Near the beginning of the semester we painted these monochromatic pieces. They paintings have an abstactionist feel to them, in that they seem little concerned with representing any one thing form the natural world. It is paint on paper scattered and splattered simply for the desire to scatter and move paint about. In this reasoning they seem to fit in quite nicely with the modernist movement which expressly rejects the idea of realism (and largely reactionary to advancement sin technology and the sciences) calls for a reexamination (and in a lot of cases rejection) traditional systems or methods of doing something.
Based upon the intent of these pieces, they could also be seen as post modern, if the intent was purely to make art, not necessarily to make any sort of statement that could be tied to a theory ideology or concept.
Post modernist often have a problem with any label of "art", and seek to separate themselves from the modernists who are concerned with defining certain aspects of their art in an attempt to move away from the traditional. A modernist may look at this image and be pleased with the lack of representation. With the "randomness" of movement and the use of acrylic paint as medium.(a paint which is manufactured from plastics, a product of the 20th century.) A post modernist may look at this same image and appreciate it for slightly different reasons. Perhaps for the lack of an y seeming message. Perhaps for the relationship the piece of art seems to have with the action of putting paint to paper versus, communicating anything to an audience.
We also painted color swatches of our skin tone, which we then placed on black and grey backgrounds to see how the change of back ground color might affect how we viewed the color swatches. Color deals with the combination of colors one uses in ones work of art and how those colors playoff each other to effect the eye of the viewer.The colors we placed against the back of the skin color swatches dramatically affected (in my opinion) the appearance of the color swatches. Making some swatches appear lighter, more pinkish white, and others appear darker, with yellow orange hints in them.
We have been talking a lot about race and how society may perceive us based on our background, skin color or the objects we carry with us. It is so easy to label people based on these things.
The color swatches changed how they appeared according to where they were placed. The same is often true for us as human beings and especially those of non-white skin tones. Place someone in baggy sorts and a hood, and they are generally thought to be suspicious or dangerous, as opposed to just relaxing in comfortable clothing. A modernist perhaps would view these images with the intent of understanding how thees pieces spoke to the race conflict present in our society in an abstract way, and appreciate the method of communicating perhaps that issue through non-descript images.
A post modernist could view these piece with an eye of skepticism knowing that each person will view these pieces differently based on their view of society and "truth". Perhaps they might want to engage in a critical conversation on why these colors were chosen. What could they represent to any number of people? Do they convey a message that is relevant and important for our society to be asking at this time? Does the way we view race affect how we view these paintings and the messages we may gain from our time spent observing them?
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