Review On Art History And Visual Studies In Europe

Question: Describe about the Art History and Visual Studies In Europe? Answer: Jumping In Front Of My Window- Allan Rohan Crite It is a painting by Allan Rohan Crite. He was a painter who liked to recreate stories through the paintings. He was a painter at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He made the painting in 1930 and revised the painting ten years later. He used to paint about the lives of the people of the 1930s and made recordings of the streets of the city. He was one of the renowned African- American artists who died in the year 2007. Today most of these streets are not found and they have vanished and the only sources of information are the drawings that he had made. He made the painting with a idea in the mind. He wanted to show the black people as ordinary people, their lives, happiness and sorrows. He used to look out of the window of the Northampton Street towards the Columbus Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Dilworth Street. According to him it was an important phase of his life. He thinks like that as much of the works of life are created in this place. Thus was a memory for t he painter as most of the streets have vanished from the city (Boston.com, 2015). In this picture a sense of affection of the neighborhood comes out. It is seen that the three women are dressed fashionably in the picture ready to enjoy the summer days. In the middle of the painting it is seen that a boy has a tire in his hand and there are several boys who are lined to play a game called tire jumping. The painter has realized the fact that he was much of a story teller (James et al, 2012). It was seen that the picture has shades of matte colours like yellow and red. This shows the actual color of bri9cks and the condition of the building shows that bricks were naked and not cemented, highlighting the culture of that time. The streets are in dull grey and the pavements are broken revealing the red bricks. Moreover it was seen that a paper was lying on the street and revealing the status of the people. they are not concerned with the cleanliness of the streets and the children are enjoying amidst that only. It can be said from the painting that he tried to highlight the lives of the African in America and the condition of the lives of the people. People of Africa in the earlier times in America were not treated well by the people, they were considered as slaves at that time. More over it is seen that that the children played with tyres which can be deduced that the standard of the people were not as high compared to the white people of America. It needs to be understood that the children of that time played with tyres and found it to be recreational compared to the whites who played in the parks. Playing on the streets was a common fashion among the children of the African American community (Rampley, 2012). In the painting it is seen that the children are playing and that are witnessed by the passersby. The painting depicts the summer evenings where the people are drawn to the streets by the heat that they experience inside the houses. It was clear from the painting that the painter tried to depict the comparatively rich African American community in America at that time. It was seen that the children are not concerned with the way they dress and some are wearing only the lower parts that is the pants. While some of them are wearing clothes that are smaller than their size and it is revealing their body. Crite has rendered more carefully the yellow bricks in the painting and curved turrets in the street which depict the part which ha s gone significant changes as well as shifts in the economy in the middle of the twenty first century, in Boston (Lasky, Kathryn, and Nneka Bennett, 2012) Initially the painting was made in the year 1935 to 1936 and later a rework was done in 1947. Much later in the year 1977 it was printed in color, he showed a self portrait where he was seen as a young man painting the identical scene. It needs to be seen that the children in the nineteenth century were not sent to school as they in the initial years of their lives. They were sent to school at later stages in their lives. More over it was seen that the black children were not allowed to go to the same school as the white. It was seen that the black children at that time were devoid of the respect in the society as they were not allowed to have the luxuries of the life of the children of the white people (Carl, 1999). It can be seen from the picture that the condition of the neighborhood is not elegant and looks shabby. There are broken pavements and the roads are also broken. The clothes of the women though are nice and well fashioned but the children playing on the street are wearing not so good clothes. From this we can come to know about the lives of the people in that period. It was seen in the paintings of the painter that he depicted the lives of the Afro-American people of the 1930s and the 1940s (Smith, 1978). It was seen that painting that Crite has tried to depict his affection for the rich African- American society. At that time as depicted in the picture that the people went onto the streets to recreate themselves. Even elderly women went out in the streets to enjoy the fine weather and beat the heat of the summer. It was seen that the painter continuously painted the scenes of the street and the lives of the people on the streets. In the picture the painter had depicted the corner of Northampton and the Dilworth Street in the south end of Boston. It was the place where the painter had grew up from his childhood (Tamboukou, 2010). Thus it can be said that the painter had a soft corner for the street and the people who roamed on the streets and specially the children who played with the tyres on the street and this reminded of the painter of his childhood. The painter used to draw what he used to see outside from the window. It can be said in the end that the painting narrates the story of the lives of the African American society in the earlier days that is in the 1930 and the 1940s (Williams, 2010). it is very close to the painter as he grew up in one of these streets and it reminded him of the lives of the people and the children of that time who used to pass their time in the evenings by playing with tyres which was so different from the way the white American children used to play. The life style of the African- American community people in that time were portrayed by the painter in his paintings. According to the painter, he was more of a story teller, he used to tell the stories of the people of the community through the paintings that he painted while at his days in the Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston. He was renowned painter and contributed to the valuable paintings of the lives of the people in the 1930s of the African-American community from where people are able to get a clear picture of the li fe of the people. References Deuker, Carl. Painting The Black. 1999. Print. Joyce, James et al. Finnegans Wake. 2012. Print. Lasky, Kathryn, and Nneka Bennett. Vision Of Beauty. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2012. Print. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,. 'Tire Jumping In Front Of My Window'. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. Rampley, Matthew. Art History And Visual Studies In Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2012. Print. Smith, Morton. Jesus The Magician. New York: Harper and Row, 1978. Print. Tamboukou, Maria. Nomadic Narratives, Visual Forces. New York: Peter Lang, 2010. Print. Williams, Meg Harris. Art And Analysis: An Adrian Stokes Reade. 2010. Print.