CONTEMPORARY ART
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Art entails many different activities, music, creations, to pass a certain message to the viewer or question certain characteristics of the society and the surrounding. The theme of a piece of art is the idea the author has in mind every time they are creating a piece of art (Pentassuglia, 2017). Art has its major constituents as visual arts. which are the things perceived by the sense of sight, including; making sculptures. photography, painting, making films, and drawing, among others.Another constituent of art is performance art, which includes dancing, making music, theatre performance. Art has two division eras; traditional, which dated in the period before the 20th century and contemporary art, which is an art that emerged in the late 20th century and early 21st century.
Contemporary art is art produced in the period ranging between the late 20th and early 21st century. It is, in other words, described as art produced preceding the modern art movement.(Sugiharto., 2013) Compared to traditional artists who were influenced by mythology, religion, demands, current political climate, individual culture, popular trends, etc., contemporary artists have globalized art due to their increased ability to travel and integrate more perspective. Contemporary art is, therefore, an examination of life today. Commonly featured themes include; social, political institution criticism, society, migration, globalization, culture, memory, the body, identity, and technology. ( Polak., Kelman et al. 2017) This essay is about the comparison and contrast of two different works of art; ‘Crying girl’ and ‘Drowning Girl.’
Roy Fox Lichtenstein was a pop artist based in America; he is famous for his advertisements and strip comics parodies, which were boldly-colored. New York City was his city of birth, born in 1923 October, and died in September 1997. He grew up with a great interest in general science and comic books. As a teenager, he became interested in art, took watercolor classes, and studied with Reginald Marshies, but after he finished his undergraduate degree in fine arts, he proceeded to pursue a master’s de, an American realist painter. Lichtenstein got drafted in World War II put a pause in his studgree in the same field… He did not like other artists; emphasize his painting process in inner emotional life. Rather he borrowed and mimicked on impersonal stencil process imitating mechanical printing used commonly in commercial arts. Lichtenstein began his career at a time when there were increasingly many revolutions in the struggle for sociopolitical changes such as male chauvinism and inclusion of females in the government, among others. Therefore his works of art involved the drawings alluded from the comics books, newspapers, and magazines written at that time describing the sociopolitical climate. As in the art pieces, the ‘crying girl,’ the’ drowning girl,’ and several others of his books. His arts old largely, and he was labeled the father of pop art.
These two pieces of art are both Roy Lichtenstein’s work, and they both are comic strip inspired. Both pieces are pop art style whose messages and communications has filtered through the codes(Rooij & Bastiaansen,2017). Crying girl is a piece made first in 1963 on lightweight, off-white woven paper as offset lithograph. A second version was made in 1964 on steel as porcelain enamel. The painting is of size 46 square inches depicting a girl whose age appears to range 20-30 years. The girl has tears falling from the eyes, and her stance has designed. Lichtenstein has influenced by books of comic style, which had emerged 1961-1965. He drew on thick dark lines and applied the Benday dots technique commonly used for comics printing.
This portrait comes at an era when women were fighting against discrimination and for equal rights as men. In this period, many girls and women found themselves in relationships; they had no control.The woman has portrayed looking out of the corner of her eyes to the right. Tears threaten to pour out, and she holds a hand to her mouth as if to stifle a gasp. The hair is also curving in a way that indicates sudden movement. either as the girl was moving her head or on the run. Her eyebrows have curved in a way that depicts extreme worry and uncertainty.
Apart from the current era, another possible motivation behind the painting of this depressed woman among other paintings o the same class could be that Lichtenstein’s marriage to Isabel Wilson at the time was on the verge of dissolving. Lichtenstein uses color to create variety and unity (Momany& Alshboul, 2016). He has used warm colors for her hair nails and lips. To depict unity, he has used solid black color, as seen through the top corners of the painting. Lichtenstein uses yellow color for her hair and red for fingers, lips, and on the shape that serves as her clothing. The warm colors make her stand out and assist the artist in bringing out the theme of oppression for the eye to see. (Rooij &Bastiaansen, 2017) The colors depict a stunning woman, while the teary face indicates the struggles women went through.
The girl appears to be in distress, as evidenced by tears, sorrow containing gaze, and the stance of resignation. The theme is that of a chain that trapped women. being looked down on in society and being given minor roles. such as cooking and serving their husbands and leaders(Goodrum &Spink, 2016). Lichtenstein uses bright colors, yellow hair, red lips, and brightly colored fingernails to highlight the beautiful appearance of the girl. whose beauty could mask the strong emotions of misery the girl carries as a sign of struggles in the society that is dominated by males, and high demand for perfection from girls by the society. Roy hence uses the tears and the stance to portray the misery and struggle women have made to go through. His intentions for this painting was to highlight the struggle beneath the outside perfection as people overlooked it, this portrait was among others inspired by ‘secret hearts’ comic used to reveal the struggles in a relationship at that time.
