Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Harmless escape and Dose of Reality
The art produced during the Great Depression comprised a variety of forms (photography, film, theater, music, etc.) and served a dual purpose. Some forms were meant to expose the grim realities of the Depression, while others offered forms of escape for those who suffered.
Comment on one of each of these forms--one that helped distract the public from the grim realities of the everyday, as well as one that displayed them. To what extent do we rely on art for these purposes today?
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I suppose it depends on the form of art. When it comes to the revealing of grim ideas and the struggles of the Great Depression and WWII I think Photography, film (such as Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator") were great mechanisms. In every situation there are those who choose to gain information and then their are those who wish to escape. Fun jazzy music or a film could be an escape and then there are those who who face the facts but want a hero and this is where things like superman comes in. part of why Roosevelt was so popular was being people wanted a hero to save them so they created idols out of existing people and dreamed about fictional characters coming to save the day. In times of despair all kinds of art can prosper because of there are so many different types of people to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteToday art is most certainly used to bring the horrors of the world into our view almost as reminder that we have an extremely privileged life style that a huge portion of the world is excluded from due to a multiple reasons such as poverty, violence and civil unrest. Art today also used to escape reality when it doesn't feel sufficient today that is known as escapist entertainment. While modern art/media is used in the same ways as in the Great Depression it is for very different reasons. A great example i would like to pull from the reading was about superman "Superman was a champion of oppressed workers, racial minorities (in other early stories he stopped lynchings), and the downtrodden in general." this was the original superman not the modern comic book version we have today. This shows how art was used to relieve the pain of a social group or an entire society in the Great Depression as opposed to the more individualized modern use of art in this way. What i mean by individualized is that although art is always meant to be shared modern art is more about evoking emotions on the individual level more so than group level im most cases.
ReplyDeleteThe very first sentence of the reading explains how, "culture relations always reflect, in one way or another, the time and place in which they are brought to life." This suggests that although we do not seem to RELY on art for this purpose today, it definitely serves as a template for our time period when people of the future are studying 2013. For example, the artist displayed in our art gallery right now, "Ronnie Rysz" creates contemporary, modern collages out of various materials; this helps to depict how modern and advanced our generation is. More often, our culture is conveyed through music and films.
ReplyDeleteRegarding art forms during the Depression, one of its goals was to be readily identifiable by the public; it was "self-consciously 'American'", hence, the art movement's name: "the American scene". The first art mentioned was Superman, who "embodies the social values that were ascendent during the depression years". Given this, this art was created to help distract the people from the Depression rather than display its negative aspects. Another work shown in the reading is Victor Arnautoff's painting,"City Life", which showed a large mass of poeple and encouraged unions and other leftist orientations. This is an example of art work which displayed the grim realities of the Depression.
Art would have been created at this time for the sole purpose of getting people's minds off of the Depression. This is very important because it gives the public something to think of rather than wondering where their next paycheck will come from.
ReplyDeletePeople underestimate the power of art, and the way it can influence people. Also, the rich still wanted art despite not really being affected by the depression.
The paintings of this era, like Steel by Mr. benton, showed people how much hard work was being done by many people. this painting symbolizes the struggles that a steel worker faced day in and day out, but also the problems they would face in the era they lived in. these jobs were not permanent and any worker could be fired at ay moment. so the darkness and dangerous sense of this painting shows that well. Of course i have to choose superman to express the art that was created to distract the average joe from his terrible life. Superman was more then just a character, he was a symbol for a better life where justice and hard work prevails. This was an opportunity for the entire family to sit around the fire and read the latest installment of the adventures of superman! This was a good way for the entire family to escape the terrible life they had and it also gave them a role model on how to live their life.
ReplyDeleteI think that in today's world, many people use art to get away from their boring, terrible, or troubled life. I know that i personally use movies to escape into the world of the characters and the plot. Im not saying my life is bad or anything because its not, but you hear alot of stories of people who become obsessed with characters, books, videogames, and many more things in order to escape from their own crappy lives. So i think that we rely on art today fairly heavily to escape from the reality and into the land of fantasy and imagination.
An art form that was used to help people escape from the realities of the depression were the Superman comic books. It helped people focus on a hero who could save the day and make everything right. He was everything that people wanted to be and reading them gave people a sense of hope because he protected the everyday man and stood up to corruption. To show the great depression many people looked at photos. One of the most famous of the photographs taken in the Great Depression was 'Migrant Mother' taken by Dorethea Lange. It portrays a mother with her children on the side of the road after they had to sell their car's tires for food causing them to have no means of transportation. To this day it remains one of the most well known photographs in the world. It's incredibly moving and showed the struggles of many across the US.
ReplyDeleteArt during the Great Depression really glorified the plight of the poor, accentuating their qualities of perseverance and fortitude. This piece (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/goldstein/25.jpg), typical of Great Depression art, shows a man looking downtrodden, yet still has a certain majestic and proud air to him. Art like this was meant to make the poor man comfortable with his poverty, and in a twisted way, make him proud of his destituteness. So this painting not only exposed the harshness of the depression, displaying its ability to topple this stoic manly man, but also offers an escape by making an escape not necessary.
ReplyDeleteArt has always played an important role in society. It can inspire people to do something that the artist wants you to do. It can provide you with a whirlwind of emotions. It lets you escape from your everyday life. Art during the Great Depression was no different, but perhaps more important to society at the time. Whether it was theater, music or images, at was used to give the people some sort of stimulation or an escape from reality. For example, Superman played a major role not only in the comic books, but also in real life. By reading these little arts pieces, people could imagine someone as great as his popping up into their life and solving all of their problems. Not only was it entertainment, but perhaps it also gave people hope that one day things will get better. While some tried to steer people away from worrying about their problems, others worked to highlight and expose the harsh realties of the time period. For example, the picture on the front cover of this article depicts the tough life of the average working man. It is very dark, the men look exhausted, and the working conditions seem terrible. Pieces like these were not meant to further enhance the pessimistic emotions of working class, but perhaps it was more geared towards the wealthy business owners in order to expose to them what life is really like for the average man.
ReplyDeleteAs the reading says"Subjects were everywhere...scores of injustices needed rebuking.As artists were attacking greed and injustice, many of them were celebrating the reveal of community spirit and the fortitude of poor and face the hardship",i agree with classmates that art was somehow used as distraction through the depression era, yet i think it was not used to escape from the reality but to let the public suck the spirit from the art piece so they could readily re-identify themselves with courage, ambition and confidence. The city-land photography that shows daily life of working class either sitting on the roof of the Empire State or taking care of their kids in the ghetto of the poor.Art provide a unique angle to face the reality that we were a part of it not to escape. On the flip side, do u really think Joe Louise was punching his enemies on the stage? no, he was punching and punishing the fear that was inside himself and the fear that was inside everyone else.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the people of the Great Depression, we use some art forms to distract us from the problems of the real world. Because art is so diverse, unique, and captivating, people often think about upcoming movies or television shows throughout their daily lives, as a way to forget reality, even when not viewing it directly. Action and adventure movies and television shows get people to immerse themselves in someone else's life that is more interesting than their own. Although comic books, which were popular in the Great Depression, have been phased out of popular culture, we substitute the same effect with film and television shows.
ReplyDeleteI think that though photography can be a beautiful thing, many times now and during the great depression, is used to show all of the horrors that people just next door face. Many times when you look on the news, you will see pictures of the destruction of buildings, or what our troops are physically watching happen over seas. It is a very brutal thing. And also, during the great depression we never look at pictures of people celebrating, you see photographs of people in bread lines.
ReplyDeleteAs for a form that allowed people to escape, i think that film was the best solution. People would use it to get away from everything and just focus on a movie. I personally use film to do exactly this. I love getting into a movie and trying to put all the pieces of a story together. And when I'm doing that, i'm not thinking of my next homework assignment or the bio report i still have to write. I'm just focused on that movie. And I think that this is what a lot of people did during this time for my exact reason.
ReplyDeleteInt he. Time of the Great Depression, the government made a great decision when it supported artist. Not only was it a good relief program, becaus it gave so many people jobs, but also in the entertainment sense it was very useful, because it made people go out of their houses and enjoy life again. People also paid money for concerts, theatres or sports, which helped the economy. I think the most important effect is thisone, the distraction from the hardship the people suffered from. This is the reason for that we still love entertainment. It brings us in another world, makes us forget the worries we have for some good hours.
Of course photography, film, theater, music, art, etc. all played a huge part during the depression because they all in some ways showed the bad and the good times of the depression as well as allowing people to express themselves and get some entertainment. Overall, I think that one of the more prominent art forms that allowed/ helped people to escape from the pubic grim reality was the art for theater/ film. Going to the theater to watch a play or movie can make the people forget all about their worries because for a few hours they get to escape and watch something else. There would be all types of expression and ways for people to escape just from watching a movie or going to the theater.
ReplyDeleteHi Ms. Sutton. I don't see any readings that are related to this topic in my email. I tried to reach you but it sent me a automatic reply saying that you are away.
ReplyDeleteThank You.
I did not recieve an email either, and i saw Jasons post so i didnt want to bother you / get an automatic response. thanks sorry
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the e-mail either. But I guess I'll just infer whats going on based off of what others said and previous reading. In Argentina during the Depression for example the tango was created with grim music in order to express peoples feelings about the depression. In the Cinema, the movies were also based off of this tango-depressed feeling. But up to what I can see it was also used in order to escape the Depression not just to document it.
ReplyDelete