New York Scenes

Category: Uncategorized (Page 5 of 5)

Is today’s society oversensitive when it comes to race?

September 30, 2015 / / 11 Comments

Today, in class, when we were asked what topics were social taboo, someone instantly said race. This is exactly what is discussed, especially pertaining to the performing arts in Ben Brantley and Anthony Tommasini’s “Debating ‘Otello,’ Blackface and casting trends'”.  The authors tell us that in today’s castings, directors must not take race into account even when the original piece calls for an actor of a specific background.

Traditionally, the role of Othello is played by a darker skinned man, but the director of this production decided to cast a man with light colored skin.

The photo above is of the play Othello, where Othello is being played by a man with light skin. The authors of the article talk about how Othello usually stands out because of his ethnic background which is different than all of the other characters in the play. If Othello being of a different ethnic background adds to the plot, why is it deemed offensive? This is where I believe that society is oversensitive. If people who believe this to be offensive took a step back, maybe even had a conversation with theater critics, they would be able to see that they are hampering creative expression. The authors of the article make it seem that Othello blending in with the other characters takes away from the impact of his role, and i can see where they are coming from. Why would anyone want to take away from Othello’s impact on the play?  For this reason I cannot see why Othello cannot be of a darker skin tone.

The controversial play “The Mikado”.

Where I believe the criticism might be warranted is in a play such as “The Mikado” where the characters are somewhat portrayals of asian stereotypes. The authors describe the makeup used here as “yellowface”. Today, things like yellowface and blackface are extremely discouraged and seen as racist. I am of the opinion that if an actor is using makeup to portray a stereotype that any offense taken has validity to it, but it is totally fine to darken the skin of someone playing a role like Othello, where it is constructive to the plot, and I think that the authors of the article would agree.

Immigrating to the West One Photo at a Time

September 24, 2015 / / 13 Comments

Each day, thousands of illegal immigrants are smuggled across the border. They are shoved into gas tanks, squeezed into cargo boxes, and  hidden in the backs of trucks.They are pressed into small boats by the hundreds just to be sunk off the coast.  News coverage has made us all painfully aware of what Syrian refugees go through in order to enter Europe.  Yet with all the focus of the Syrian refugees fleeing the Middle East, why haven’t we asked ourselves what happens to those who stay behind? In his article “Photo Exhibition Puts Syrian Refugees on the Seine,” Elian Peltier features Reza Deghati who seeks to answer this question by creating a photo exhibition right on the banks of the Seine River.

Before we look at Reza’s work, we must first understand what is happening in Syria. In 2011, a series of reform movements and protests spread across the Middle East including Syria. Feeling threatened by the movement’s demands, Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad responded by attacking the protesters. He ordered their kidnappings, tortures, and murders in addition to destroying the suburbs in which they lived. In wake of this totalitarian atrocity, militant rebel groups were formed, aiming to establish a more moderate government. Syria erupted into a full blown civil war. In the midst of the internal fighting, ISIS entered Syria in search of territory and has been fighting both the rebel and government forces ever since. Surrounded by three opposing fronts in a war that has been going on for over four years now, Syrian civilians have no choice but to flee the country.

Once outside of Syria, refugees have two options, to stay in the Middle East in a refugee camp or to enter Europe and try to establish themselves. It is easy for Europeans to blame the refugees for entering Europe instead of staying in the Middle East. After all, these refugees are disrupting local economies and cultures. In the midst of this harsh sentiment, Reza’s photos call their audience to see past the negatives and accept the immigrants as human beings.

Reza’s works focus on the homeless children living in Middle Eastern refugee camps. While it is easy to dismiss a suffering adult, a child in pain cannot be so easily ignored.  He glamorizes their childhood in certain pictures by capturing the children while playing. It is easy for a viewer to relate to his own childhood in such pictures, and as such he recalls fond memories and develops a connection with the child in the photo. Later photos shock the audience by capturing the children at their low points- while performing physical labor or laying on the ground motionless. According to Reza, “[these] kids have lost the paradise every kid has.” Now in his state of shock, a viewer is more sensitive to the conditions refugees face and will be less likely to dismiss their rights as humans.

