Professional Documents
Culture Documents
thing. You've got to walk with style. You've got to talk with a certain rhythm;
you've got to do things with some flair. And so in the paintings I try to enact that
same tendency toward the theatrical that seems to be so integral a part of the black
cultural body.
The questions i would ask this artist are. How was it trying to be an artist
during the civil right movement? And was it hard? He would probably say that
trying to be a poor artist during a dangerous time for african americans was very
difficult and that it was hard for him to find peace to paint, but once he started
painting he found his peaceful place.
Sue Coe
Sue Coe is an English artist and illustrator working primarily in drawing and
printmaking, in the form of illustrated books and comics. She grew up close to a
slaughterhouse and developed a passion to stop cruelty to animals. Coe studied at
the Royal College of Art in London and lived in New York City from 1972 to
2001. She lives in upstate New York. Her work is highly political, often directed
against capitalism and cruelty to animals.
Coe was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire. For a quarter century she has
explored factory farming, meat packing, apartheid, sweat shops, prisons, AIDS,
and war. Her commentary on political events and social injustice is published in
newspapers, magazines and books. Coe's paintings and prints are auctioned as fund
raisers for a variety of progressive causes and, since 1998, she has sold prints to
benefit animal rights organizations. In the 1980s Coe was featured on the cover of
Artnews and her artwork has appeared in numerous museum collections and
exhibitions.
I would ask her why she has let her childhood has affected her so much? She
would probably say that she had a hard time seeing the things she saw like animals
dieing. I would also ask her how it has affected her painting? She would say how it
has made her want to succeed more so she is able to donate money to animal
rights.
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional
actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton,
Long Island and Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Who was born on August 17, 1923 and
died August 14, 2002. Larry Rivers was born in the Bronx, as Yitzroch Loiza
Grossberg to Samuel and Sonya Grossberg, Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine.
He changed his name to Larry Rivers in 1940, after being introduced as "Larry
Rivers and the Mudcats" at a local New York City pub.
Rivers is considered by many scholars to be the Godfather and Grandfather
of Pop art, because he was one of the first artists to really merge non-objective,
non-narrative art with narrative and objective abstraction.Rivers took up painting
in 1945 and studied at the Hans Hofmann School from 194748. He earned a BA
in art education from New York University in 1951. He was a pop artist of the
New York School, reproducing everyday objects of American popular culture as
art. He was one of eleven New York artists featured in the opening exhibition at
the Terrain Gallery in 1955.
I would ask him how it was being from a Jewish family and living during
world war two. He would most likely respond that it was hard but it helped shape
him into the artist he is now. I would also ask how it was being an artist in such a
hard time and how that affected him. And he would say that it was difficult
because he had to try to overcome the poor hard conditions of the world as a poor
artist.
Sandy Skoglund
numerous fish hovering above people in bed late at night and is called Revenge of
the Goldfish. The piece was used as cover art for the Inspiral Carpets album of the
same name. Skoglund was an art professor at the University of Hartford between
1973 and 1976. She is currently teaching photography and art
installation/multimedia at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 2008, Skoglund
completed a series titled "True Fiction Two". This project is similar to the "True
Fiction" series that she began in 1986. This series was not completed due to the
discontinuation of materials that Skoglund was using. Kodak canceled the
production of the dye that Skoglund was using for her prints. I would ask her how
her art has affected what she has done with her other careers. I would also ask her
how it has affected her family.
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known
for her conceptual portraits. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur
Fellowship. Sherman became interested in the visual arts at Buffalo State College,
where she began painting. She eventually go frustrated with painting and took up
photography. She said there was nothing more to say [through painting]", she
later recalled. "I was meticulously copying other art and then I realized I could just
use a camera and put my time into an idea instead." Sherman works in series,
typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs,
Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director,
makeup artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model. She also Produced films
from 1977 to 1980. In addition to her film stills, Sherman has appropriated a
number of other visual formsthe centerfold, fashion photograph, historical
portrait, and soft-core sex image. These and other series, like the 1980s Fairy Tales
and Disasters sequence, were shown for the first time at the Metro Pictures Gallery
in New York City. I would ask her why she gave up on painting so easy. I would
also ask her how it affected her family life being so busy and successful.
Kara Walker
Kara Walker is an African American contemporary artist and painter who
explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her work. She is best
known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. Walker lives in
New York City and has taught extensively at Columbia University. She is currently
serving a five-year term as Tepper Chair in Visual Arts at the Mason Gross School
of the Arts, Rutgers University. Walker was born in Stockton, California in 1969.
Her father, Larry Walker, is an artist and professor. Her mother worked as an
Henry Darger
Henry Darger was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a
hospital custodian in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his
posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called
The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the
Grandeco-Angelina War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with
several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story.