Black Arts Movement

One of the best parts of working on exhibitions drawn from the ZMA’s extensive permanent collection is the opportunity it provides for a look at some of the hidden gems at the museum. During the preparation of Sketching American Modernism, I discovered a painting that captured my interest. The work was the Portrait of Mrs. Helen McCoy Storer, c. 1910 by Charles Alden Gray (1857-1933). While arguably not by one of the most well-known artists in our collection, it was, at that moment, the most…

background as “a student of literature and of artistic traditions, and being a black human being involves very real experiences, figurative and concrete”. In the 1960s, civil rights movement he started experimenting again with collage forms such as clippings from magazines, old newspapers, glossy scraps to improve his work. Trying to show how not only were African-American rights moving forward, but so was his socially conscious art.…

in Cologne in December 1923. At that time, there were no visual arts that portrayed the war in this kind of disturbing and shocking manner. Alfred H. Barr said that this painting might be the most famous picture in post-war Europe (Otto Dix 2015) which also made him famous. The initial function of this work was intended as a monument to barbarism of the trench experience (Crockett 1992).…

Visual/Kindergarten Unit Focus Students study the role of contrast in visual art following a unit on community and the individual. They examine the role that difference plays in society, creating diverse and democratic groups. They then compare this to compositions in the arts, examining how contrast functions to create visual interest (“There is no light without dark“). Students will focus on the way an artist uses the elements of art to create contrast within a work in addition to gaining a…

When people do not agree with a topic or trying to raise awareness for a cause, they are taking part in activism. The topic of activism is evident in just about everything we do in our daily lives. One example of where activism is evident is in art work. Activism is evident in a majority of artwork, for example in the work of Susan Crile. Susan Crile used drawings in chalk and charcoal to exhibit activism. Crile made drawings of chalk and charcoal to create activism against the events that…

Little, black dots on a page. Essentially, that is all written music is. It’s really all that any form of writing is. A meaningless code in motion will stay in motion, utterly meaningless until an educated eye interprets its significance. Yet, once this meaning is deciphered and most importantly, communicated, those formerly insignificant dots of ink – whether they be notes, poetry, prose, or paint – create a world of artistic possibilities. If the position of the artist is solely a channel, a…

people walk into the San Jose Museum of Art, they immediately receive a warm welcomed by a lovely receptionist. After showing them a form of identification, such as a SJSU student ID card, and paying a 6 dollar entry fee, they provide a copy of the museum's layout in case people get lost in their spacious building. If people ask nicely, the receptionist is willing to enlighten them about the museum's exhibits. Among the various exhibits in the San Jose Museum of Art, the exhibit Covert…

2016 Art and Mechanical Reproduction in the Age of Instagram Social media has changed the way people communicate, discover and spend their leisure time. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, were originally developed as communicative platforms where people could network and keep in touch with loved ones. However, with the advent of Instagram and the popularization of memes, users are now able to exchange thoughts and ideas with the usage of minimal words. In Benjamin 's The Work of Art in…

Adele Bloch-Bauer. From Klimt’s point of view, the woman in this painting wants to cut off his head and then caress it. Even though Gustav Klimt always tried not to reveal his private life in the eyes of the public, compared with his other works of art, Judith I undoubtedly exposed his personal concerns. In his later “golden phase”, Gustav Klimt starts to conceal the characters of the women on his canvases by employing the forms of Byzantine mosaics and ornamental abstract…

An artist is struggling to make a living; she has two children who cannot predict when their next meal is. The artist heard that the WPA (the Works Progress Administration) was funding for the arts as part of a relief program. She was ecstatic to hear she could finally obtain a job to provide for her family. This artist was put in the position of poverty because after WWI, the economy was booming and the American society went through a prosperous period known as the Roaring 20s. In 1929, there…