#Emancipation Sculpture

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1882 – Unveiling of O’Connell monument in Dublin.

One of Dublin’s finest sculptors, John Henry Foley designed this imposing and remarkably beautiful memorial to Daniel O’Connell which was unveiled at the south end of what was called Sackville street – the name was changed to O’Connell street in 1924 – to admiring crowds gathered in the pouring rain on 15 August 1882. In 1829, Daniel O’Connell, known as the ‘Liberator’, had achieved through…

[rabbitcruiser]

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Today we honor and remember those who suffered and died as a result of slavery: the victims of the transatlantic slave trade. As many as 15 million men, women, and children were cramped in slave ships, devoid of sanitation and any basic necessities, as part of the trade. Upon arrival at their destination, they faced a new life of perennial hardship and suffering. Enslaved Africans were spread all over the world, but most were sent to the Americas. Ninety-Six percent of those held captive on the coast of Africa were sent to South America and the Caribbean Islands. Not only does today’s holiday honor and remember the victims, but it also keeps one foot grounded in the present, by aiming to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 62/122 on December 17, 2007. It declared the International Day of Remembrance of tBreaking the Chains by Melvin Edwardshe Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to be observed annually on March 25, beginning the following year. March 25, 2007, had previously been recognized as the International Day for the Commemoration of the Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which illustrates why March 25 was chosen as the date for today’s holiday. (The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves in the United States had been passed in 1807 and went into effect on January 1, 1808.) The resolution for today’s holiday created it to complement the already existing International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

Each year, today’s holiday has a different theme. Events are held at the United Nations Headquarters and have also been organized by United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) around the globe. Events have included discussions, visits to slave ruins, film viewings, and cultural performances. Other events apart from the United Nations have also been held around the world.

How to Observe

Here are some ways to remember victims of the transatlantic slave trade and observe the day:

Attend an event at the United Nations Headquarters or one organized by a United Nations Information Centre.

Visit The Permanent Memorial at the United Nations in Honour of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Explore resources related to the day and information about past observances.

Reflect at a slave trading site in West Africa or a southern plantation in the United States.

Visit the International Slavery Museum or the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Read a book about the transatlantic slave trade.

View a timeline of the banning of slavery and the slave trade throughout the world.

Learn more about the slave trade online at The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.

Explore UNESCO’s slave route project.

Watch a film about slavery or the slave trade, such as Amistad or 12 Years a Slave.

Watch a documentary about the transatlantic slave trade, such as “The Black Atlantic,” the first episode of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.

Source

[forthosebefore]

Freedom Monument Sculpture Park honors lives of enslaved people

For civil rights attorney and renowned social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, it’s not enough to know the history of slavery and the centuries-old struggles of Black people in America. He wants people to see it. Feel it. Touch it.

A new park in Montgomery, Alabama, was conceived to do just that, as visitors of the breathtaking Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be treated to “an immersive experience” along 17 acres above the Alabama River, which was a primary route to transport enslaved Africans during the slave trade.

The park, opening next week, will be in close proximity to two other creations led by Stevenson: the awe-inspiring Memorial to Peace and Justice, an open-air site that features 800 columns suspended from above, evoking public square lynchings, and the Legacy Museum. A few miles away in downtown Montgomery, that site uses interactive elements to tell the story of the devastation of slavery, Jim Crow, violence and mass incarceration.

Located at 831 Walker Street, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be part of the Equality Justice Institute’s Legacy Sites, which also include The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, both which opened in 2018. A $5 admission includes all three parks and a free shuttle runs between the sites. 

As the center of the Civil Rights Movement, Montgomery is also home to other Black heritage sites, like the Rosa Parks Museum, Civil Rights Memorial Center, Anarcha, Lucy, Betsey Monument, Dexter Avenue King Baptist Memorial Church, Freedom Rides Museum, and Dr. Richard Harris House.

Source: NBC News, Travel + Leisure

Visit www.attawellsummer.com/forthosebefore to learn more about Black history.

Need a freelance graphic designer or illustrator? Send me an email.

[coochiequeens]

Finally I'm able share some good news

Wild festivals, exquisite fruit-bowls and unusually realistic renderings of motherhood and female friendship – not to mention a glimpse of Lady Hamilton as an enthusiastic follower of Bacchus – will go on show in Madrid on Tuesday as one of the country’s most famous galleries seeks to spike the patriarchal canon of art history with a new, and avowedly feminist, exhibition.