‘Drowning girl’ was another one of Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings, which is an image of a girl who appears to range in the age bracket 20-30 years. The painting was inspired by a comic book ‘secret love’ from 1962. The image depicts a woman in a sea with turbulence. The woman appears emotionally drained, probably out of romance. There is a thought bubble, a style used in comic books that declared that she has prepared to drown rather than ask for help from an individual called ‘Brad’ This is a narrative that aims to indicate a melodrama element. The graphics, Ben-Day dots, highlight the process of printing and `Lichtenstein’s work, which imitates reproduction in a mechanized way.
The two-dimensional artwork is composed of shapes. Lines and a color shift from the shapes. For example, the drowning girl’s hair has formed from a shift in the different shade of blue that makes the water and her white face.the form of her hair has given by lines outlining it (Glaser & Strauss, 2017). It is therefore clear that both shifts in color and lines are used together and separated in other places in creating the artwork shapes.
Both the ‘drowning girl’ and the ‘crying girl come at an era where male chauvinism was a dominant thing. Female has forced into marriages they did not consent to, and they have also denied chances to voice out their concerns about important issues such as politics and socioeconomic factors (Hashim, 2017). In that era, relationships have dominated by males, with females having close to zero chances for self-expression. Lichtenstein has used his art to illustrate the emotional distress the females were going through. There has to be due to the issues in their surroundings. that was affecting them either directly or indirectly. However, there is a thought bubble on the ‘drowning girl’ stating,’I don’t care! I’d rather drown than call Brad for help.’ The thought in the burble hence is perceived as defiance in the part of women. Lichtenstein might have been trying to infer the dawn of a new era that women will no longer depend fully on men as had been the norm (Cohen, 2015). It also shows determination on the part of women. to depend on self as there were so many women related protests. At the time of the bid of demanding independence from the chauvinists. In comparison, the crying girl picture has portrayed as a completely resigned person compared to the drowning girl who depicts defiance and resolution. The resignation indicates giving up as probably a result of constant trial and failure to change the situation hence finally giving up.
Both portraits are within the war and romance theme, showing women who were struggling within the existing regime. The crying girl is biting fingers as an indication of concentration and deep thought as she was trying to figure out a solution for something. The frenzied waving hair may have used to indicate motion, generating an idea that the woman is running from something, probably the regime. The woman has portrayed to be looking through the corners of her eyes. This stance is used by people when they are moving with caution out of fear of something or someone. The crying girl’s picture has drawn before the drowning girl. therefore the second picture could have been a continuation of the first showing that the girl, after trying hard as depicted from the first, after running as deduced from the waving frenzied hair, finally gave up as depicted by the hair that is relaxed and falling behind her ear. The resolved decision she seems to make from her statement shows that she has given up and decided to let life take its course (Choi &Rasmussen, 2019). A difference in her stance in that she is no longer checking behind her back through the corner of the eyes as she did in the crying girl picture, shows she no longer cares about whatever dangers may be approaching.
On the use of colors, Lichtenstein has used warm colors, which are red, yellow, and light color of the face created by the Benday dots in the crying girl’ picture, an aspect which has most often perceived as an indication for activity in place. These compared to the drowning girl picture where cool colors, different shades of blue, and parches of black, which have shaped to outline the waters in which the woman prefers to drown. The viewers of the picture see the statement of the drowning girl as a figurative language, and ‘Brad’ the male name has probably been used to stand in for the chauvinist men in general. Cool colors have used to depict reluctance and lack of effort. The visual language in both pieces of art is similar to the method of the language used in the 1960s magazines. comic strips, advertisements, and newspapers (LaPlaca Cohen,2017) it involved halftone screen’s Benday dots and simplified composition methods, or different sized dots pattern use in creating commercial magazine pictures. The printed material’s texture and tone have signified by the segmented flat areas of black outline retained colors. Lichtenstein used bold primary colors (yellow, black, red), cool colors (different shades of blue), and lines that are black and thick. These have used to imitate the mechanical products used in the imagery of commercial comic books produced for the mass audience.
Lichtenstein uses shapes to show water turbulence in the ‘drowning girl’ picture. This use of shapes has used to insist on the perceived message. The waves show uncertainty that the woman holds (Mariam, 2017). She is unsure of what might happen, while the only thing she is certain about is not going to ask for help from the person she refers to as brad. This aspect of shapes in comparison to the crying girl image where the only distraction to calm is the frenzied waving hair and the obvious emotional uncertainty depicted from her facial expression.
In conclusion, it is therefore clear that art can have used to express the emotions and the climate in the surrounding, whether social, political, economic, etc. Art is diverse, and interpretation of the same has based on an individual. This fact is evidenced in the description of the drowning girl as some viewers look at it as purely romantic, while my analysis from my focal point l view it as having a sociopolitical theme contradicting the previous views. The two pieces of art were also previously seen as different and independent while I view them as intertwined, ‘drowning girl’ is a continuation of ‘crying girl as explained above.
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