Words: 1038
Berger said, “The way we see thing is affected by what we know or what we believe”. 167) Having rarely been to museums except on school trips my exposure to art has been very limited. In fact, most of what I know to be art is derived from a single drawing course I took in high school. Everything in the course was directed towards making your drawing seem life like; proper shading, three-dimensional drawing. In whatever case, I came to believe “good” art was the piece that looked the prettiest. Standing in the museum hall, I wasn’t disappointed, most of the paintings here were so realistic they bordered on the difference between a painting or photo.
But “Hoeing” was not attractive, or at least not in the traditional sense. Even the frame looked like it had been chipped away over half century. Looking at the painting I was surprised at how an arbitrary piece could make it into a museum. The painting itself portrayed a group of African-American fame’s laboring at multiple tasks. The two-dimensional figures were either prominently dark black or brown and were continually bent over from either work or exhaustion. The sky was a dull gray mixed with tints of blue while the ground was a scorched red and orange.
The colors didn’t add for detail but rather for mood. The dark undertones brought a “tiresome” behavior to the painting that was complimented by the paintings simplicity. This painting did not stick out to me for its artistic design or realism, but its simplicity. What I thought the purpose of a painting before was to be intricate and attractive, “Hoeing” challenged that belief. Then what is art? Staring at the painting I look individually at each brushstroke. Though the figures may look ugly to me, each stroke lands perfectly intoned with next.
Taking a step back I examine the painting as a whole. It’s not easy to miss the central object of Sweetmeats painting. Gateway focus was not detail but rather a tall black man wiping sweat from his brow. The man’s size is so large compared to the figures around him; it would be difficult to notice anyone else in the painting first. Although all the figures in the painting are faceless, this mans head is buried into his arm as he pauses from hoeing around a single plant. The strain from his work is evident from the creases that run from his raised arm to his feet.
From this, it is clear that Gateway abstract design is trying to show the hardships of black rural workers society’s problem through a realistic approach as well? Then I notice how prominent the faceless figures depict a tired working class that can easily be transformed into today’s economic problem. The abstract concept adds to the picture’s message by leaving the distracting details out, so only the message remains. Symbolism plays a key part in transmitting the message as well. Though I saw the figures as the oppression of the working class, others may see it differently.
I believe art not to be a pretty piece of work anymore but a picture that connects thoughts. For example, Gateway wanted to connect the audience to the large man in the picture through an emotional response. Today, we understand the racial inequality that played into a large part of our history. But in 1948, when this picture was created, racism was still active in the United States. Gateway portrays to future generations the struggle poor rural blacks inured. In this way, the less Gateway added the more he told.
Only the minimum of detail was left to structure the content; the special blend of colors to express the tired mood, the enormous tired man and the faceless workers all add to something greater. After first reading the prompt for this assignment I was puzzled over the objective of “questioning the painting”. My previous belief that paintings portray beauty over subject clouded my Judgment on art. Art is a form of communication Just as vital as a phone. The focus of “Hoeing” acted as a visual stimulant to connect the faceless man arrayed in the painting to what we already know about African American history.
Where a phone can only communicate words, a picture is open to perception. What I see is different than what another may see because “of what I know’. In one of his claims Berger states ” Yet when an image is presented as a work of art, the way people look at it is affected by a whole series of learned assumptions about art; beauty, truth, genius civilization, form status, etc. ” (143) Here, Berger states that when image from the past is presented today as a work of art, their meaning becomes Westfield by the learnt assumptions.
Berger believes that there is a right and wrong way to view art. I disagree, these learnt assumptions such as beauty and truth are not clouding the meaning but are part of it. Berger believes that because images were first made to represent something not there, then in essence, the purpose of an image is to capture the past as the artist experiences it. When we see art from the past, we have to opportunity to place ourselves in history. This is the correct way to “see” as Berger puts its and everything else is simply getting in the way.
Though my exposure to art has been limited, what we choose to perceive art as is Just as important as the message itself. I must agree that the past plays a large part in what we see, but if it was truly everything that the image stands for, my appreciation for “seeing” would be quickly diminished. For example, if we choose to appreciate its beauty and appearance then its purpose isn’t to transfer a message but to admire the detail and brush strokes that make the painting so attractive. Our desire to see the past can be one of the many purposes for art and not have to be the only one.