Subjects:
Faith Ringgold composed this piece by using oil paints on a 31 by 19 inch canvas. It is depicting the struggles that her community and herself were facing while trying to gain equal rights from the majority of white American culture. She uses line, shape, color, value and texture to depict the points she’s trying to make. She uses mostly outline in an expressive quality to depict the extremity of the situtation. The most promindint shapes she uses is rectangles. The strips are long rectangles and even her face has a very square feeling to it. The only colors she uses are red, blue, black and white. All of these colors are in a low key, which are very bright and draw your attention equally.
All of the principles of design are indicative in this painting.
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This particular piece has deep content.
One can see the relevance that Faith Ringgold’s God Bless America had on past society and still has today. The woman in the painting seems to be trapped behind the flag, which I think relates to what is happening today. It is a stylized representation of real life that it still recognizable to the average person. Through the artworks interpretation I have depicted the emotions that the work signifies for me personally. I feel the heartache for those who have lost loved ones and who will still lose loved ones in the upcoming struggle. Ringgold has done numerous paintings that depict the struggle of the black community during and prior to the 1960’s. In Faith Ringgold’s painting she address the tensions between blacks and whites, and while there have been great movement towards equality and fair treatment towards African Americans, there will always be some prejudice and unfair treatment. Other artists that use representational style in their artwork Marisol Escobar, Elbert Bierstadt, and Erna Monta. America is under attack, it seems that Americans are trapped in their own country. This is relevant to me because I have a newfound concern for what tomorrow may hold. There is a new struggle facing America, and it is between black and white but not in the literal sense. The entire composition is done to scale and is proportionate. To me the black and white symbolizes an epic struggle between and good and its arch nemesis, evil. This piece held a lot of significance for the Afro-American community of the 1960’s because it expresses deep held beliefs and wide spread feeling that could not be openly expressed in public.
Essay's Topics
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