CC Personal Choice & The Art of Social Protest and Affirmation Essay

Instructions:

A. Artist Within the Art World: In Response to his Personal Life Experiences and Environment

Kehinde Wiley

American artist, Kehinde Wiley, is a painter whose work utilizes the visual language related to 17th-19th Century Eurocentric Academic painting traditions (the Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism among them) to explore the contemporary Black experience related to each of his subject’s personal style (particularly their clothing). In this video, Wiley discusses his background, work, process, philosophy, and art historical influences.

Please watch this 14 minute video about Kehinde Wiley’s background, work, process, philosophy, and art historical influences.

B. Artist as Educator:

Charles White

Keeping in mind that all artists are storytellers, please watch the video Life Model: Charles White and His Students, about Charles White who was an artist and educator at OTIS College of Art and Design in the late 20th century. As students, you are all part of an institutional establishment, but each individual within any establishment has the potential to create change from within.

As you watch the video, pay attention to how Charles White interacted with his students, who he felt art was for, and how he viewed the potential for a diversity of artists to carve out their own places in the  predominantly caucasian Eurocentric art establishment. Consider how a single individual can impact a larger community through their own work.

C. Artist Outside a Gallery(s):

JR http://www.jr-art.netLinks to an external site.

Using massive scale photography of the everyday underrepresented segment of society, JR’s work addresses poverty, politics and gender. Bringing social awareness to the public, JR’s work predominantly exists in the public space.

Prompt Guidelines:

PART 1: ANSWER ALL OF THE FOLLOWING GENERAL QUESTIONS FOR EACH OF THE THREE ARTISTS:

1. Who is the audience for the for each of these individuals, everyone or a select few? Explain your answer.
2. How does/did the work of each artist relate to the issues covered in the chapter? Does their work address social justice or question the status quo? How so? Can you relate to their life experiences? If not, why do you think that is? Explain your answers.
3. Artists are all storytellers in one way or another, how did you respond to hearing the personal stories revolving around each of these artist’s lives?
4. What role do our own experiences play in the “life” of the artist’s artworks and careers? What I mean by that is, we all come to things from different places in life, so our reactions to everything are personal in some small way. Artists make work and release it into the world, after that the reactions to their work are constantly in flux. Feel free to share examples from personal experience(s) to help explain your answer.

PART 2: NOW THAT YOU’VE LEARNED ABOUT THESE ARTISTS, CHOSE THE ONE ARTIST, FROM THESE VIDEOS, WHOSE WORK RESONATED WITH YOU THE MOST PERSONALLY. FIND A SPECIFIC ARTWORK (AND EMBED IT IN THE DISCUSSION) THAT YOU FEEL BEST REPRESENTS THIS MESSAGE. INCLUDE THE ARTIST, TITLE, SIZE, AND LOCATION (IF IT’S A VISUAL ARTWORK).

Address the following in your essay:

1. Artwork embedded, artist, title, size, location.
2. What is the message/goal of the art? Be specific.
3. How effectively does the artwork communicate it message? Provide specific examples in you answer. Does the range (the number of viewers) of audience affect this?
4. Do you think the artist’s success in the artwork is directly related to the size of the audience that see it, since it is about protest? Be specific.