By forcing the public to see what the alternative is, perhaps Reza’s works will persuade Europeans to be more accepting of the current demographic shift from Syria. These immigrants are not criminals sneaking into a country. They are victims fleeing from one.

The Unwritten Histories

September 24, 2015 / / 9 Comments

When one develops an urge to enrich himself/herself with the knowledge of another culture what would be their main source of information? Many would turn to google or on a rare occasion even to the library, and to be honest I would’ve done the exact same thing. New York Times journalist Holland Cotter, however, has more creative and innovative idea on how to learn more about a culture’s history in his article, “Review: ‘Kongo: Power and Majesty’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

18KONGOJP8-1442514236870-articleLarge

Cotter believes that art is the key to learning the truth of a cultures history. He uses the new Kongo exhibit in the MET as an example. He mentioned how the people of the Kongo region didn’t take records of their history or important events for most of their early generations. Due to this, westerners never really understood their cultures and what they have truly been through. Cotter goes on to say that this is not the case, the people of Kongo have always been keeping records of important events in their cultures, just not in the traditional way of paper and pen.

The Kongo people have recorded important events of their pasts with the help of art. They used sculptures, paintings, engravings, masks, religious objects, and ceramics to record their history. I was fascinated by their clever and unique artworks that had so much to say about their cultures. I completely agree with Cotter and feel that artwork is a great tool to record one’s history.

18KONGOJP3-blog427            This tusk carving is a great example of how the Kongo people used art to record their history. This carving depicts Kongo’s relations with European countries. At the beginning of the tusk, it seems as if everyone is happy with their relations and there is a mutual respect between them. The second visible level depicts upper class Europeans making shady deals with some Kongo people. With the help of these deals, Portugal, France, and mainly Britain began enslaving the people of Kongo. They managed to chain up a third of the Kongo population by 1850. As one could see this small tusk artwork told us so much about the people of Kongo.

 

There are other great examples of the Kongo artworks that depict their culture if you’re interested. I believe that this is a much better and more enjoyable way to present one’s cultural history than the way of a classic textbook.

 

9/9/15 Reading Response #1

September 8, 2015 / / 3 Comments
Sargent's Madame X

Sargent’s Madame X

One of Sargent’s portraits that he was so famous for

John Singer Sargent lived a very privileged childhood, his family traveled to Florence, Rome, Nice, and the Alps just to stay away from harsh weather.  Sargent’s parents thought they could give their child a better education then a school could, he received a “Baedeker education” from them. “Sargent learned geography, arithmetic, reading, and and other disciplines” from his father, where his mother, who was an amateur artist, encouraged him to draw and provided many subjects for him to paint. I feel that Sargent gained an advantage over other artists in his early years because he was not burdened by a formal education, and was therefore able to pursue his passion while other blooming artists had to wait until adulthood to work on their skills. In his later teenage years, Sargent was able to study art formally starting in 1873 and shortly after was moved to Paris to “foster his talent.” Sargent’s father made this decision, supporting his son’s artistic pursuits. I do not believe that in today’s society that a father could make the same move, it is simply not a sound financial decision to pursue the arts as a career. If someone were to do this today, they’d almost certainly be ensuring a lower-class lifestyle where they would have to struggle to pay their bills and I don’t believe that a modern parent would see this and encourage it. Defying the odds, Sargent was able to move around to where he could make commissions and was popular due to the “notoriety” of his work, Madame X. Madame X included “an unmodulated treatment of the face and figure inspired by the style of Edouard Manet and Japanese Prints”, which was uncommon at the time and was not appreciated by critics. From the readings, it appears that Sargent often got bored and changed his styles and location to satisfy his artistic desires. Sargent has did most of his most popular work in France, Great Britain, and the United States, being popular for his portraits and later in life, his watercolors. I don’t believe that Sargent would tell us that he has ever worked though, he seemed to love art so much that creating it was more of a passion than an occupation. While I do not share the same passion for the arts, I envy Sargent’s devotion to it and his resilience to the not-so-kind critiques he received at times. if he were able to tell us how he felt about his life and career today, I don’t think that he would say that he resents anything he did or would change a thing.

