In all art the artist strives to make a connection with the viewer by communicating an idea, an emotion, or an experience through their work of Art. What an artist is trying to communicate to the viewer can generally be identified into three categories; individual identity, cultural identity, and historical identity. I chose three works of art from the MoMA that each represent one of these identities.
The work of art I chose to represent the identity of an individual was a piece by the renowned Frida Kahlo. It is a self-portrait of Frida with one of her pet monkeys. Frida paints a very personal and honest depiction of herself. She includes her uni-brow and the relatively unattractive facial hair on her upper lip, which, although not making her appear beautiful, shows that she is being completely honest with herself and the viewer. This in turn reveals more about Frida Kahlo's individual self than an embellished or altered self-portrait would. From the description on the wall I found out that she and her husband, Diego Rivera, adopted monkeys to make up for the fact that they were unable to conceive children. This adds even more of an individual identity to the piece. Although I'm sure Frida cared very much about her primate pets, the impossibility of becoming a parent must have been extremely sad for Frida and the viewer can see this through the painting. This is a work of art that must speak to many people on a very personal level.
I chose a work of art by Rosemarie Trockel to represent cultural identity. It is a work of art made of wool with the words WEST GERMANY stitched repetitively across the whole piece. The plaque next to the piece claims that this stitching is, "An allusion to the artist's background and to the commodification of artists and art in a capitalist society". Trockel wants to say something with this piece about living in a capitalist culture. It is especially interesting when one regards the situation in central Europe at this time in history. Germany was split into the capitalist state West Germany and the communist state East Germany. It is one of the most significant examples in history of where the two radically different ideologies of Capitalism and Communism came into conflict with each other. Rosemarie Trockel also seeks to express her feelings of the female's place in a male-dominated culture. The plaque on the wall describes how she expresses this. It states, "By using traditionally feminine resources and techniques, she calls into question an assumed hierarchy of materials, which places painting at the top and craft at the bottom". It can be said that this work of art actual contains cultural identity and historical identity.
To represent the historical identity, i chose a painting by Frantisek Kupka. This work of art has a historical identity to it because it is one of the first fully abstract paintings in modern art. It is more concerned with Art History than with world history. This painting must of been very unique at the time it was painted and I am sure it has influence many artists throughout the years. What i found interesting about this painting was the flatness of it. at first i couldn't tell which of the different shades of blue were the foreground and which ones were the background but then I realized that this painting was not meant to have a foreground or a background.
Learning about the different types of identity in art has been very interesting for me. It has helped me to see art in a new light and to organize my ideas about a particular work of art. I feel that i can now now see deeper into a work of art and understand what the artist is trying to communicate to the viewer that much easier.
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