The first sentence of the article summarizes the general view of New York art industries. Before reading this article, I didn’t know how much racism plays a role in art, but I agreed with the statement that industries go after big and attention-grabbing things.
One artist that has been using topics, such as racism, consumption, and sexism in his work along with big objects is Wangechi Mutu. One example is her traveling survey called “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey” at the Brooklyn Museum. A piece in the work includes a woman wearing “high-heels boots, raffia leg ornaments of a kind found in African masquerades, and a neck-to-fingertip body suit so tight that it could be her skin”, crouching on a mound (A Window, Not a Mirror). The woman is supposed to portray femininity and power at the same time with her runway and fierce demeanor.
“Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey”
Ms. Mutu’s ideas for her artworks are heavily based from her own life experiences. Since she came to New York as a teenager, naturally, she felt like she didn’t belong. She attended Cooper Union and Yale where she earned her degrees. During her early years in the United States, being an African American female played an important role in her identity and was something that really stood out to people. Ms. Mutu’s childhood growing up in Africa and her new identity as an African living in America was of great interest to her and shaped her artwork. When Ms. Mutu first started as an artist, her work focused around female bodies being controlled and assigned functions, such as models, native types, sex objects, etc. The women in Ms. Mutu’s works are vague or misunderstood and rarely portray kindness. In order to preserve her identity, she relied on portraying her exoticism. To make her work seem more varied and unique, Ms. Mutu became a painter rather than putting pieces together to form a painting.
Ms. Mutu’s artwork primarily revolves around the idea of being collage-like or not being collage-like. Even though Ms. Mutu strives to stay away from collages because she wants her work to be exotic, some of her collages are her best pieces. Based on the article, her collages have come a long way especially in “Family Tree”, which is a collection of 13 small pieces. In “Family Tree”, Ms. Mutu combines animal, vegetable, and mineral to combine three factors that are usually never seen together. Ms. Mutu tries to incorporate what the art world loves, but still capture and keep intact her own identity.
Works Cited
Cotter, Holland. “A Window, Not a Mirror.” Www.nytimes.com. N.p., 10 Oct. 2013. Web. 01 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/arts/design/a-survey-of-wangechi-mutu-at-brooklyn-museum.html?pagewanted=1>.
One sentence that you said which really threw me off was this one “Since she came to New York as a teenager, naturally, she felt like she didn’t belong” Why didn’t she feel natural, I tend to think of New York city as the ultimate melting pot for all cultures and all ethnicities. Her time in college she probably felt out of place being an African American woman in Yale years ago must have been pretty tough. I like in the article how there is a mention of how her new pieces represent so many social problems, feminism, racism, and many other controversial topics.An article this reminded me of was this one I saw earlier http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/arts/music/women-edging-their-way-into-the-dj-booth.html?ref=arts, about how women are now entering the DJ scene. Its always great to see diversity in the arts world and I hope this tend continues until all cultures and people express their ideas equally with equal validity. Good article and great take on everything
I completely understand how she felt. When coming to a new country and a new city, even one as eclectic as NYC, it’s hard to adapt and feel at home. Every culture has different traditions and roles for genders. It is amazing that she focused herself so well to the point where she received her degrees from two of the best schools in the country. I truly admire that she was able to preserve her identity, and relied on portraying her exoticism.
Back to what you wrote about the first sentence of the article – big topics, like racism, are attractive and attention grabbing in art. When I read what you wrote, I thought to myself about things that aren’t controversial or attention grabbing in art… is there art that isn’t meant to be attention grabbing? I, personally and in my opinion, obviously, like things that attract me. Such is the definition of attraction. But I wonder if there is/was ever a piece of artwork purposely meant to be uninteresting and/or not attention grabbing. Perhaps such a piece could conceivably be created to be ironic in this sense? Something created to purposefully not grad attention, not be noticed. And not artwork for the sake of the artist’s pleasure alone – something meant to be out in the world, but not noticed. To go meta, the more and more I think about some of the things I’ve learned in this class, the more and more I feel my definition of and taste in art expanding.
Racism, consumption, and sexism are controversial and attention grabbing topics. It is interesting to see how artist portray these issues in an artistic setting. Ms. Mutu as you said drew inspiration from personal experience, as many artists throughout history have done. I wonder how deeply these problems affected her life. I can understand how being an African, woman, foreign to a country can provide a different perspective to her art and self acknowledgment to her identity. Vincent Van Gogh is an example of how ones life can have a great affect on ones art. http://bonniebutterfield.com/VincentVanGogh.htm
I enjoyed your article because you pointed out why some art becomes successful and others do not. It is all about using a gripping topic while being unique, and Mutu did just that. She stayed true to herself and developed beautiful pieces of artwork that stemmed from her roots. She also used sensitive topics and topics that will grab peoples attention, and that why she is successful in my opinion.
Additionally, I think she fits perfectly in New York City. She definitely belongs here because she breathes diversity and new life into the art world. She seems willing to take the next step and be a leader and that is what people in new york are all about. This article talks about the impact of diversity on New York City along with many cool pictures to portray the diversity. This is what makes NYC so great.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/15/humans-of-new-york-brandon-stanton-book/
The process which each artist undergoes to find their own niche in the arts world intrigues me. From this article and Ms. Mutu’s own experience, it seems that the fundamental way we characterize art for ourselves is the center around which we build all else. For Mutu, her exoticism and feeling of being a foreigner blended with her understanding that art should comment on a hot topic issue. And even though she says she tries to stay away from collage art, I think collage art represents her style the most. It allows for a lot of artistic expression and exploration of a number of different ideas from the author.
Great article about a great artist. After reading your article and your post, and some of the responses on your post, I decided to do some research about racism in art. I found this interesting article about this anonymous organization: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2013/01/25/racism-still-exists-the-power-of-art/ called RSE (Racism Still Exists). Not only do they explore the idea of racism through art, but comment of social and political ideas. I understand Ken’s confusion about your comment that Ms. Mutu felt out of place naturally. However, I must remind Ken that 1990’s New York was a very different place from New York today. Defacto segregation and lines though still exist today, were heavily present during this era. This was also during the crack epidemic so the Black community was facing both social issues from within, and stereotypes and expectations from the outside. Just like Ms. Mutu’s art pieces, RSE’s posters first purpose is to SHOCK to bring people closer. Then through reading the poster (critically examining the piece in BOTH cases) does the reader fully grasp its intent.