The show at the Thyssen-Bornemisza – called simply Maestras (Women Masters) – uses almost 100 paintings, lithographs and sculptures to show how female artists from the late 16th to the early 20th centuries won recognition in their own lifetimes, only to find their works forgotten, erased or consigned to dusty storerooms.

Organised into eight chronological sections that reflect artistic and social changes, Maestras also explores how female artists, gallerists and patrons worked together to create and celebrate art while living and working in the grip and gaze of sexist, and often misogynistic, societies.

Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, The Shoe Shop, 1911. Photograph: Elyse Allen/© Art Resource, New York Scala, Florence

Seventeenth-century works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Fede Galizia and Elisabetta Sirani give way to still lifes of fruit and flowers before the exhibition moves to portraits – including Élisabeth Louise Vigeé Le Brun’s Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante – and then to Orientalism, depictions of working women, images of maternity, sisterhood and, finally, to images of female emancipation.

Among the show’s early exhibits is one of Gentileschi’s anguished studies of Susanna and the Elders, while the later pieces include Mary Cassatt’s bleary-eyed Breakfast in Bed and Maruja Mallo’s playful Fair pictures.

“This exhibition speaks positively of that other half of art history,” said the exhibition’s curator, the art historian and critic Rocío de la Villa.

“For a long time, the feminist history of art has been beset by all the handicaps and obstacles that had been put in the path of female creators. For example, they couldn’t access the same artistic training that their male colleagues could. They generally lived in an extremely patriarchal system that denied them their rights and in which their signatures had no legal value.”

There were, however, “certain moments and certain places” in which conditions were more favourable to female artists, and the show aims to offer “a series of windows through which we can see a mutual understanding and a camaraderie between artists, gallery owners and patrons”.

It also reminds visitors that some talented women caught the eye of European royal courts, and that some had husbands who helped them in the studio – or even looked after their children – because they knew that their wives’ gifts far exceeded their own.

Mary Cassatt, Breakfast in Bed, 1897. Photograph: The Huntington Library, Art Museum

Guillermo Solana, the artistic director of the Thyssen-Bornemisza, said Maestras was another example of the museum’s continuing commitment to feminism, education and addressing the prejudices of the past.

“I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t do any mansplaining today but I can’t help it when it comes to explaining what I’ve learned from the process of doing this exhibition, because I’ve learned a lot,” he told journalists on Monday morning.

“The first thing I learned from this exhibition – and which I think the public will also learn – was so many new names; so many fantastic artists I’d had no idea about and had never heard of. Of course, we knew about Artemisia Gentileschi and Frida Kahlo or Paula Modersohn-Becker, but how many important artists have got away – or been taken from us?”

Frida Kahlo, Portrait of Lucha María, A Girl from Tehuacán, 1942. Photograph: akg-images/© Rafael Doniz @ 2023 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./VEGAP

De la Villa agreed. “The public is going to ask, ‘How can it be that we didn’t know about these female artists?’” she said.

“How is it that their works were in storerooms until recently? Maestras is a feminist exhibition that seeks to emphatically correct the prejudices that have come about as a result of the patriarchy – prejudices that have meant that works by female artists have remained in museum storerooms during the 20th century.”

She said the male-dominated artistic system had always sought to defend itself by denigrating female artists. Equally damaging, she added, was how historians had played down the achievements of women until their voices were silenced and their creations overlooked and then hidden from view.

“When women are hidden, or robbed of their past, they are robbed of their identity,” said De la Villa. “The power of culture is very important. It just can’t be separated from the social conditions we enjoy, or which we suffer.”

 Maestras is at the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum from 31 October to 4 February 2024

[talonabraxas]

Nataraja ॐ

The symbolism of Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer

The Cosmic Dancer The cosmic dance is the dance of life itself, including creation, preservation, destruction of the entire universe and spiritual grace to understand and go beyond to liberation.

In Hinduism, the objective of life is not to go to heaven but to attain liberation, which means to understand the true nature of ourselves beyond the ego-person that we are familiar with.

I have always wondered why dance was chosen as the art to represent this, not music, painting, poetry, sculpture or any other art. In my view, it may be because dance is the only art that cannot stand by itself without the artist.

