Art is a Contextual Product

Art - A Product of Its Context
Introduction
Exploring by visual means is a versatile process of collecting facts about the world. The context from which one does so and their personal factors influence such a dynamic exploration process. Art and context are inseparable. The meaning is derived from the information that accompanies a piece of art. Thus far, aspects such s the title of a piece of art, the authenticity and historical facts also add to the meaning. The mentioned factors determine one’s evaluation of a piece of art and their sensitivity to the same (Brieber).
Sun mad – 1981 by Ester Hernandez
Figure 1. Sun Mad (1982) (Adopted from Bain, 28-29.)
The skeleton of Hernandez demonstrates the deadly effects of pesticides while strongly locating the text in the Mexican traditional making of print that dates back to the day of Jose’ Posada. The skull signifies a Mexican society that is portrayed satirically at the close of the 19th C. A lot of the Mexican artists have borrowed heavily from Posada’s work. The work has increasingly become the signature image connected with the Day of the Dead occasion marked across the globe (Bain, 28-29).
The sun Mad is strongly connected with the life of Hernandez. He is a native of Dinuba in the Californian rural, and born in 1944. Hernandez was born in the day of the Great Depression in the world. His parents are immigrants from Mexico to California. They came to the US to work on grape farms (Bain, 28-29). She changed her interests to the visual arts in the course of her studies. She worked closely with Chicano artists that were emerging. She moved on to work with the team of female artists referred to as Mujeras Muralistas. They developed murals in large scale. They sought to portray the life of the ordinary Mexican in the Mission District of San Francisco.
The Mexican Americans also sought to push for political and social change following the activities of the civil rights groups in the 50s and the 60s. Such injustices as restrictions on voting, skewed labor practices and discrimination in housing were among the common problems that Mexican Americans and Chicanos had to contend with in the US. Hernandez conspicuously featured in the activities of the United Farm Workers of America – UFWA. This involvement, coupled with her activities in the Berkeley community that was politically volatile in the 70s re-emphasized her identity in the sociopolitical arena and her focus on activism. UFWA marshaled its supporters to stage a series of strikes that were successful. They boycotted against the practices of the American grape growers, demanding for improved employment terms and wages (Bain, 28-29). The resistance activities helped to put the issue of labor rights on critical discussion tables in America’s power boardrooms.
It was such a backdrop that made Hernandez to realize that the pesticides applied in the grape farms had poisoned the water sources of the town after they had leached into the ground. She felt a strong urge to speak out in defense of her own rights and that of friends and family. She created Sun Mad to do it for them. She picked on a private cooperative called the SunMaid Growers of California (Bain, 28-29) as her target informed by the fact that the raisin grapes that were harvested in her backyard were taken there.
The Scream, painted by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893.
Figure 2. The Scream - 1893 by Edvard Munch (Adopted from Friedlaender and Friedlaender, 2000)
The Scream, done in 1893, is a 19th C painting created in the peculiar transitional historical moment. It is often referred to as the fin de siècle. The painting of the sexless by Munch crafted a twisted creature that had a fatal face. It has its mouth and eyes wide open in a horrifying stance. It conjured a vision that got hold of him as he strolled with two of his friends in his youthful years at sunset. He later recounts that the air changed to blood and his comrades’ faces turned to what he calls a garnish yellow white color. He heard a vibration in his ears and describes it as an endless scream course piercing through nature (“Art Analysis”)
In Edward Munch’s accounts, the most harrowing event in his life was the untimely and premature death of his mom from a bout of tuberculosis when he was only five years old. His older sister to whom he had bonded tightly, after his mother’s death, also passed on as a result of the same malady. Munch was only 13 years old. Apart from the two mentioned major losses, Munch’s father soon also slipped into a psychotic depression, which was linked to religious persuasions after the death of his wife. The trauma was further worsened by the poverty that rocked the family, even though Munch’s father worked as doctor (“Art Analysis”).
Primarily, the Scream is an expressionist construct. It is autobiographical piece inspired by true experience by Munch tearing through nature when he was on a walk. This happened once his friends, notable in the background, had left. The reflection fits in the idea that the sound could have been heard when his mind was not in its ordinary state. In his portrayal, Munch portrays it in a way that could deprive humans of their integrity (Friedlaender and Friedlaender, 2002). The curves of art nouveau stand for a subjective linear connection imposed on nature. The myriad range of particulars is bound into one of an organic suggestion, laced with femininity. However, human beings are nature’s component. Being sucked into such a whole, completely obliterates the individual entity.
Migrant Mother, Nipomo Valley, photographed by Dorothea Lange
Figure 3. The Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange (adopted from Phelan)
The image known as the “The Migrant Mother’’ is one among the many line of photos of Florence Owens Thompson and her offspring’s as made by Dorothy Lange sometime around march of 1936 in California. Lange was winding up farm labor migratory trip photography in the state for what was the Administration for resettlement.
It happened at a time when the US was consumed by the great Depression. Pea pickers out of work are spotted in Nipomo valley. Freezing rain wiped out the crop. Lange sought audience with one of the pea pickers. It was a woman sitting with her seven children around her. He requested her to pose for a photo. He captured the woman’s image, with her children seeking a hiding space away from the lenses of the camera. The Migrant Mother is seen staring into the distance listlessly. The interior of the US that was dust-blown was packed with families that looked like, and led the same life as the woman. Poverty had transformed them into wanderers, right from their own land. The poverty was absolute. They owned nothing. The woman is on her own: without her husband. There is nothing to hope for but only work, need and endless wandering. Her expression that seems empty seems to communicate what is already obvious to everyone that is privy to the relevant history. Life was bound to remain that way for a long time to come (Lemke, 85-105).
Conclusion
The context which forms the basis for the creation of a piece of artwork, and the artist’s complicity is intrinsic to what it means: irrespective of whether it is a social, philosophical, or cultural context. A project of art that has been noted as a universal human impression was repackaged as an appropriation of culture because of the changes that had been experienced and overturned the context from which the work was cast in discussion and was presented. It is impossible for an artist to control time moving on but they seem a bit more attentive to the cultural and presentation contexts, their own complicity in the contexts and how it influences the meaning of their artwork lately. An excellent example of an artistic appropriation that manages to overshadow the agribusiness advertising manipulation for its own cause is Sun Mad. On its part, the Scream outlines how we view our age, cast in uncertainty and anxiety. Munch uncovers a sincere and even ugly perspective of his deep-seated tribulations and anxiety. The meaning is, thus, more personal than it is technically crafted – a classic intention if art. Migrant Mother on its part is an outstanding representation of the Great Depression. The popular images in the media did not resolve the financial troubles that significantly affected the family and made it to find seasonal agricultural labor. The image seems to embody despair but it is also known that Thompson actively took part in the struggles in the farm labor in the 30s, and even organized them sometimes.
Works cited
“Art Analysis: Meaning of The Scream by Edvard Munch.” edvardmunch.org, 2011. Web.
Bain, Rowan. "Ester Hernandez: Sun Mad." Art in Print 3.6 (2014): 28-29. Web.
Brieber, David et al. “Art in time and space: context modulates the relation between art experience and viewing time” PloS one vol. 9,6 e99019. 3 Jun. 2014, web.
Friedlaender, Gary E., and Linda K. Friedlaender. "Edvard Munch and The Scream: A Cry for Help." Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® 476.2 (2018): 200-202. Web.
Lemke, Sieglinde. "The Icon: Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother." Inequality, Poverty and Precarity in Contemporary American Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016. 85-105. Web.
Phelan, Ben. The Story of the "Migrant Mother". PBS.org (2014). Web.