Rehmat Sakrani

Professor Hoffman

IDC 1001H

December 20, 2016

  1. I found Bernice Abbott’s photograph, Blossom Restaurant, Manhattan (1935) very intriguing. Her picture shows how New York City restaurants were at the time from the outside and how they looked before being demolished by New York City skyscrapers. Nowadays, we look for the best rooftop restaurants for the best view. But back then, people were able to see New York City from down below as well. What really surprised me were the prices. Compared to food prices in NYC now, ten cents for a vegetable dinner sounds pretty good to me.
  2. One of my favorite poems is “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, written in 1886. As a New Yorker, this poem is a perfect embodiment of the mixing bowl that New York City and America were becoming at the time. It being inscribed in the Statue of Liberty just goes to illustrate how well Lazarus’ depiction is. The line(s): “From her beacon-hand // Glows world-wide welcome;” just goes to show how the Statue of Liberty became a symbol of hope and inclusiveness for immigrants trying to start a better life.
  3. During this IDC seminar, I was really intrigued by artists who depicted dark times in the city’s history. One of those dark ages was definitely the Great Depression and its bleak nature with being the worst time for our country economically. The depression did give artists a chance to explore the struggles that people went through. Reginald Marsh’s painting of the Bread Line (1929) was a work of art that depicted the hardships. The bread line extended as far as the eye could see and had unemployed men waiting anxiously to feed their families. Their expressions in this painting are especially important because many felt angry and betrayed by the nation of opportunity. Others felt ashamed to be seen on the line and hid their faces.
  4. Another poem that I really enjoy is The Ghetto (1918) by Lola Ridge. Ridge lived on the Lower East Side herself and knew of the overcrowded tenement conditions. Her poem comments on the harsh urban reality that existed in New York City at the start of the twentieth century. With descriptive depictions, she describes how people in the tenements lived with diseases and during hot summer days, “Bodies dangle from the fire escapes…” to grasp for air in the humidity of their conditions. The heat along with the poor urban conditions were unbearable.  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-ghetto-4/
  5. I find the movement of Dadaism to be very intriguing. The idea of taking something useful and turning it into an object of no use has an amusing appeal about it, I will admit. To many people, this does not seem like art. However, I feel like art can be created out of anything that is creative and the idea of Dadaism is something I probably would have never thought of. A famous piece of Dadaism is The Gift (1921). This sculpture shows two ordinary objects, an iron with tacks on its surface. The sculpture created by Man Ray may be simple but the idea behind it is far more complex. This sculpture became the epitome of the Dadaism movement and poses a question for society with its title. Are gifts really useful or are they given for another purpose?
  6. The painting of Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps (2005) created by Kehinde Wiley is more than just an imitation. His replacement of Napoleon with an African American male not only challenges society, but raises questions about race and its representation. The best part about his contemporary art is that he doesn’t use a well-known figure to depict the scenes of history but instead uses ordinary citizens as his subjects. As an artist in the present day, this painting’s use of a black male can relate to us and the changing landscape of diversity that represents America present day.
  7. After the Great Depression, Ella Fitzgerald became one of the most well-established singers of the music industry. Her 1960 song, “How High the Moon” became extremely famous and became an example of her adopted scat singing. With scat, she was able to imitate people like Louis Armstrong and also imitate instruments such as a bass. In this song, she imitated the sound of a bass to improvise between lyrics and was one of the few people who could scat so well. https://youtu.be/djZCe7ou3kY
  8. Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit” released in 1939 became recognized as her most haunting song. The song comments on the atrocity of lynching African American men. Although the song was very controversial and was rejected by many recording labels as well as radio stations, this only helped grow the popularity of the song. Many times when she played shows, she would often end her shows with this song as it had become so well-liked and known. Many appreciated the way it sounded even more than its meaning.                      https://youtu.be/h4ZyuULy9zs
  9. During the Harlem Renaissance, many artists produced famous works. This included paintings as well as photography. A favorite photograph of mine is called Future Expectations (Wedding Day), made in 1925 by James Van Der Zee. The reason this photo stands out compared to others is because it looks like there are special effects being used. Because of his darkroom experience, Van Der Zee was able to make the child look transparent and ghostly, hence foreshadowing the future of the young couple depicted in the picture.
  10. Another work of art done during the Harlem Renaissance was called The Janitor Who Paints (1937). It depicts ordinary African American life with a mother and her child in a tight knit apartment, that contains tools for both a painter and a janitor. The reason this painting is so interesting is because its original version caused controversy when it had exaggerated facial features. In order to display the painting, Palmer Hayden had to paint over it. However this became a conversation starter and served as a protest piece.