One can observe and enjoy paintings, sculptures, poetry and even listen to music, but there is no dance without the dancer being present and visible in the moment. It is a powerful way of showing God is immanent in all of creation. The creator and creation are inseparable.

Ring of Fire

Shiva’s dance is set within a ring of cosmic fire, prabha mandala, which represents time (which destroys everything) and which is shown as a circle to symbolize the Hindu belief that time is cyclical and without end.

Within the cosmos represented by the ring of fire, the form of Nataraja is seen as comprised of five concepts:

Srishti, creation, evolution Sthiti, preservation, support Samhara, destruction, evolution Tirobhava, illusion Anugraha, release, emancipation, grace

Srishti His upper right hand holds a small hourglass shaped drum (damaru) that makes the primal sounds of creation Shrishti.

There is this interesting idea in Hinduism that creation originates as sound, as vibration. Fritjof Capra found echoes of quantum theory in this, where all matter is vibrating at the atomic level.

Here are a couple of extracts from Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics:

“The Dance of Shiva symbolizes the basis of all existence. At the same time, Shiva reminds us that the manifold forms in the world are not fundamental, but illusory and ever-changing. Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter.

“According to quantum field theory, the dance of creation and destruction is the basis of the very existence of matter. Modern physics has thus revealed that every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction. For the modern physicists then, Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter, the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena.”

In recognition of this profound and seamless bridging of mythology, religion, science and the ever-changing universe, a large bronze Nataraja stands at CERN, Switzerland, home to the Large Hadron Collider and the main home of modern research into particle physics.

Sthiti His lower right hand makes the abhaya mudra. It is the gesture of fearlessness or protection for his devotees. It also indicates preservation/support for the cosmos

Samhara His upper left hand holds a blazing flame or agni, symbolizing his power of destruction.

The way both creation and destruction are held in the dance pose signifies the balance between the two.

There is another interesting aspect of balance as well, that’s not often discussed.

Nataraja has different earrings in each ear. On the right ear is an earring in the shape of a crocodile, usually worn by men. His left ear has a traditional circular earring worn by women. The divine can be seen as male, female, both, and neither, another facet of Hinduism.

Tirobhava His right foot is on a dwarf, personifying human ego, ignorance and spiritual illusion which he keeps under control. This is the act of tirobhava or veiling — that is, reality is veiled from our understanding.

The serpent around his neck represents both our evil tendencies but also the coiled kundalini shakti within us (those interested in yoga would likely have come across the term kundalini).

Anugraha Anugraha, grace and emancipation, is indicated by the combination of the lower left hand, which points toward his upraised foot, showing the way to moksha in surrendering to the lord.

The uplifted left leg is revealing grace, which releases the mature soul from bondage. Hindus touching the feet of their elders in respect is an echo of God’s feet being considered holy.

[planet-gay-comic]

Art Nouveau, Bathhouses, and Winter Gardens Art, Body, and the Beginnings of LGBTQ+ Liberalization The Art Nouveau movement, also known as Jugendstil, developed between 1890 and 1910 as a reaction to industrial materialism and the often strict, puritanical morality of the Victorian era. Art Nouveau celebrated nature, the aesthetics of the human body, as well as the expression of emotions and individuality through organic forms, flowing lines, and floral motifs. This movement, which manifested in architecture, design, painting, and sculpture, played a crucial role in questioning and dissolving outdated societal norms. Although Art Nouveau as an independent art movement ended in the 1920s, its stylistic elements and ideas continued to influence architecture and design in the decades that followed.

The Victorian era (1837-1901) was characterized by strict morality, rigid gender roles, and a conservative view of sexuality. The body was often regarded as something shameful, and sexual openness or the recognition of LGBTQ+ relationships were socially taboo and even criminalized. Art Nouveau broke with these restrictive norms. The movement emphasized the beauty and sensuality of the human body without moral judgment. Artists such as Gustav Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, and Alfons Mucha created works that celebrated sexuality, intimacy, and the human body in ways far removed from Victorian prudery. This opened up new ways of thinking about the body, sensuality, and human connections.

In parallel with the Art Nouveau movement, luxurious bathhouses and winter gardens emerged across Europe. These spaces not only served as places for relaxation and retreat from hectic urban life but also became symbols of the interplay between nature, the body, and art. Art Nouveau bathhouses were exquisitely designed, often lavishly decorated venues where architecture, art, and the human body harmoniously merged.

