The Great Depression Brought Changes to Art in Many Ways Essay Example for Free

The Great Depression Brought Changes to Art in Many Ways Essay Life In America was more open and out going then normal. Jazz clubs opened up at mostly every block, where young vibrant people would go drink and dance the night away. This kind of social activity was looked down upon by older citizens that thought this kind of behavior was inappropriate. This would ultimately lead up to prohibition and the first time ver in American history an amendment was excused making alcohol illegal in the United States. This caused crime rates to skyrocket within American cities causing some of the most notorious gangsters in American history to emerge, such as A1 Capone. So many other things came out of the roaring 20s, such as inventions of the automobile, radio and airplanes, new fashion styles, skyscrapers and movies. With life changing, so did art. Mostly throughout the 1920s there were a variety of art movements and styles that were popular. Such as surrealism, Art Deco, reglonallsm and with new technologies came photography and also film. In 1929 the stock market crashed causing many people jobs and their life savings. Banks were continuing to fail and jobless workers would rely on crime and theft to support their families. With the stock market crash and many people in debt, this paved the way for many artists to express their feelings, through painting, architecture [pic]and photography. One of the most popular art movements during this time was known as American Scene painting. This art movement rejected the earlier European Modernist and abstract styles. It primarily depicted realistic scenes of American life. One of the famous American scene painters was Charles Sheeler and was known as a Precisionist painter. HIS paintings mainly consisted of simplified forms of American factories and buildings and used crisped defined edges with smooth brushwork throughout his paintings. Above is his famous work titled simply mostly found in American architecture, Jewelry, furniture, clothes and handcrafts through out the 1920s. Its geometrical design with parallel lines kept the sleekness style throughout the 1920s. Surrealism was originally formed in Europe and with art students from America they had brought the style over to the United States. Some of the most popular surrealist was Alexander Calder and Joseph Cornell. Calder was a sculptor and an engineer who was inspired by surrealist painters in Europe to sculpt and create moveable pieces of art. One of his famous works was Lobster Trap and Fish Tail. All of the parts moved, not mechanically, but with the wind. People think he was an abstract artist, but he wanted to stimulate the imagination. Regionalism was another art movement that was influenced by the American Scene painting. Grant Wood was a regionalist painter who focused on the everyday living in America. His American Gothic is a realistic painting of what appears to be a husband and wife in front of their farm house. But it is actually supposed to be an older Iowa farmer and his daughter. The Regionalist movement is divided into two groups. One is the social realist and was influenced by the social troubles of the lower class. The other was the Regionalist and they were more focused of the positive side of things (such as Grant Wood), hoping to drive America out of the depression. A Regionalist painter named Thomas Hart Benton, painted his Instruments of Power from the mural America today. Which shows a mural of all sorts of technological improvements during this time period. It consists of a train, plain, electric towers, steam engines and other symbols of industry. The social realists were primarily focused on the American worker and sought to change the hard economic times of the Great Depression. In fact, most of the social realists rejected idealism and focused their attention o n how the artists saw the subjects and depicted how they felt about the subject. Social realist style was associated with hard-edged muscular figures that are distorted and morphed. The movements main goal was to show struggles of the working America. The leading social realist during this time was Aaron Douglas, who was also the leading artists for the Harlem Renaissance. During World War l, million of African Americans moved to the north to look for jobs. In the south there was not much opportunity at all for African Americans. This would be later called the Great Migration. This would cause great racial tension in the north. In Harlem, eager to share their social thoughts with the rest of the world, African Americans would then explore their new surroundings and experiment with usic, writing and art that revolutionize the Harlem Renaissance. Aaron Douglas would be the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance. He would produce great works, such as Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction. This piece was meant for African Americans to realize they are part of this world and this country. The painting is a reenactment of the Emancipation Proclamati on, which suggests that Douglas was trying to reinforce their part in history. Douglass style was highly influenced abstract style. He would use a limited color palette in his paintings using a ariety of light and dark contrasts within his works. In contrast to Aaron Douglas, a young Jacob Lawrence would appear, painting a series called The Migration of the station. He used an abstract style and simple shapes that fits the forms of Cubism and African American folk art. In March 1933, newly elected president Franklin D. Roosevelt suggested a plan to revitalize the American economy. The plan was called the new deal and was simply a promise to the American people that this new plan would get America out of the economic depression. Many organizations came out of this new deal plan. For starving artist, this gave them a prime opportunity to make money and also to show their works of art. The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was an organization that was going to give artist work. The PWAP did not last long but it gave artists a reviving boost. Then in 1935 a much similar organization established called the Federal Art Project (FAP) employed over 5,000 artists from 1935 to 1943. Artists such as Michael Lensin would benefit from this organization. His mural Mining gives a true understanding of the American worker. Much of the FAP art were murals, sculptures nd frescos that still exist throughout the country. Most of the subject matter in these works of art was mainly about American struggle and American prosperity and achievements. These organizations would not Just produce painters, but would also produce great photographers that would capture real live images of people. This new technology would then revolutionize photography and will inspire future photographe rs throughout history. Photography was the most popular forms of art during the Great Depression. With new technology for cameras it was easy for photographers to capture images everywhere they went. The photographs captured real people with real struggles. It also captured the harsh reality of the Great Depression. Many photographers would go a different course and try to promote more positive images such as young people dancing and having a good time. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) would hire these photographers to capture certain images to promote positive life. The Great Depression was a time period when people needed to see the harsh realities of the Depression and how it effect people, especially the lower class citizens. A photographer such as Walker Evans was known as one of the masters of hotography. He took pictures of many people during the Great Depression and showed the grueling struggles of Americans. Walkers use of lighting, composition and capturing great detail was what made him a pioneer in the photography world. His photos of sharecroppers and immigrants during the Depression show the harsh realities of their situation. He was hired by the Farm Securit y Administration (FSA) to take a series of photographs of families living in run down homes. A photo taken in 1936 shows a family living in poor and dirty conditions posing in front of the camera. They all look run down and defeated. He placed them directly into the center of photograph making sure that they were the focal point of this picture. You can see throughout the picture Just how terrible these living conditions were. He would then carry out more series of photographs of the lower class during the Great Depression. imagery of the Depression to show viewers the impact of the struggling economy. The Farm Security Administration was aware of how photographs impacted public thought. There are Pictures such as mioung Girls Knitting Stockings in Southern Hosiery Mill by Lewis W. Hine, which shows girls in a factory working in a harsh tmosphere. This was an earlier photo taken during World War l. He would then focus more on the progress of America. He took an extraordinary photo called Rivetting on the dome, a quarter mile up. It was a photo taken of workers during the construction of the Empire State building. Some photographers took pictures of the positive, many photographers were more curious about the stru ggles during the Great Depression. One photographer in particular was Dorothea Langes

