Civil Rights and Art

¶ … Role of Art in America Since the Gilded Age

Beginning with the Gilded Age, how has Art been a Reflection of Society?

The Gilded Age was an epoch of immense societal change and economic growth in the United States. In particular, this was a period of quick industrialization, where the nation transformed from one that was founded on agriculture to one that became urbanized and industrialized. This encompassed the formation of roads, railways, advancements in science and technology, and also the development of major businesses. All these transformations can be tied to the aspect of evolving and also the influence of increasing wealth. And with all these changes in the society, so was art influenced in the process. In particular, art became somewhat of a reflection of the society. This change within the society also had an influence on art, which changed in a radical pace (Arnesen et al., 2006). Subsequent to the Gilded Age, the civil rights era and the present day, art has been strongly used to portray and mirror the society. For instance, up until today, representations of art such as graffiti are used across the globe to express societal feelings and perspectives. In addition, paintings and cartoons have been used widely in magazines and newspapers to express the prevailing economic and political state of the society, outlining what ought to change for the better.

According to Marley et al. (2016), in the realm of art, the introduction of French Impressionism to art in America completely altered the manner in which artists captured the world around them on paintings. Instead of focusing or laying emphasis on the recreation of illusionistic spaces in the studio similar to artists in the preceding era, the American artists in the Gilded Age sought to create impressions of life, painting with colors that were not modulated and also utilizing sketchy brush strokes. In turn, the artists reacted to the change period by coming up with works that mirrored reality in the urban areas, capturing overcrowded cities, fast industrialization and rapidly increasing immigrant cultures. In addition, art has been a reflection of the society in terms of the emotions and feelings, personal and communal struggles and the events taking place at a certain point in time. When the society has calls for change or experiences change, more often than not, art has largely complied with it. A good example is the painting of urban regions and the aspects of industrialization. Another example is the paintings and graffiti in period of civil rights with the main endeavor of expressing social emotions with the endeavor of upheaval (Labedzki, 2009).

How art, in the context of the social justice movements of the 20th century, challenged and shaped American society.

The 20th Century period saw numerous amounts of social justice movements seeking impartiality within the society. In this epoch, art played a significant role in not only challenging but also shaping the American society. These social movements purposed to have better alignment of the political and social order in America with the morals of freedom, impartiality, and opportunity for all. Art was employed to embolden social change, enable and entrench commitment, convey to the community as a whole regarding social issues and generate harmony for social activists within the social justice movements. More so, art played a vital role in enlightening internally in the expression as well as reinforcement of values and ideologies and also externally as a more efficacious approach of communicating movement principles to individuals outside the movement (Milbrandt, 2010).

According to Frank (2014), in the 1960s and 1970s, the American nation was changed permanently as the petition for civil rights stimulated unity, protests along with radical movement. Similar to preceding eras of social and political cataclysm, artists had been at the front position involving this revolution, adding pulsating imagery to show and motivate the nation on the whole. Art was key in ratifying the goals of the social movement directly to invent, express and reiterate the history of the movement. These pieces of art conveyed an emotional response and challenged for change in the society. Through the use of drawings, paintings and even graffiti, art was able to mirror the American society to generate awareness, nurture imagination and inspire individuals to promote social change. In addition, through music, people could communicate their feelings, particularly their pain and desire for change. This helped in growing a movement that could no longer be ignored and thereby instigated change (Jasper, 2008).

In overall, art played a vital role in social justice movements and changed America to what it is today. Ranging from civil rights movement to abolish slavery to the women's rights movement to attain fair rights to women in terms of voting and also holding places in government, art has been a fundamental aspect. Through the use of placards, portraits, murals and paintings, these forms of art offered a pictorial representation of how the society was supposed to change. Music also played a key part as folk music and gospel songs were largely used by African-Americans in the course of the civil rights movement (Power, 2014).

The role of diversity in the development of the arts and how it changed throughout the last century in the United States

Diversity has played a role in the growth and development of the arts and has constantly transformed in the course of the last century, particularly in the United States. In the past 100 years, the demography of the United States has changed with the constantly progressing rapidity. In its very essence, the U.S. is a nation that is rich and filled with diversity and in turn has influenced the arts. In particular, the diversity within the nation has enriched art through interaction as it generated the aspects of sharing, learning, comprehending and change. The nation is made up of various identities that are all the more changing and therefore instigating and influencing intercultural arts. A good example is the development of jazz music. In particular, jazz music came about from the amalgamation of traditional African music together with a style of European music. Despite the two backgrounds of music being completely dissimilar, the fusion gave rise to a beautiful blend form of art. The cultural diversity underlying the United States is an aspect which has at all times been an imperative, if minimally acknowledged, factor (Garfias, 1991).

Your opinion on the role of art today; how does it continue to remain relevant to our lives? How could it change or develop to become more relevant to our lives?

In my own opinion, art continues to play a vital role in the present day. In particular, art is beneficial in people expressing their emotions, perspectives on how the world is and also how it can be and ought to be. This implies that art contributes in fashioning the manner in which the present is and how the future will be like. Taking this into account, art continues to remain relevant to our lives. For instance, sketches and pictorials in magazines and also on the internet such as in social media networks, representations of art display how people perceive the world, what they believe in and the manner in which they consider the society ought to be run. A good example can be perceived in the creation of political caricatures in the attempt on aiding people to see and think on matters taking place in the world like corruption, discrimination and injustices all across the globe.