Sign in or 
Share this
Glenn Ligon: Some Changes (exhibit at the Wexner)
Qiannan Zhang
Art Education 367.02
Learning Log #4
We visited the Wexner Center of Arts this week to see the art exhibit of Glenn Ligon’s Some Changes and Sadie Benning’s Suspended Animation. Both contemporary artists focus their artworks on exploring identity and sexuality within current society. After viewing Ligon’s exhibit, I truly had a better understanding of how his view on identity has changed through out times. On the first level of Ligon’s art pieces, all paintings were done in black and white to create significant contrast. Through these paintings, Ligon hoped to show the audience that he was placed into a white community where his opinions were not wanted and people judged him based on his color, and he didn’t have the freedom to create his own identity. As I walked into the second part of the exhibit, color became a part of Ligon’s paintings. He picked out several colorful paintings from a coloring book done by elementary school kids, where the kids had the freedom to paint whatever color they wanted on the characters presented on each page. Through this piece of art, Ligon proved that as we grow up, color became a main component that we use to identity other people. Although society is becoming more open minded of different races, as Ligon portrayed in his painting “Malcolm X”, non-Caucasians still get discriminated in different situations. People base their own decisions on misconceptions that they already have, which makes it harder for different races to establish their own identity using their actions and words. Through Ligon’s artworks, I received the message that he is trying to reach out to the society and hoping that people will eventually view each other with equality and respect. It’s a unique experience to see how Ligon has portrayed his life in society through his paintings. Sometimes a painting requires us to look behind the surface and find out about the background in order to better understand the meanings behind it. It’s also important for us to voice our opinions in order to create an accurate identity in current society.
Art Education 367.02
Learning Log #4
We visited the Wexner Center of Arts this week to see the art exhibit of Glenn Ligon’s Some Changes and Sadie Benning’s Suspended Animation. Both contemporary artists focus their artworks on exploring identity and sexuality within current society. After viewing Ligon’s exhibit, I truly had a better understanding of how his view on identity has changed through out times. On the first level of Ligon’s art pieces, all paintings were done in black and white to create significant contrast. Through these paintings, Ligon hoped to show the audience that he was placed into a white community where his opinions were not wanted and people judged him based on his color, and he didn’t have the freedom to create his own identity. As I walked into the second part of the exhibit, color became a part of Ligon’s paintings. He picked out several colorful paintings from a coloring book done by elementary school kids, where the kids had the freedom to paint whatever color they wanted on the characters presented on each page. Through this piece of art, Ligon proved that as we grow up, color became a main component that we use to identity other people. Although society is becoming more open minded of different races, as Ligon portrayed in his painting “Malcolm X”, non-Caucasians still get discriminated in different situations. People base their own decisions on misconceptions that they already have, which makes it harder for different races to establish their own identity using their actions and words. Through Ligon’s artworks, I received the message that he is trying to reach out to the society and hoping that people will eventually view each other with equality and respect. It’s a unique experience to see how Ligon has portrayed his life in society through his paintings. Sometimes a painting requires us to look behind the surface and find out about the background in order to better understand the meanings behind it. It’s also important for us to voice our opinions in order to create an accurate identity in current society.
|
zhang546 |
Latest page update: made by zhang546
, May 17 2007, 7:27 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by zhang546
view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
african american
autobiographical
Gay Male
identity
prints
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