Winter gardens, originally found in the homes of the wealthy upper class, were often glass oases where nature was artfully integrated into urban spaces. These spaces offered refuge from the outside world and became places of self-discovery, contemplation, and sometimes expressions of non-conforming sexual orientations.

In this era, bathhouses and similar venues often existed on the fringes of societal norms and began to take on special significance for the emerging LGBTQ+ subculture. Bathhouses, particularly in major cities like Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, became meeting places for people who sought to explore their sexual orientation in a time when homosexuality was often still suppressed or criminalized.

Bathing itself, long symbolically associated with purity and cleansing, transformed in the context of Art Nouveau into a symbol of liberation from restrictive norms. The corporeality openly displayed in these spaces provided LGBTQ+ individuals with an opportunity to meet outside the rigid societal rules and explore their identity.

The Art Nouveau movement and its associated new openness toward the body and sensuality offered artists and intellectuals a platform to advocate for the rights of individuals who deviated from the conservative norms of the time. Writers like Oscar Wilde and Magnus Hirschfeld fought for the decriminalization of homosexuality and laid the groundwork for the later liberation movements of the LGBTQ+ community.

The Art Nouveau era marked a turning point in Western culture and society. It was not only a celebration of art and nature but also an era of upheaval and emancipation from strict moral norms. Bathhouses and winter gardens became places of retreat, freedom, and intimacy, especially for those who did not fit into the rigid corset of Victorian society. The Art Nouveau movement and its associated aesthetics paved the way for new perspectives on the human body, sexuality, and the acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals in a society that was slowly but steadily changing.

Text supported by GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Image generated with SD1.5. Overworked with inpainting (SD1.5/SDXL) and composing.

[reasoningdaily]

DCist: Art Installation Calls Out Community Erasure, Past And Present

In what is now known as Metropolitan Park — created in phase one of Amazon’s headquarters in Arlington —  a red brick tower stands resolute, reminding passersby that nearly a century ago a community was erased nearby.

The simple structure, which stands 35 feet tall in an area filled with high-rises and office buildings, seems lost in time. Its red brick exterior evokes a long-past, industrial era — one similar, maybe, to the era  East Arlington residents lived in.

When visitors step inside the sculpture, they’re greeted by 903 ceramic teardrop-shaped “vessels” — one for every displaced community member.

The space is quiet, intimate and — above all — inspiring. According to Durrett, who spoke in an interview with Street Sense Media, that’s exactly the point.

“I try to leave space for the viewer to experience awe,” Durrett said. “First you see this mundane brick structure that looks like it’s from some bygone period. And then you enter the space and you’re met with something completely unexpected. The viewer then has all of these questions, and then hopefully feels inspired to find the answers and then learn this history that so many people don’t know.”

That history is a tragic one. East Arlington was a victim of displacement long before the 1940s, according to a 2011 presentation by the Arlington Public Library. Many of its residents previously lived in Freedman’s Village, a post-emancipation attempt to house enslaved people, before they were forced out by the government — this time to build the Arlington National Cemetery.

The construction of the Pentagon, at the time the largest office building in the world, initially offered a welcome source of work for men in Queen City, according to Dr. Nancy Perry’s 2014 lecture at the Arlington Historical Society.

East Arlington residents worked on the construction of the Pentagon for months before they were informed that the project would unseat them from their home, Perry said. The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington notes that Queen City was specifically displaced for construction of the transportation corridor that would ferry commuters to the Pentagon.

Without the means to move their belongings, many families were forced to leave behind almost everything they owned, according to the lecture. They fled — first to different temporary housing sites, and then to different parts of the country. Many of them never saw their neighbors again.

It was that side of the tragedy — the human suffering — that the artist said she wanted to evoke. In addition to researching the historic community, Durrett arranged a meeting with one of its last living residents. Her conversation with 92-year-old William Vollin, she said, taught her more about Queen City than archives ever could.

“Being able to identify and speak with someone who has been carrying that history since they were 12 years old further humanized the experiences that those people would have gone through,” Durrett said. “When I was speaking to [Vollin], he didn’t recount losing his home or any material possessions. What he did speak about was the loss of his community. About how he never saw most of those people ever again. He speaks about the destruction of Queen City as though it just happened yesterday.”

But the sculpture is about more than a single community, Durrett said. According to data from the housing search site Apartment List, D.C.’s cost of living is 53% higher than the national average — one of the least affordable cities in the nation.

