When many people think of art they think of expression.  Some think of seeing an object and copying what you see onto a canvas.  Art is influenced by everything.  Many artists today are influenced by outside forces such as politics, and world events.  It has become a more common element to produce art that comes from an outside influence.  With everything that happens in the world it is very easy for it to have the artistic effect on people that it does. 

Emergency Room by Robert Colescott

Robert Colescott is an American artist who is known for his “satirical genre and crowd subjects, often conveying his exuberant, comical, or bitter reflections on being African-American”.  Colescott has voiced his opinions many times about stereotypes through his artwork since the 1960’s.  In his depiction of Emergency Room, Colescott shows a chaotic emergency room and how it is "a vivid allegory for the whole country."    In this painting he has many things that allude to others.  The main thing that stuck out to me was the lack of women.  Not that there are no woman but one is a nurse and the other is represented by nothing more than a brick wall.  It is said that Colescott did this to portray woman as being part of violence and harassment.  I believe that this is a statement piece.  Its main point is to draw attention to issues and not just be colors on a canvas.  

Map of the World by Alighiero e Boetti

Boetti was an Italian conceptual artist, who was considered to be a member of the art movement Arte Povera.  He was well known for his creation of artistic maps.  The maps that he produced were supposed to be a direct example of the physical and political boundaries each country has.  Each country has its set border but the country itself is represented by its flag.  Boetti made this embroidered mad in 1989 with the help of Afghani artisans.  While the map looks complete some countries are missing because they were not considered countries at the time.  At the same time that countries are missing because they had not developed yet, some of the countries that existed in 1989 no longer exist today.  Yes the world has changed, some countries exist now that didn’t and some countries no longer exist, but this map is supposed to depict how the world appeared at one time.  It is a piece of history that you cam merely look at and see how things can change.  

April 24, 1990 by On Kawara

On Kawara is a Japanese artist who started out in Japan then eventually travelled to Mexico and France and in 1965 he settled in New York.  While Kawara was in France, he experimented a lot with calendar drawings.  Experimenting with these particular drawings paved the way for more of his art.  Kawara started his “Today” series On January 4, 1966.  This series had a canvas that was neatly organized with the date and stored in boxes that contain newspaper clipping pertaining to that day from wherever Kawara was when he made the paintings.  Kawara didn’t make one for every single day, and they did vary with background color as well as typeface changes.  According to the MoMA, these painting were tedious and took hours for layering and paint to dry.  I found these paintings very interesting because they seem so simple but at the same time it is as if it is capturing an exact moment.  The time of April 24, 1990 is imprinted on this canvas and saved in history.  

Lumumba by Luc Tuymans

This painting is based on a photo of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Belgian Congo.  In producing this oil painting, Tuymans was showing his diversity in painting about world issues and foreign countries.  This painting is supposed to represent the struggle of the country that started in Belgium and continued into Congo.  Although the painting was done in 2000, Lumumba was assassinated 39 years earlier.  It is suggested that the portrait tells us nothing about Lumumba himself but the fact that there was a dark struggle throughout this conflict.  Tuymans has said, “the subject of this work is history, then the object is a vessel of historical memory”.  One of the more interesting things about this painting is the fact that Tuymans did this painting from memory of a photograph rather than the photograph itself.  Tuymans added subtle differences to the paintings such as light and color changes to ad effects for Lumumba’s qualities.  The lighter tones suggest that Lumumba was a more civilized man.  I admire this painting for the fact that being able to capture a person’s features and who they were and putting it on paper is certainly an amazing talent.

The Secretary of State by Luc Tuymans -2005

 In 2005, Condoleezza Rice stepped down from her position as National Security Advisor to replace Colin Powel as Secretary of State.  Later that year, Rice was named Most Powerful Woman by Forbes Magazine.  According to the MoMA, the faded nature of the picture is to signify her place in history and it will be there forever.  Many of the focal points of the picture are said to not focus on her color or gender.  The close up image is supposed to intensify the fact that she is now of further political power but a media image.  The fading and the white texture is supposed to represent her place in history as if the painting has aged with time.

Shepard Fairey

During the 2008 presidential election, Shepard Fairey created a “Russian-Propaganda looking” portrait of Barack Obama.  Underneath Obama’s red and blue tinted face is the word “hope”.  This picture of Barack Obama became a “visual emblem” of his run for the US presidency.  Even though this piece was very influential and very symbolic of this historic election, it of course came with controversy.  Fairey typically produces are that are influenced by pop culture icons; such as Black Sabbath.  However, he has done work inspired by groups such as the Black Panthers, and political figures such as George W. Bush.  While he does positive pieces, such as his poster for Barack Obama, his piece for Bush was meant to be negative just in time for his election.  In his Obama poster he tried to use colors that would make it seem as if there was no race to the picture.  In my opinion, Fairey did an exceptional job of creating something that will go down in history and be remembered by millions.