September 9 Reading Response

September 8, 2015 / / 2 Comments
(Self Portrait)

(Self Portrait)

This is John Singer Sargent – an educated and very cultured American painter who made a reputable name for himself despite criticisms by painting many forms and styles of art – murals, portraits, watercolors, genre scenes – and and displaying it to the public world successfully.

When reading the simple art biography of Sargent, I was very interested in the kinds and styles of art John Singer learned about during his journey on to be a successful and respected artist. In May 1874, Sargent was taught under Carolus-Duran who urged his art students to just paint on the canvas suddenly instead of  outlining or practicing any drawings first. This was to “preserve the freshness of the sketch in completed works”. It’s difficult to imagine someone going straight to the canvas and paint a whole picture without any idea on a piece of paper to assist him or her. If I were one of the students, I would take a bit of paint with my brush, put it on the canvas, be unsatisfied, and would have to start all over. Again and again.

Sargent later on went to gain reputation for his portraits and subject pictures when he started to submit his paintings when many people demanded and commissioned him to paint their portraits.

just take my money

Henry James, the author of “Picture and Text” explains in great detail about some of the portraits of John Singer Sargent painted. He describes how Sargent was able to bring something alive from his paintings of the people who modeled for him. Sargent could paint reality and display it to whoever saw and admired the portraits. The audience could feel something and react well to the paintings. I felt like Sargent had portrayed directly what he saw when he was painting his models. One could say that his portraits were like photographs, but his brushstrokes conveyed much more than that and expressed a lot more.

A good example is Madame X, one of John Singer Sargent’s best-known portrait.

However, the portrait elicited criticism for Sargent’s “indifference to conventions of pose, modeling, and treatment of space”. What he painted was unconventional and different from the usual type of paintings in that time period.  When I started to look and scrutinize some of John Singer’s paintings, I do have to admit that I had a questionable look on my face. The way some of the models had their hands positioned and what they were holding or what they were posed next to did cause me to be a little confused.

puppy-head-tilt-o-s

But like all artists, Sargent had a reason to pose his models as so which created some sort of reaction to the people who saw his work – regardless if it was bad or good.

Later on, when many Americans were eager to sit for Sargent, John Singer once again began to gain popularity for his portraits. He jumped over the obstacle of criticisms.

Similar to some other artists, like Thomas Eakens, John Singer Sargent wanted to do more than paint portraits. He branched out to mural paintings for institutions such as the Boston Public Library, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and the Harvard University library. He branched out even further to do watercolors. Later on, Sargent had a great reputation in painting not only portraits, but murals and watercolors paintings.

water color john singer

Karer See, 1914

His watercolor paintings, in my opinion, do not portray as much as a sense of realism than I received from his portraits, but Sargent creates more of a dream that sticks in the person’s mind after seeing it. He gives us just a little glimpse of the beauty of the scene he was painting.

 

 

“John Singer Sargent” & “Picture and Text” Reading Response

September 8, 2015 / / 3 Comments

Great artists come and go; however, it is those that still create discussion, debate, and reverence, that are truly considered the greatest of their time. John Singer Sargent is certainly one of those geniuses of his era.

Sargent, who lived from 1856-1925, primarily worked throughout Europe. Having trained in Florence, and working in London, Italy, France, the United States, and more, Sargent has a diverse spectrum of influences, as well as spectators. Primarily creating oil paintings and watercolors, Sargent is most notably known for his mastery in his portrait painting style.

