Concentrating on the artists and exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, choose 5 women artists (they do not all need to be in the exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum but must include several from the galleries or be inspired by the exhibitions there - research their site or go visit) to illustrate and briefly explain various themes we have discussed throughout the course about gender, race, class and art history.
You can organize your post into genres, 'isms, political or societal messages, aesthetics, techniques or personal narratives. You must choose a clear thesis and the 5 artists carefully. Your post should include artists working today as well. Be sure to illustrate your post with various images (and/or videos) and to cite your research. Please reference the Brooklyn Museum and the exhibitions of the Sackler Center extensively.
| The Broken Column, Frida Kahlo 1944 |
“The broken column” is a ruthless testimony of the suffering that accompanied Frida for all her life. The artist has depicted herself with her nude torso surrounded by a brutal body cast, while a cruel breach in his body allows us to observe how a stone column -broken into several pieces- is replacing her spinal column, symbolizing the consequences of the terrible bus accident. In addition, Frida has exaggerated her "ugliness", highlighting her extremely joined eyebrows and the hair over her mouth. This artwork shows the different struggles she had to overcome in her life and especially the big nail near her heart which is thought to represent her cheating husband.
Judy Chicago Dinner Party 1979
Each guest has her own runner, embroidered on one side with her name and on the other with imagery illustrating her achievement. Each place setting includes a glass plate, decorated with a butterfly or floral motif symbolizing of the vulva. By incorporating elements of a contemporary social event with the status and appearance of a banquet, Chicago elevates her guests to the role of heroes, a traditionally male epithet. Chicago states, the work "takes us on a tour of Western civilization, a tour that bypasses what we have been taught to think of as the main road." The floor is inscribed with the names of 999 additional women worthy of recognition, while acknowledgment panels on the walls honor the 129 collaborators who worked with Chicago on the piece. The art work to the rest of society serves as a way for all women to be recognized and to have a place where they belong literally in the artwork that Chicago presents.
Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972,
In the artwork, Saar included a knick-knack she found of Aunt Jemina. It was Aunt Jemima with a broom in one hand and a pencil in the other with a notepad on her stomach. Instead of the pencil, she placed a gun, and in the other hand, she had Aunt Jemima hold a hand grenade. In the spot for the paper, she placed a postcard of a stereotypical “mammy” holding a biracial baby. The mammy’s skirt is made up of a black fist, a black power symbol. She put this assemblage into a box and plastered the background with Aunt Jemima product labels. Saar’s goal in using these controversial and racist images was to reclaim them and turn them into positive symbols of empowerment.
Darkytown Rebellion (2000)
A pattern of colors washes over a wall full of silhouettes enacting a dramatic rebellion, giving the viewer the unforgettable experience of stepping into a work of art. Walker’s talent is not about creating controversy for its own sake, but building a world that unleashes horrors even as it draws viewers into the artwork. The artwork occupies a 37 foot wide corner of a gallery. This ensemble, made up of over a dozen characters, plays out a nightmarish scene on a single plane: one figure stands upright over his severed limb, despite his bleeding leg stump, with bones protruding from his hips; another figure, also exhibiting a severed limb, rolls on his back; a woman with a bonnet and voluminous hoop skirt may be attacking a smaller figure on its back, perhaps a crying baby, with a long, plunger-like instrument.
This extraordinary quilt was created by Harriet Powers, an African American woman who was born a slave in Georgia in 1837. Powers is thought to have orally dictated a description of each square of her quilt to Jennie Smith, who had purchased the first quilt Powers made, and arranged for it to be exhibited at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in 1895.
The quilt tells a story and is considered to be a picture version of the bible
FIRST ROW:
1. Job praying for his enemies. Job crosses. Job’s coffin.
2. The dark day of May 19, 1780. The seven stars were seen 12 N. in the day. The cattle wall went to bed, chickens to roost and the trumpet was blown. The sun went off to a small spot and then to darkness.
3. The serpent lifted up by Moses and women bringing their children to look upon it to be healed.
4. Adam and Eve in the garden. Eve tempted by the serpent. Adam’s rib by which Eve was made. The sun and the moon. God’s all-seeing eye and God’s merciful hand.
5. John baptizing Christ and the spirit of God descending and resting upon his shoulder like a dove.
SECOND ROW:
6. Jonah cast over board of the ship and swallowed by a whale. Turtles.
7. God created two of every kind, male and female.
8. The falling of the stars on Nov. 13, 1833. The people were frightened and thought that the end had come. God’s hand staid the stars. The varmints rushed out of their beds.
9. Two of every kind of animal continued…camels, elephants, “gheraffs,” lions, etc.
10. The angels of wrath and the seven vials. The blood of fornications. Seven-headed beast and 10 horns which arose of the water.
THIRD ROW:
11. Cold Thursday, 10 of February, 1895. A woman frozen while at prayer. A woman frozen at a gateway. A man with a sack of meal frozen. Icicles formed from the breath of a mule. All blue birds killed. A man frozen at his jug of liquor.
12. The red light night of 1846. A man tolling the bell to notify the people of the wonder. Women, children and fowls frightened by God’s merciful hand caused no harm to them.
13. Rich people who were taught nothing of God. Bob Johnson and Kate Bell of Virginia. They told their parents to stop the clock at one and tomorrow it would strike one and so it did. This was the signal that they had entered everlasting punishment. The independent hog which ran 500 miles from Georgia to Virginia, her name was Betts.
14. The creation of animals continues.
15. The crucifixion of Christ between the two theives. The sun went into darkness. Mary and Martha weeping at his feet. The blood and water run from his right side.
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/collections/
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/146910/Agony_in_the_Garden
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/betye-saar
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