Selma (1965)
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Art can mean one thing to the artist, but to others it means a million different things. If you have the creativity put it down on paper, the wall, the world is your canvas. No two people will come up with the same thing, to each its own. One will come up with the original artwork with their personal meaning. But the other will put a twist on the original and it’ll mean something completely different.
Measuring 9 feet wide and 6 feet high this picture, Selma (1965), it shows a white police officer beating an African-American male and another male trying to defend himself and an African-American woman. There’s a white male representing the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) with a white sheet covering who he is. Behind this crucial event there’s a crowd representing the rest of America watching these heart-breaking events. Not just white people also African-American’s watching and turning their backs to the situation. The colors used in this piece seem to be dull and gloomy like. That’s because this wasn’t an exciting time for the African-American race.
Barbara Pennington won a four-year scholarship to study art at the University of Alabama (Mint). She painted 3 pictures similar to Selma, they were the worst race riots the country had experienced. Her preference for art was abstract, she decided to go out her comfort zone and create paintings that showed historical events. She created a piece of art that stresses the key things that happened during the Civil Rights Movement. The Alabama native decided to put the infamous 14 years of the Civil Rights Movement into one big picture. According to the Mint Museum even though she was in New York during the time of the events, she saw what was happening in media. With just oil, she created a moving picture of horrible times that still has meaning 50 years later. This picture tells a story that can definitely relates to today’s time. The picture that I picked can be found in the Mint Museum’s permanent collection galleries of Modern & Contemporary Art on Level 4 of Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts, according the Mint Museum website.
In today’s time I feel like history is repeating itself race wise. There are white cops killing and hurting African-American males and females, young or old, illness or not. As the United States of America, we need to be united as one and not kill each other just because the color of our skin. Even when cooperation is involved, we African-Americans still end up in a body bag and that’s not fair. Armed or unarmed everyone deserves a chance to be warned and not shot at immediately after only one warning or not complying the first time. When it comes to punishment the officers are on paid leave while grieving families are left with debt to bury their loved one that was taken away from them. I believe that racist officers are just as evil as rapist and actual murders.
Art can mean numerous things such as pain or happiness, it depends on what’s painted and who interprets the picture. Being creative is an escape for people who want to let out what their feeling and passion for what they do. Although art doesn’t always have a happy meaning it can show people that people relate to them without even knowing them. Art is the creation that comes from the mind that expresses emotion that takes time and effort. Some people can be inspired by the littlest things and make it into something huge. If art can relate to you that means you and the artist are on the same level of creativity and that’s good. Not all people understand what’s been drawn or painted.
Work Cited
“Barbara Pennington: The Humanity of Art.” Department of Art and Art History. N.p., 19 May 2015. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
“The Mint Museum Acquires Monumental Canvas “Selma” (1965).” Mint Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
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