essay #1

Judith and Holofernes (2012) is a two dimensional oil painting on linen .This painting was made by Kehinde Wiley. This is a representational painting, and I specifically chose this painting because of its vibrant colors. The background is full of flowers and stems. The flowers are primary (red, blue, yellow) and secondary colors (orange, green). As soon as you look at this painting it creates an aesthetic emotion because of its colors. In the center of the painting there is a Brown colored woman with black hair .Her hair is up in a huge bun. She’s wearing a Dark blue long dress covering her legs only allowing her toes to show. On her blue dress there is a brown belt with gold around her waist holding the dress in place. The bottom of the dress looks like its flowing and the gold on the belt looks like it can be touched implying texture. The flowers create a pattern throughout the entire painting and also there is a pattern on the woman’s belt. The woman is holding a sword with blood on her left hand and on her right hand she is holding a white colored woman’s head by her hair. The white colored woman doesn’t look as if she’s in pain, instead she is smiling. I think this painting is stylized. There is negative space in between the flowers and in between the woman’s hands, but there is more positive space than there is negative. Each of Wiley’s painting represent something and in this exhibit he depicted African American Woman’s to represent a rightful place for them in art history.

Eyes of Time  was created in 2014 and it’s a mixed media wall mural by Chitra Ganesh. This Specific Abstract installation is temporary meaning it’s not always going to be there .This installation is located in the Brooklyn Museum. Eyes Of Time has three different figures and each one of them represent something different. There is a lot of negative space in between the figures. The wall is painted in primary colors ( yellow, red,blue). Out of all the figures this figure that caught my attention the most because it was very odd and abstract. It looks like a Hindu goddess .She is outlined in a black color and is painted a light purple. She has 3 legs, 7 toes, 5 arms and her head is a clock. The figure has  3 breast  and underneath her stomach  there are 10 different colored arms hanging implying texture. You can actually touch the arms .The glue Ganesh used was red with glitter making the arms look unique. In between her arms there is black and red hair braided .On one side of the hair there are words made up from the hair, there is also texture here. Each of the words means something to Ganesh since she felt she had the need to include them. I think Ganesh used the head as a clock because a clock can indicate a lot of things such as time is ticking. And this can be an example for us not to take anything for granted and not to waste time. Also one of the arms looks as if it was the insides of machine; there is texture there also. What I think she’s implying by that is that we are like time machines. All the figures in this mural connect to one another.

I enjoyed looking at different artworks, both of the art works I chose symbolize women empowerment. In Kehinde Wiley’s painting the African American Women is holding another woman’s head, her posture and face expression represents empowerment. She looks as if she must have everything her way. In Chitra Ganesh’s mural the artwork she made symbolizes a Goddess. The goddess Kali also represents woman Empowerment.