Dorothea Lange: Union Square, New York
John Baldessari: What Is PaintingPhillip Guston: Deluge II
Dorothea Lange: War Babies/Berkley, California
Dorothea Lange: Berkeley, CaliforniaBenny Andrews: No More Games
Chéri Samba: Problem of Water
In War Babies and Berkley, California, Dorothea Lange reveals sudden scarcities of resources in the images. In War Babies, two women holding and caring for their children are depicted. The image was taken in 1944, during the height of WWII, so it is safe to say that the photograph is displaying a mother looking after her children while the father is at war. This depicts domestic stress during foreign conflict. The women in the picture also look alike, possibly making them sisters, therefore an aunt and a mother. The composition is very balanced with the heads of the women and the electric pole almost forming an olympic medal podium in the background as far as the heights captured in the image go. There is also a child in the middle, and behind the child seems to be to ends of a white blanket being held by each woman. This creates the illusion of the child having angels wings.
In Berkeley California, there is a gas station with a sign on one of the pumps saying its not allowing any more gas to be pumped that day, signaling the company rationing their resources at the command of the government. The title, Berkeley, California, may coincidentally relate to environmentalist and counter culture movements to follow, or more probable, where the photo was taken.
In Benny Andrews’, No More Games, we see two panels brought together to depict a young black man beside a presumably dead white body covered by a flag and in front of a pillar being wrapped by a snake. I feel that the meaning behind this is the reveal that at the core of systematic racism is to separate parts of society, put them against each other, so that way those with power, money-wise and political, can easily control more of society without having to worry about the poor demanding better conditions of life. In the painting we see what is left, on the left, a confused generation feeling alone and invisible seemingly at hand of the white people, hence the white paint over the black man’s face, and on the right, a deceased white body, covered by the flag, and consumed by the hatred systematically stirred within it by controlling powers. This hints at why the face is covered by the flag, showing what system is responsible.
In Chéri Samba’s Problem of Water, the meaning behind it is clearly explained in French on the top of the composition. This is to demonstrate how grand of a problem clean water in Africa is, since we get the meaning behind the painting and the very top, rather than having to wait to decipher it.
In Phillip Guston’s Deluge II, the canvas is filled with pink, caucasian flesh-like colors. The piece seems to consist of severed body parts. We can see the soles of shoes, a hand with a cigarette, and what appears to be rotting heads, spilling blood from behind the ears. There’s also organs in the background and the blood seems to be transforming into the sea as the depth of the painting strays farther away.
In John Baldesarri’s, What Is Painting, in my interpretation, he puts into question the difference between a picture made from raw materials and a picture made of binary code. He points out that the fundamental difference is that the parts of a picture such as a painting are all involved with each other, while in a digital image they are coded pixel by pixel, side by side. What’s ironic here is that the work itself still follows this guideline, and attracts your attention by defining the aesthetic rather than trying to create it. Something could also be said in reference to how language is connected as well, and how each word in a sentence is involved with one another, just as individual brushstrokes are.
In Dorothea Lange’s Union Square, New York, we are given a profile of a woman looking out onto the street as if she just walked out of a market to buy bread. In the photo it seems as though there is something worth admiring to the people because the women and a couple people in the background are standing still rather than walking. Here Lange challenges the typical instinct to take the photograph of public interest, but instead, an interested public.
Placed together these works reflect themes of community, as well as underlining structures within them. In Deluge II, Problem of Water, War Babies and Berkley, California, we are given clear depictions of struggle in a communal fashion. While in Union Square, New York, What Is Painting, and No More Games, we are given pictures and messages more open to interpretation, but still relatable to a diverse community at whole.