Documenting The Depression Essay -- essays research papers

Documenting the Depression: The FSA photographers and Rural Poverty   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Great Depression fell hard in the year of 1935 bringing what seemed to some people the end of the world. But in truth, the Great Depression was nothing near the end of the world, in fact the year of 1935 was not the first year nor was it the last year that many families had suffered and went hungry due to lack of work. Families forced to leave their home. Children going in hunger while their bellies pierced with pain. Mothers trying desperately to keep the family together while holding the brunt of the problems due to the depression. The husbands feeling the guilt for not having a job and thinking that it is his fault. Children scream with lack of food and sheer boredom as the families pack their bags and head towards California in hopes to find work and the start of a new life. This is a painted picture of what one might have saw during the Great Depression. However, we need not imagine what it might have been like. What pictures might have looked like because we already know.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Photography was a technological advance during the nineteenth century and although not many people had cameras, the ones that did, did not miss the opportunity to capture the cruel times of that period. In John Vachon’s picture taken in 1940, he shows an abandoned farmhouse in Ward County, North Dakota. Vachon also takes a picture of the living quarters of a fruit packing home for the workers in Berrien, Michigan in 1940. The small confinements of the house could barely suit one person let alone a whole family. Dorothea Lang, another photographer of that time shots photos of a migrant mother in Nipomo, California in 1936. Her face stern and wrinkled. A look of sadness and concern appears on her tired face while her two children cling on to her shoulder. She also took a picture of a Mexican migrant workers home in Imperial Valley, California in 1937. His home is merely anymore than a small bedroom. A shack made out of cardboard and what appears to be aluminu m. Once again, hardly set for one person let alone a family. These conditions were not anything unusual. Unfortunately, those were the times during the Great Depression and the photographers could not have captured them any better.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Depression ended because of... ..., North Carolina in 1939. That picture was taken by Marion Post Wolcott and it shows the owner neatly pressed wearing a black suit and hat smoking a cigar. Arthur Rothstein took another picture in 1940 that one also depicts an owner of a mule dealer in Creedmoor, North Carolina neatly pressed in a black suit only smoking a cigarette as opposed to a cigar. Those were the people who didn’t care that people were suffering, they didn’t care if they had no home and most of all, they didn’t care if children went hungry. They were in it for they money. So when I look at those pictures and think what the American middle class worker at that time would think, I hatefully have to say that they would not care one way or another. You win some, you lose some.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Depression was a tragic era in history. To sum up the feelings and hard times that people had suffered through would be nearly impossible. But like I stated in the previous pages, the pictures tell no lies. The pictures cannot erase the expression on people’s faces or the appearance that portray. The evidence is in the pictures, it always has been and it will remain to do so until the end of time.

Gone with the Wind

The movie Gone with the Wind (1939) is considered the most beloved, popular and of everlasting relevance. It has won several Oscar awards in 1939. Produced by David O Selznick, and directed by Victor Fleming, the film was released a few months after WWII began in Europe. It enabled the American viewers to identify with the war and its theme of survival. It was based on a novel written by Margaret Mitchell about civil war and reconstruction in America. Producer, David O Selznick had obtained the movie right to Mitchell’s novel in 1936 for $50,000. The renowned film was shot in Technicolor which was used very rarely in those times. The historical classic movie of the Old South during civil war period boasts of an eternal cast in a timeless, classic tale of love-hate romance. The movie covers the various romantic pursuits of the resolute heroine Scarlett OHara, against the background of historical events. Ashley, the man she loves marries her cousin, Melanine. She finds it difficult to find love during the civil war years and is forced to seek shelter