Racism & Equality Through Art

Emma Amos’ Preparing  for a Face Lift, caught my eye the most out of the rest out the painting featured in the We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 exhibition. This painting shows a black woman's face and has comments explaining and revealing the flaws on her face. For example, on the left side of the woman's cheek there is an age spot pointed out. On the woman's chin it is shown that she has a rash. This piece of art also, has “afraid to use color” written on it. These words have the most power compared to the others due to time period of this painting. During the time 1981, racism wasn't as harsh as it was before, but it still was hard for African Americans to be in and on certain things. Imagine being black and a women during this time, two of the most inferior things, life would be hard to speak your voice or get a job or even just to be accepted into society. When you look through a magazine most of the women featured in them are white, have long hair and their skin is perfect and unmarked due to makeup and photoshop. This image is always portrayed because it is what most people wanted to see during this time and what was accepted, but this image is not real. It is created to make people feel like  they need to look like that and that’s what is beautiful. Emma Amos’ painting is making the statement that no women is perfect and the perfect women can be of color.

 

Emma Amos (American, born 1938). Preparing for a Face Lift, 1981. Etching and crayon, 8 1⁄4 × 7 3⁄4 in. (21 × 19.7 cm). Courtesy of Emma Amos. © Emma Amos; courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York. Licensed by VAGA, New York

One And The Same by Malinda Prud’homme is very similar Amos’s painting. Prudhomme’s collection of paintings  also has the face of one woman, but shows two different races. For instance, one of the woman’s eyes is the eye of a black woman, while the other is an indian woman's eye. One half of woman's nose belongs to a black women the other belong to an indian woman. Malinda Prud’homme’s work of art shows us that everyone is equal. It's like a bunch of  puzzle pieces coming together to form one big powerful image. Even though people are different shades of color, have different beliefs and different amounts of money, on the inside they are no different. These painting also have their differences Emma Amos’ work focuses on one specific race, while Malinda Prud’homme is directed towards all races. Also, I believe the main idea of Amos’ is artwork is the struggles black women went through during this time. The point of  most paintings done by Prud’homme’s is racial equality for all women and for women to feel beautiful with themselves no matter what their image may look like. Both of these images and artist are fighting for the rights of women to be accepted in society.

One and the Same is a painting by Malinda Prudhomme which was uploaded on November 13th, 2017.

John Berger’s Ways of Seeing explains how the world we live in allures humans by things that make will make them seem appealing and feel “glamorous”. He explains how people buy and consume things advertised to make them “better”. Preparing for a Facelift shows what did not usually appeal to magazines or most people during this time. If you did have some of the qualities Amos mentions in her photo like, age spots or bags under your eyes, there was always something created to make yourself more attractive. Berger writes,  “ If you are able to buy this product you will be loveable. If you can not buy it, you will be less lovable”. This means if you can have the same type of image as people in magazines and advertisements you will be favored by many people. If you are not up to date or do not have certain things you will not fit in with others and will feel less of yourself. How Andy Warhol presents Marilyn Monroe is used to describe the definition of glamour. A beautiful white woman with blond hair, an unmarked face and a slim body. Today things are more like what Prud’homme speaks about through her art. Self beauty and self confidence is something preached by many women and even men today. Things are being made to benefit every shade and shape, like Rihanna’s new makeup line Fenty Beauty, where foundation is made for every shade of white and black. This allows not a single person to be left on a trend or something that may work for a group of people.