Art Appreciation
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Monday, April 24, 2017
Sunday, April 9, 2017
The Freedom Soul
Francis
William Edmonds was an American painter of genre subjects. He first exhibited
at the New York Academy in 1836, under an assumed name, Sammy the Tailor. In the years just before the Civil War, society's
concern with issues surrounding slavery and race found expression in genre
paintings or scenes of daily life. Therefore, not only the writers voiced up
for the lower class, but also the artists exploded their thoughts for it too. The Flute (the picture above), by
Edmonds before 1859, describes a pity scene of the black children. It is
exhibited in Amon Carter Museum of American Art, is a gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Louis J. Urdahl with assistance from the Mitchell A. Wilder Memorial Fund in
1981.
This
is not a hard painting to see the content in it. People can obviously see a
white man’s playing flute for the black boys. The reason the artist made this
artwork, to me is because of the empathy he has for the African Americans. In
this particular period of time, discrimination happened everywhere in the
United States. The image of being close to slaves and considering them as
friends is a very rare action. In this picture, people can see a small space,
which is a poor house as a background. It brings me a feeling of a secret
event. The way the white man sits and plays quietly and the way the black kids
see him with grateful look, makes me imagine a peaceful atmosphere. Moreover,
the way the white man dresses also show the period of time is between 18th
or 19th century. This certainly describes the discrimination era of
the United States back then. It is not an illegal thing to do but people may
judge the white man for making friends with slavery. Therefore, the flute
player has to play in a house with a lower sound to hire attention from the
neighbors around. Again, I think the reason Edmonds created this artwork is
because he wants to show the poor life of African Americans.
I
can see in this picture a combination of so many, if not mistaken, are all of
elements of design. The lines appear on the window, the stick behind the
boy and also the shade of wall creates a line too. Therefore, the shapes
of rectangle are made by lines as we can see are the wood hanging in the middle
of the wall, the window, or the tables. By those shapes, forms are
appeared. The vases, the hats, the bottles, and buckets are all made from
circle shape. The clothes of these characters help us see the texture in
this painting. Space is obviously shown by the wall with not many items
on it, and we can imagine a small town by the view outside of the window. Value
and color are the most noticeable in this artwork because of the
lightness and darkness shades. It helps us know the time in day of the picture.
Edmond used dark tone color to express the sad content. In the other hand, the
color and value bring the audience to a peaceful of this scene to empathy for
African Americans. Opposite with elements of design, the artist used not much
principles of design in this particular painting. I can only see the movement
which is how the characters sit and stand. The picture contains no iconography
because the concept shows the meaning itself. Therefore, it is not
representational, abstract or nonrepresentational in this artwork neither.
Discrimination
is a good theme for many authors because this circumstance keeps happening all
the time. Reading many books about this topic, people can certainly imagine a
tough society in the past. After analyzing this painting, we now know that
artist also help speak up for African Americans too. I love this work of art.
It does not need any professional techniques or show any special skill of the
artist but I feel touched when I first saw it. It makes me want to go back to
that period and send more love to these poor children.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
The Kimbell Art Museum
The
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
Amon Carter
Museum of American Art
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