for herself and her family in the plantation Tara. She defends it against union soldiers, carpetbaggers and even against starvation. Scarlet marries Rhett Butler but the marriage fails due to her indifference towards him. She again returns to Tara. Cinematography: Cinematography is the art of making camera and lighting choices when recording photographic images for the cinema.Techniocolour was not widely used when the film Gone with the Wind was being filmed. Moreover, it carried several disadvantages. Selznick borrowed all the seven heavy, cumbersome cameras of the Technicolor Corporation for shooting. Each picture had colour consulant who had the power to reject any colour scheme she felt was incompatible with colour cinematography. Moreover, the technical advisers, who were supposed to assist the cinematographers, had only worked with black and white film. Technicolor required double the amount of lighting for illumination of a scene. Selznick had previously worked with technicolour. He knew that it would be very important in giving Gone with the Wind visual richness needed for a classic drama. Actually, Selznick wanted the film’s colour to have the same impact as the characters emotions. He was so determined in it and went to the extent of dismissing the first cinematographer, Lee Garmes, for choosing a colour scheme which Selznick thought was very much subdued. The next cinematographer, Ernest Haller, was more successful in obtaining more glowing effects. Selznick had realized that shadow formed an important part in a scene’s visual impact. He asked his colour consultant to shoot Scarlett and her father on the hill at Tara. With the farm gleaming brightly in the distance, the ensuing farming effect strongly emphasizes Gerald’s feeling about the significance of the land. Selznick employs this silhouetting to the similar effect in the film’s final scene, when Scarlett stands on the same mount as she comes home to Tara. Another use of shadow is to highlight moments that focus on relationship between characters in the film. It is first used in the form of the frightening shadows Melanie and Scarlett cast on the walls of temporary hospital. Later on, delivery of Melanie’s baby is lighted with silver streams of light. The darkness in the scene renders it more personal and gives it a powerful simplicity. (Fleming, 1939). The use of Matte painting was another technique which Selznick adapted from black and white film to Technicolour. When a shot is filmed, the area to be painted in afterwards is covered with black matte paint on a glass screen positioned in front of the camera. Afterwards, a colour scale illustration of the omitted portion is shot to cover the blacked out area. Clarence Silfer, the special effects cinematographer of Gone with the Wind used the technique to complete a number of sets that were only partially finished. All, Outhouses, Tara’s side views, background vegetation, the train station roof, the twelve oak plantation, the decorations in the old armoury, some of the wounded soldiers lying on the ground in long shots, and an entire street of burning houses, were matte paintings Film editing Editing is the art of establishing rhythm in film. People often does not notice or acknowledge the contribution of film editor. Major aspects of the editing of a film are created outside the editing room. The director, script writer, and photographer are also involved in editing. One of the responsibilities of the editor is to ensure that intentions of the scriptwriter have correctly been portrayed in the film. Hal C. Kern, the film editor of Gone with the Wind, won the Oscar award for film editing. One can clearly observe that smooth flow of events which are portrayed in the film. In this film, there is an outstanding use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood. Production design Production designer is the in charge of the film’s art department which consists of an art director, prop master, costume designer and a ser decorator. He works in close association with director, and director of photography to produce film’s feel and look by choosing the right shapes, colours and compositions for each shot. A production designer’s duties cover far beyond extending support because a movie is eventually a visual medium, its visual material is almost like another character, itself producing a mood and bringing out an emotional response from the spectators. Production design involves lot of planning and the production designer should be able to strike a balance between his own creative vision with the film’s need for authenticity of place and time. Lyle Wheeler, the art director of Gone with the Wind, won an Oscar for his efforts in the movie. Work cited Fleming, Victor. Dir. Gone with the Wind, (1939). Selznick I