According to “Picture and Text”, an essay of John Singer Sargent’s work, Henry James considers Sargent one of the greatest Impressionist artists of his time (possibly ever). James goes on to say that this great praise came with extreme criticism. Some considered Sargent an odd artist, whose work seemed to be “unfinished”; though I do not see it this way. I realize that when one is in a position of greatness, condemnation and negative assessments will be inevitable. Of all his works, Sargent is most notoriously critiqued for one of his earliest works, Madame X (1884).

Madame X(1884)

Madame X(1884)

This specific piece was a portrait put on display at the Paris Salon, and received heavy, scandalous censure. Seeing this piece for my first time, I instantly realize it was way before its time. When I think of 19th century portraits my mind instantly goes to lavish, gaudy garments. The characteristics of such clothing includes modesty. Though this particular piece may seem a bit revealing for its time, I find it to be simply intriguing. The contrast of the pale skin color to the thick black dress, and the dark brown background, catches my eye right away. That, along with the model’s face looking to the right, brings about a sense of tentativeness and ambivalence. I now see why this particular work received such “hit or miss” assessments.

Furthermore, another specific creation of Sargent which similarly grabbed my attention is Young Lady in Black(1879). Another incredible portrait of a woman, this work happens to be notably more detailed and real. After looking at the portrait for some time I couldn’t help myself from thinking it to be so basic. But when I analyzed the background of the painting I realized what it meant to me. The young woman in the painting seems so elegant, and beautiful. In terms of her appearance she seems so graceful, and captivating. Having said that, when you look at her stature, her dress, and the room she is in, the work as a whole seems so amiss. The lady is dressed in a grim black dress, standing impatiently; she seems extremely fed up, and negative. The room she seems to be posing in looks rundown and repulsive. This entire piece of work turned into such a gloomy, eerie scene. It is then that the lone, single white flower that the lady is holding, creates the message in the setting. In such dark, miserable circumstances in life, there is always a bright light at the end of the tunnel. This portrait may have seemed plain and straightforward to some, however, it spoke wonders to me. When discussing this piece, James said, “The language of painting, the tongue in which, exclusively, Mr. Sargent expresses himself, is a medium into which a considerable part of the public, for the simple an excellent reason that they don’t understand it, will doubtless always be reluctant and unable to follow him.”

Young Lady in Black (1879)

Young Lady in Black (1879)

After primarily being in Europe, Sargent started to do much work in America. It was there that he became very popular for his Watercolor paintings. Tommies Bathing (1918) was created with a voyeuristic viewpoint, which would usually act as a repellent to me in the arts. Instantly though, I related this work to the Biblical account of Adam and Eve.

Tommies Bathing(1918)

Tommies Bathing(1918)

The two person character setting, the freedom of being alone in a field, and the oblivious nakedness, draws direct similarities to Adam and Eve. This painting made me question if Sargent had any religious motivation, or connection. I found this particular work very mysterious to me because it is done without much detail. Even more interesting is the fact that the shadows casted across the bodies are done so accurately. I wonder what the message is there. Tommies Bathing proved to be the coolest artwork of Sargent to me, due to the fact that it seemed so familiar, yet so puzzling.

 

John Singer Sargent seems to be the epitome of what a great artist should be. From the time Sargent was trained by his master, Carolus Duran, he knew what his style was. Sargent worked for his own approval, rather than for others. He truly was a genius in his field, and he did not let others inhibit the way he went about his work. As Henry James wrote, “Those who have appreciated his work most up to the present time articulate no wish for a change, so completely does that work seem to them, in its kind, the exact translation of his thought, the exact “fit” of his artistic temperament.”

Portrait of Carolus Duran(1879)

Portrait of Carolus Duran(1879)

Newer posts »

Recent Comments

© 2024 New York Scenes

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