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Art 21 Artists

Kara Walker

Shahzia Sikander

Raymond Pettibon

Michael Ray Charles 

Faith Ringgold

"Art21 is a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring a more creative world through the works and words of contemporary artists." To find more inspiring artists and information, visit https://art21.org/
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Kara Walker

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Kara Walker is a black, female artist who addresses a wide range of social issues such as black identity issues, slavery, oppression, war, and women’s rights. Walker grew up in California where she discovered her passion for drawing at a young age. She went on to pursue art as a profession by earning her BFA and MFA. During her time in college she discovered her artistic identity as she was discovering her own identity. She wanted to understand her relationship with oil painting, her original focus in college, as a black woman and discovered a disconnect between the media and her identity. Oil painting history was rooted in white men’s masculinity to discover and colonialize new lands, which was contrasting to who she was. Once she abandoned painting, she discovered the use of silhouettes which was rooted in her original media selection of drawing that evoked her passion for becoming an artist. The use of the silhouettes created a way of viewing the artwork from positive and negative viewpoints. She enjoyed the ability to use physiognomy to fill the black voids with something meaningful. Through the use of developing figures, she depicted portraits and scenes of southern narratives. She claims that the content of her work does not deal with repairing history, but is consumed by it. Looking back creates a deep, historical feeling of connectedness. Walker is a well-spoken, educated black woman who places value on the research process of creating her artwork as a means to discover herself and share stories with others.
Artwork
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Negress. October 11, 2013 - January 5, 2014.

The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that's also what the stereotype does.
Use in Teaching

At the high school level in an introductory metal working, or three-D foundations course, Kara Walker's work helps set the stage for understanding the value of a silhouette in relation to historical and cultural identity. Students will research their unique cultural backgrounds and find significant symbols that can be recognized by the outline of those objects. They will create sketches and drawings of the objects they find to make the silhouette recognizable. Students will then create the outline in a piper cleaner to encourage the tactile motor skills required to work three-dimensionally. This small activity will lay the foundation for the main part of the project where they will create cookie cutters using welding techniques to make the outline come to life. Once students have created their cookie cutter, they will research traditional cookies recipes for that culture to help them establish a stronger sense of ethnic identity. Students will have the opportunity o bake these cookies and use their cookie cutters to do so. They will share what they have learned at a critique where they can enjoy each others cookies. This lesson helps students build confidence and community as an introduction to a new material while discovering their historical cultural identities and foundational metal working techniques. Establishing a strong healthy learning environment at the beginning of the year helps students communicate effectively and appropriately. 

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Discussion Questions:

  • When have you made cookies before?

  • What was the purpose for making cookies?

  • Who was the first person to make cookies and where did they come from?

  • How can our historical and cultural traditions shape our identity today?

  • How does the silhouette of the cookie cutter communicate what the object is?

  • How does the object reflect your cultural identity? 

SOURCES:

Michael Ray Charles

Michael Ray Charles resides in Austin, Texas where he paints graphic images that uncover the representation of blacks in media and advertising. He investigates racial stereotypes embedded in visual culture to reconnect people with the historical representations of blackness as a means to remind people where we have come from and how it shapes our existence today. He states that “man has always tried to cover up what is been most ugly about man or mankind”. By uncovering the hidden and suppressed imagery in American history, the emotional presence of the past is revealed. To Michael Ray Charles, beauty is history- having lived- evidence- a mark. With beauty, he researches how mainstream imagery romanticizes races. His analysis of racial stereotypes from American history translates into a modern day context as a moment of provoked emotion that many wish to keep suppressed. His unveiling of the past truly connects people with the molding and shaping of the society we live in today.
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I think there’s a fine line between perpetuating something and questioning something. And I like to get as close to it as possible.
Artwork
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Discussion Questions:

  • What is something, such as a toy, or food, you recall from your early childhood that is unpleasant?

  • Why might it be unpleasant?

  • Do others find it unpleasant?

  • How do people generally feel about this object?

  • Historically, how was this object or similar objects viewed?

  • In a modern culture, how can you make this object from your childhood appealing?

  • What types of typography help or hinder your ability to convincingly sell your disliked object from the past?

  • What other visual cues do you observe from past and present media that appeal to a specific target audience?

Above: Video of Michael Ray Charles discussing his sculptural work at Landmarks.

Use in Teaching

A possible lesson using Michael Ray Charles concepts as a platform would relate to having students analyze images of the past to understand how images may or may not be romanticized. Students will reflect on their early childhood to think about something (a certain food, toy, etc.) they have an aversion to and why they may have felt that way. Students will research the item they selected and how it relates to their personal disinterests, through association, and cultural appeal. Then, students will analyze various images in historical media, including modern imagery they see today. Students will think about how typography and other visual clues can inform a consumers opinion of a product and create a poster that advertises the image in a positive light. The teacher can make this a digital, drawing, or painting assignment based on the equipment and curriculum present. Students will do a critique where they create a short video selling the product by referencing the poster as a visual form of persuasion while considering their target audience. The goal for students is to understand how to advertise a distasteful product of their past to make it look appealing in a modern culture for appreciation of their past in their formation of self today.