Essay about Clothing and Gender in Virginia Woolfs Orlando

Clothing and Gender in Virginia Woolfs Orlando In her novel Orlando, Virginia Woolf tells the story of a man who one night mysteriously becomes a woman. By shrouding Orlandos actual gender change in a mysterious religious rite, we readers are pressured to not question the actual mechanics of the change but rather to focus on its consequences. In doing this, we are invited to answer one of the fundamental questions of our lives, a question that we so often ignore because it seems so very basic - what is a man? What is a woman? And how do we distinguish between the two? It seems that in ordinary life, we are most likely to distinguish between a man and a woman by clothing. This is more difficult to do in the present day, in which†¦show more content†¦Perhaps the Turkish trousers, which she had hitherto worn had done something to distract her thoughts; and the gypsy women, except in one or two important particulars, differ very little from the gipsy men. (153) Clearly, it is much easier for a sex change to take place in an androgynous culture such as the one Orlando is leaving - by an androgynous culture, I mean a culture in which there is little difference between the roles of women and men - than in a culture like the English one to which she is returning, in which a much stricter set of rules govern social interaction. This is why the attempts of Orlando to pass (to borrow the term used by the transgender community) as a woman are so amusing. Socialized as a man, Orlando at first has no idea how to be a woman. The symbolic value of clothing, however, extends well beyond its use to differentiate the genders. Clothing in itself - pants, shirts, dresses, and the like - has in this novel little symbolic value other than to tell male from female. But jewelry also plays a significant role here - and it is in the jewelry that Orlando wears that she is truly able to pass for a member of the nobility. We must recall that she undergoes two transformations during the novel. The first, from male to female, is quite obvious. The second is a bit more subtle - it is the transformation from a member of the nobility to something resembling a commoner. (Of course, it seems that Orlando never officially leaves theShow MoreRelatedGender Inequality By Virginia Woolf s Orlando Essay1179 Words   |  5 Pages Virginia Woolf’s Orlando offers a pointed critique of gender inequality through its usage and portrayal of androgyny and fashion. The common perception of gender is threefold; people define gender t hrough physical difference, behavior, and a visual perception of sex. Gender is inherently unstable because it is dependent more upon an onlookers’ reality than scientific difference. 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