Essay: Art Extended Writing Task
This is an essay I wrote for school three weeks ago. It's for Art and, yay, I got an A.
It's a comparitive essay on how three artists portrayed identity in their paintings. I chose Jimmy Durham, Gordon Bennett and Francis Bacon. If anyone actually reads this and would like to see the artworks in question, then just ask and I can post them.
Extended writing task. Semester One. Term One. Appraising.
Art has always presented a doorway for an influx of eager observers, for critics, for students, for artists. It is a form of expression, of telling a story, a feeling, a truth, and in doing such, it gives us a window to the artist’s opinions or beliefs. As a new generation of artists were born, with the knowledge, the experience and the capability to openly express controversial views, so saw a series of artworks, a series of new styles, break through into the gallery scene. In particular, many artists began to explore the topic of self. These artists venture into the taboo of lost culture, of lost identity, attempted genocide, attempted suicide, of loss and of character. Three artists who have expressed such views in confronting and weighty manners include: Gordon Bennett, Jimmie Durham and Francis Bacon. These are three artists whose self-portraits convey their personal experiences through various visual language.
Self-Portrait (see Appendix I) (1987) by Jimmie Durham is a wooden sculpture that casts emphasis on not only his Native-American identity, but also points towards a loss of culture. Durham has become well-known in America for his traditional-style artworks that explore not only the plethora of stereotypes and prejudice that surround the Cherokee’s, but also acts as a response to the scepticism of Western culture (http://www.arteallarte.org/aap/english/2003/durham/). His self-portrait is a large, almost flamboyant wooden sculpture, complete with paint, hair, and copious amounts of hand-written phrases. The figure is immediately imposing, from the bright orange-red skin, down to the large, erect penis. It has been described as “bitter” and “witty” (http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/post_colonial/example/aboriginal.htm) in many cases, and no doubt reinforces what is commonly said to be his “ironic and shrewd” nature (http://www.arteallarte.org/aap/english/2003/durham/). “Hello! I’m Jimmie…As an Artist, I am confused about many things…” is one of the captions scrawled beneath the neck of the sculpture, between this, the colour of the skin, the mismatched eyes, and some of the other captions, Durham’s artwork can only be seen as bemused. It represents not only a loss of culture, but a loss of identity. The sculpture illustrates immediately what Durham clearly deems important to him, sexuality, light-heartedness, and the Cherokee culture. The sexual aspect, which is represented by the large, erect penis circled by the caption “Indian penises are usually large and colourful”, is probably the most imposing, most confronting aspect of the sculpture. It draws attention to itself, no doubt intentionally, and can arguably be said to be the most important thing to Durham.
The light-heartedness stems from the chest of the sculpture, where the wood has been cut into, the leather ‘skin’ torn away to reveal a mock constructed heart, beneath it the words “I am basically light-hearted”. Despite these contrasting incisions, Durham’s loss of culture is what is most meaningfully communicated to the audience. The aspects that connect with Durham’s Cherokee heritage are all skin-deep, the skin, and the eyes and the occasional tattoo, nothing on the sculpture, none of the captions imply a deeper meaning or emotional link to his culture. This can be seen as Durham maintaining a general disconnection to the traditional Cherokee customs, in some ways, very similar to the loss in Bennett’s Outsider.
Outsider (see Appendix II) (1988) by Gordon Bennett, is an oil on canvas that draws from many styles and aspects of life, and clearly symbolises the attempted genocide of the Austrailian Aboriginals, it is a loss of culture for Bennett. This painting is an appropriation of two Van Gogh artworks, The Starry Night (see Appendix IV) and The Bedroom (see Appendix V). In the centre of the room, stands a decapitated Aboriginal man, on the bed, two clearly European heads, ancient Greek sculptures perhaps, there are red hand prints all across the walls. The bedroom has been vandalised in Bennett’s appropriation, the chair has been tossed aside, paintings on the wall forced askew, this implies a deep seeded rage, and with the heads on the bed, this is clearly targeted at the European invaders and their attempt to wipe out the Aboriginal culture following settlement. Bennett’s work is generally unhappy, he draws strength from two of the most famous paintings in history, and incorporates it to illustrate his loss, and his destruction beautifully. Outsider represents a clear loss of culture, a topic that is shared with Durham’s Self Portrait, however both regard the issue in a very different way. Where Durham has lost, he still stands, grasping at the straws of skin-deep culture, still hesitates over a proclamation of anger, he has not fully grappled with his overall loss. Bennett on the other hand, seems all too familiar in what he has lost, and the lack of which he has been left with. Both artworks study the loss of native culture, and native rights in their home countries, however both have taken it, and both have understood it in very different ways. Again, both artworks illustrate a loss of culture, a topic that they share with the art of Francis Bacon.
Self Portrait (see Appendix III) (1973) by Francis Bacon, is an oil on canvas, which portrays a general loss of identity and a shocking disconnection. The painting is bold, and confronting, despite (or maybe because) the bland colourings of the canvas. A man, Bacon, sits in the centre of the room, arm draped into a sink, door open behind him, switched-off light bulb above his head. Many aspects of this artwork point to a general lack of connection with the rest of the world, for instance, the piping of the sink just seems to stop, it is nowhere near the wall, and is in no shape or form attached to anything, this of course, points to a disconnection to parts in the artist’s life. In art, light bulbs usually point to enlightenment, they are used to show free-thought, brilliant thinking, in this case, the light bulb is switched off, maybe broken, which implies a general dissatisfaction, a lack of thought, a lack of clarification in his life. Once again, the artist communicates a loss of identity and perhaps, what could be considered, a loss of personal culture. Something that has caused much controversy in the artistic world, (http://www.artquotes.net/masters/bacon/paint_selfportrait.htm) is the fact that one of his arms lies deep in the sink, and due to the hopelessness, the retirement of his pose, it can be believed that he has just slit his wrist. This painting seems to differ the most to the other two artworks, mostly due to the fact that Bacon is in no way representing a loss of native culture. Despite this, a connection can be made between all three, as each represents a morose topic, each shows a loss of something that is essential to their livelihoods.
As the art world broadens and expands, more and more artists are free to search out topics that, whilst confronting to the general population, represent and communicate issues that are of great importance to themselves. Durham, Bennett and Bacon have all explored themselves through their self portraits, and have each communicated the topic of loss in excruciating detail. Whether this be the loss of culture or the loss of self, each artist presents their case in vivid and moving artworks that share a little of themselves with the outside world.