SOURCES:

Raymond Pettibon

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I don’t feel constrained by subject matter. I welcome practically anything into the drawing.
Raymond Pettibon was born in Tuscan Arizona and is the fourth child of five. He had a rather unique path to art which began through his involvement in the punk rock community and passion for writing. Today, he claims that he spends most of his time writing and has difficulty separating his visual art from his written work. He collects old books with highlighted and underlined information to creep into the past thoughts of ones who once read the books. This literature is piled high in his messy studio space where his ideas run free. His visual narratives consist of a punch line and resolution, yet finds that his best work arrives at no resolution. These narratives often revolve around the theme of 1960's politics and contemporary pop culture. The images he depicted are typically black and white with fragments of typography. He claims that he rarely uses straight lines because the shapes he creates become the masses to form highlights and shadows. Raymond Pettibon makes the striking comment that their is more failure than success in his artwork. Many, especially those in the punk rock community, oppose this idea and perceive him as a genius because of his powerful visual imagery that comes alive.
Artwork
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Use in Teaching

Students will research a political issue and take a stance about the topic. Students will cut out images and text from their research including news articles, information on social media related to the topic, etc.. After cutting out the visuals and text, students will place the imagery and text in an environment that influences the impact of the text on their political topic. Students will take various photographs of their key research images and text in the environment and select one for their final project. Students will print out an 11 by 14 inch picture of the image they feel communicates their political stance most effectively and cut the picture into three pieces. Through a mixed media collage, students will designate specific mediums to each of the three sections. One must be the original photograph, another must be pen and the other can be a medium they feel best expresses their stance on the political issue. Before leaving the site where students took their photographs, students are encouraged to use original text and items within the environment they took their photographs to enhance their collage. This gives students the opportunity to explore a topic of interest and let children know their voices are heard as they contribute to visual culture. Students will gain technical abilities by working with various mediums and realize that their is no limitation to their art.

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Discussion Questions:

  • What are some ways you have made your voice heard when you disagreed with something?

  • What are some effective political media you have seen? Where have you seen them? How are these images effective?

  • What are some political issues that contradict your values?

  • Are these global issues?

  • Why might some people disagree with a stance you take on a political topic?

  • How can you respectfully communicate a controversial idea?

SOURCES:

Shahzia Sikander

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Shahzia Sikander was born in 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan where her cultural and spiritual ideas were rooted. She began making traditional Indian and Persian miniature paintings where a high demand of discipline is needed to meet the stylized form. Although she claims to dislike miniature painting, the spiritual and meditative process lures her back in over her years of being a professional artist. Today, she uses her Muslim background to create artwork that juxtaposes Muslim and Hindu cultures through installations of large paintings on translucent tissue paper. These images are deeply personal and drawn out from her memory. The process of working with large installations allows a certain energy to come out where there is no intention to hide anything. Both juxtaposed physical methods of working allow her to unveil reality. Spiritually, she states that there are divine circles which bring her back and make her feel grounded and peaceful with a sense of release in her various art making processes.
Artwork
Use in Teaching

Shahzia Sikander creates imagery based on intense personal memories from her past, such as when she claims she did not know how to comprehend language, yet remembered the appearance of the vivid symbols. Students would delve into the depths of their mind and recall symbols and patterns from their childhood. They may use reference images, including old photographs from home, to apply some common patterns into an abstract self portrait. These to embody the detailed and disciplined process of miniature painting, students would only have a five by five inch square to fit their detailed abstract patterned self portrait. Once the paintings were complete, students would work collectively to create large translucent sheets that include an intertwinement of the most significant patterns in each students portrait to lay over their works which would function as a unit. This represents that when unveiling the classes holistic identity, each student has a unique identity that makes the class special. 

You go and you experience something and then you come back right where you started.
Discussion Questions:
SOURCES:

  • What are some memories you recall from your childhood?

  • Are any symbols from your childhood significant to you today?

  • How can you abstract the symbols so that they still provoke your memory when viewing them?

  • Is the artwork more valuable when it is created by one person or multiple people?

  • How does the value of each students portrait change when the translucent paper is in front of it? 

  • How is the audience invited to view the artwork when it has large scale and small scale components?

Faith Ringgold

Faith Ringgold was born in 1930 in Harlem New York during the Great Depression. While growing up, her ethnic, racial and gender identity was very vivid and eventually became the forefront for her artwork. Ringgold is a writer, artist and sculptor who is best known for her colorful, patterned narrative quilts. In the 1960 she was a leader in protest movements for claiming museum rights for people of color and women. Since then, she has been featured in various well renowned galleries. She explains that her narrative quilts are rooted in her African American history where quilts were often sewn by woman who were slaves and used in the Underground railroad to help slaves gain freedom. She addresses personal stories, media presence, and the history of black and female figures by writing script and adding painted images to quilts she has sewn. Because the quilts are flexible, she is able to share her stories wherever she wants to. Ringgold's persistence as an an author, artist, and sculptor has led her to become a highly respected female, black figure similar to those she often paints.
Use in Teaching

Because most of Faith Ringgold's work is about overcoming adversity in relation to historical roots and personal narrative, I would have students target a part of their identity that is oppressed in the contemporary world and has been oppressed in the historical realm to create a visual narrative. Since many comic strips are related to superheros and overcoming problems, I would have students create a storyboard using pen and collage images that connect to their story. To challenge students, the story would have to be no longer than two hours to ensure that vivid visual details about the story are included. In this way, students are encouraged to embrace their adversity and communicate how daily modern interactions still continue to suppress specific groups of people to take action for what is right. 

SOURCES:
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You can't sit around and wait for somebody to tell you who you are. You need to write it and paint it and do it.
Artwork
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Tar Beach, 1988.

Discussion Questions:

  • When has someone denied you of an opportunity? How did this make you feel?

  • How do museums make choices of whose artwork they should feature and whose they shouldn't?

  • How do the collage materials affect the message you are communicating to the viewer?

  • How would your message be different if the story was decades long as opposed to a few hours?

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