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- Sat Feb 11, 2017 11:19 am
#32669
Passage Discussion
Paragraph One:
The opening paragraph begins with an introduction to the subject of the passage: Sam Gilliam, an African American painter from the Washington Color school, members of which were “Color Field style” painters in Washington D.C. in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Color Field style, the author provides, came about after abstract expressionism, beginning in the 1950’s with works that were abstract but somewhat representational, evolving toward completely abstract, simple but colorful works of the 1960s.
Paragraph Two:
Gilliam took part in the Color Field movement in response to the other art that was being created by other African American artists of the time, many of whom were producing very literal works, meant to expressly relay the political statements. From Gilliam’s perspective, these artists were too conservative, choosing explicit messages over subtlety and artistic exploration. The author provides one example of a contemporary artist who created collages focused on very clear themes such as African American music, urban life, and the rural South. Such works were popular with the public, but Gilliam found them to be overly literal representations, failing to reflect the complexity of the African American experience, or of human experience in general. Most African American artists, the author provides, did not share this perspective.
Paragraph Three:
In contrast to the expressly political art that the public generally expected from African American artists, Gilliam created experimental works, including paintings created by pouring paint over folded, stained canvases, followed by Gilliam’s 1965 introduction of the “unsupported canvas,” inspired in part by the line dried laundry of his neighbors. With this, Gilliam created canvas with a sculptural quality by draping it up and down walls and ceilings. Such works, the author says, reflect the artist’s ability to create a tension between opposing concepts (the author provides the examples of surface versus depth and chaos versus control), providing support for the notion that certain tensions and emotions experienced by African Americans could be best relayed not through direct representation but rather through the creation of moods that all could experience.
VIEWSTAMP Analysis:
The Viewpoints presented in this passage are those of the Author and of Sam Gilliam, the main subject of the passage.
The Structure of the passage is as follows:
The Main Point of the passage is that Sam Gilliam’s work was created in response to the other African American works of the time, and sought to create less literal works to evoke emotions and tensions are best expressed through mood than through direct representation.
Paragraph One:
The opening paragraph begins with an introduction to the subject of the passage: Sam Gilliam, an African American painter from the Washington Color school, members of which were “Color Field style” painters in Washington D.C. in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Color Field style, the author provides, came about after abstract expressionism, beginning in the 1950’s with works that were abstract but somewhat representational, evolving toward completely abstract, simple but colorful works of the 1960s.
Paragraph Two:
Gilliam took part in the Color Field movement in response to the other art that was being created by other African American artists of the time, many of whom were producing very literal works, meant to expressly relay the political statements. From Gilliam’s perspective, these artists were too conservative, choosing explicit messages over subtlety and artistic exploration. The author provides one example of a contemporary artist who created collages focused on very clear themes such as African American music, urban life, and the rural South. Such works were popular with the public, but Gilliam found them to be overly literal representations, failing to reflect the complexity of the African American experience, or of human experience in general. Most African American artists, the author provides, did not share this perspective.
Paragraph Three:
In contrast to the expressly political art that the public generally expected from African American artists, Gilliam created experimental works, including paintings created by pouring paint over folded, stained canvases, followed by Gilliam’s 1965 introduction of the “unsupported canvas,” inspired in part by the line dried laundry of his neighbors. With this, Gilliam created canvas with a sculptural quality by draping it up and down walls and ceilings. Such works, the author says, reflect the artist’s ability to create a tension between opposing concepts (the author provides the examples of surface versus depth and chaos versus control), providing support for the notion that certain tensions and emotions experienced by African Americans could be best relayed not through direct representation but rather through the creation of moods that all could experience.
VIEWSTAMP Analysis:
The Viewpoints presented in this passage are those of the Author and of Sam Gilliam, the main subject of the passage.
The Structure of the passage is as follows:
- Paragraph 1: Introduce Sam Gilliam, the Washington Color School, and the Color Field Style, which followed the rise of abstract art, and evolved during the 1950’s and 1960’s, from abstract but still minimally representational to colorful but completely non-representational.
Paragraph 2: Discuss Gilliam’s motivation—a response to what he considered aesthetically conservative art created by other African American artists who were, at the time, focused on explicitly political, and strictly representational works which, from Gilliam’s perspective, lacked subtlety. Provide example of political issue collage, which the public liked but Gilliam found too literal, seeking instead to express the complexity of the human, and more specifically African American, experience.
Paragraph 3: Provide examples of Gilliam’s non-conformist art, which included folded stained canvases and “the unsupported canvas,” Assert that such works create the tension of opposites (surface and depth, chaos and control), helping to show that the emotions that are most difficult to capture, and share with all audiences, cannot be represented directly.
The Main Point of the passage is that Sam Gilliam’s work was created in response to the other African American works of the time, and sought to create less literal works to evoke emotions and tensions are best expressed through mood than through direct representation.