07/18/423803204/remembering-new-orleans-overlooked-ties-to-slavery. “Ajax (Painting).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Nov. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ajax_(painting). Ajax. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/John_Steuart_Curry_-_ Ajax_-_Smithsonian.jpg/220px-John_Steuart_Curry_-_Ajax_-_Smithsonian.jpg. Cotton. www.driskellcenter.umd.edu/Yale_Embodied/YaleSymposium_Images/Walker. jpg. Kansas Historical Society. “John Steuart Curry.” Kansas Historical Society, June 2003, www.kshs.org/kansapedia/john-steuart-curry/12028. Kara Walker Portrait Picture. img.timeinc.net/time/time100/2007/images/kara_walker. jpg. “Kara Walker.” Sikkemajenkinsco.com, sikkemajenkinsco.com/index.php?v=artist&artist=4eece69f3eb4e. Kara Walker.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Nov. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Kara_Walker. Lamb, Scott. “TRUTH IN ART: Tornado Over Kansas.” Baptist Press, 11 Feb. 2008, www.bpnews.net/27388/truth-in-art-tornado-over-kansas. Oh, Janet. “Kara Walker Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, 2017, www.theartstory.org/artist-walker-kara.htm. Our Good Earth . condor.depaul.edu/dwrd/moore/images/wp/js-curry-good-earth.jpg. “Our Good Earth.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, americanart.si.edu/artwork/ourgood-earth-58156. “Self-Portrait.” Smithsonian American Art Museum, americanart.si.edu/artwork/self-portrait-6099. A Subtley. i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--M9hMfs-4--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/gojde4iym8c8faqhqpbu.jpg. “A Subtlety.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Nov. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_ Subtlety.
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The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “John Steuart Curry.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 14 Jan. 2016, www.britannica.com/biography/JohnSteuart-Curry. “The Pre-Civil War Era (1815–1850).” SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/ history/american/precivilwar/context.html. “The Real Histories Directory.” The Real Histories Directory - Art, www.realhistories.org. uk/articles/archive/the-art-of-slavery.html. Tornado Over Kansas. media.mlive.com/chronicle/entertainment_impact/photo/10333730-large.jpg. Walker, Kara. “Cotton by Kara Walker | Paddle8.” Cotton - Kara Walker, 13 Jan. 2015, paddle8.com/work/kara-walker/50366-cotton.
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