The Intersection Of Social Movements And Art - 2066 Words

The intersection of social movements and Art is one that can be observed throughout the civil right movements of America in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. The sixties in America saw a substantial cultural and social change through activism against the Vietnam war, women’s right and against the segregation of the African - American communities. Art became a prominent method of activism to advocate the civil rights movement. It was a way to express self-identity as well as the struggle that people went through and by means of visual imagery a way to show political ideals and forms of resistance. To examine how a specific movement can have a profound effects on the visual art, this essay will focus on the black art movement of the 1960s and†¦show more content†¦Secondly, observing the work of Emma Amos who was the only women within the spiral group. Romare Bearden, started his artistic career being an abstractionist, however the civil right movement had an im pact on his art which lead him to the creation of the group called spiral. With the help of other black artists, Bearden sought to reflect how they could portray their connection to the civil right movement through their arts as a racial group minority. Ralph Ellison (1977), mentions the anachronism of the American social experience of minority artists which could then be used to understand the motivation behind the art of Bearden. This anachronism refers to; â€Å"The imbalance in American society which leads to a distorted perception of social reality, to a stubborn blindness to the creative possibilities of cultural diversity, to the prevalence of negative myth, racial stereotypes and dangerous illusion about art, humanities and society.† (Ellison: 1977 : pp.673) It is then argued that many artists are often majorly influenced by the power of this anachronism, as their culture as well as the freedom of representing their self identity through aesthetic technique of self ex pression that are already existing. This, then restrict their attempt to seek change of the complex social situation they experience. Meanwhile, it is said that Bearden attempt not to follow the anachronism in is art by transforming it into a component of art as a mean of personal vision (Ellison: