Understanding Art and Culture – Tightly Tied
She references Black Artists like J.J. from Good Times, Glen Lygon, and Carol Walker. She talks about the Harlem Renaissance being a turning point for African voices in art. She argues that art so heavily influences culture and black connections to art make large moves for representation and story-telling of Black culture. She claims that her exhibition she created acted as a catalyst for creating more dialogue surrounding Black people and spurring self reflection.
Her presentation style is a little unorthodox. During the middle of the presentation, she crosses her hands over her chest, making her seem closed off to the audience. The woman presenting introduced the each new slide a good 30 seconds before she dove into what they meant in terms of her talk, and I really liked that she did this because it gave the viewer time to digest the works of art before she addressed them. I really liked how Thelma Golden keeps bringing back the pieces representing Black culture back to the main idea, “How did this reflect and therefore impact the Black population?”
After class with Johan and watching this video, I’ve maintained my desire to talk about powerful moments in art history and how they’ve evolved to become increasingly modern. I want to talk about how this connects to class because this greater abstraction requires viewers to derive their own connection to a piece, making art more universally understood. Art began with the intention to accurately depict events of life, in portraits of cavemen hunting or kings ruling, but evolved to reflect culture. Impressionism came as a rejection from realism and an embracement of emotion. War made artists question their values, resulting in a period of nonsense called Surrealism. From surrealism, artists developed modern art, which is so subjective that the viewer can derive their own meaning from the work.
Great work Effie! Keep it up!