“Queen City” tells a story of Black displacement at a time when, according to analysis by the Urban Institute, the District’s Black population has been declining for decades. The sculpture, according to Durrett, teaches more than just history.

“The value of learning that history is connecting the dots, it’s seeing how this sort of erasure persists into the present day.”

To create the 903 teardrops that line the interior of “Queen City,” each representing a displaced resident, Durrett commissioned 17 Black ceramicists from across the country.

“One thing that I asked them,” said Durrett, “was to bring forward stories of a Queen City in their own community. Each and every one of them had one.”

Although the artists might have been aware of each other’s work, this was their first opportunity to work together, Durrett said. Each ceramicist had varying abilities and experience, especially with the teardrop-shaped vessels Durrett was requesting.

This led to a “beautiful thing” happening, Durrett said. The ceramicists, rather than working independently on their portion of the commission, collaborated. Artists with more expertise met with less confident ones, creating an atmosphere of compassion and partnership.

In the process of memorializing a community, Durrett said, they had become one themselves.

“Using community, the very thing that was destroyed when East Arlington was razed, to actually create something as grand and long-lasting as ‘Queen City,’ was beautiful,” Durrett said. “It’s not just about the thing, the object — it’s about the process of making it. It’s about showing what we’re all capable of when we work together.”

[mybeingthere]

Eva Švankmajerová (1940 – 2005) was a Czech surrealist artist. 

Eva Švankmajerová (née Dvorakova) was a painter, ceramic and puppetry artist, and a writer, author of Baradla Cave which recently got translated into English. Having grown up in socialist Czechoslovakia, plastered with images of female tractor drivers and other symbols of communism, from early on Eva tackled the issue of gender stereotypes in her art. 

In Christopher Masters’ obituary in 2005, we can read that her “Emancipation Cycle parodied such paintings as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe by replacing the female characters with men;” and that later in the 1980s “she constructed a grotesque head from propaganda photographs of female labourers.” 

She was part of the Czech Surrealist group (one critic later said that she was one of the most widely known Surrealist painters of our time) and many of her paintings and sculptures were laden with eroticism and Freudian symbolism. She and Jan met in 1961 at the experimental Semafor Theatre, where they had their first joint exhibition. Three years later Eva became an art director in his first film, The Last Trick of Mr Schwarzewalde and Mr Edgar. In 1981 the couple bought a derelict château in Horní Stankov, Bohemia, which became home to various puppets from their films, and got turned into a Surrealist palace.

Eva’s input in Svankmajer’s films was invaluable. She was responsible for art direction and created animation and puppets for films like The Lesson of Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) and Little Otik (2000). In an interview with Jason Wood for the Kamera, Svankmajer emphasized how much he relied on her work: “Eva provides an authentic touch; this was very much in evidence with the puppets she helped create in Conspirators of Pleasure.” She confessed that she wouldn’t want to work with any other director despite the fact that he “made her slog.”

https://mchabocka.com/blog/artwives/

[t33nsofstyle]

1. A painting for a proposed sculpture

2.

1. A Painting for a Proposed Sculpture

2. ILLUSTRATOR

Manuel Ocampo is an artist whose work, both stylistically and thematically, has inspired my process as of late.

Best known for his Catholic Grand Guignol imagery, Ocampo once claimed to have learned his signature faux retablo style from a priest for counterfeiting purposes. Largely self-taught, he dazzled the art world with his precocity and virtuosity, leaping from a single one man show in Los Angeles in 1988 to rave reviews and participation at the Documenta and Venice and Whitney Biennials. Among his provocative subjects are ancient forms of crosses, including the swastika, a symbol that caused his expulsion from the main floor and relegation to the basement at Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany in 1992.

Ocampo’s surreal imagery begs explanation; he layers Spanish religious icons, American pop culture, local kitsch and obscure texts to illustrate Filipino post-colonial identity.

On his compositional style: “This is where I live. It’s a mess, which is why my paintings are a mess,” he claimed, starting the slide show with an aerial view of a massive Manila traffic jam, vehicles and people gridlocked in anarchy.

On his provocative subject matter: “I’m not afraid of controversy—in fact, I invite it,” he admitted, in response to a question on his intentions. “I’m saying, look at this, but don’t look at it, it’s just a painting, it is not real” —reminding the audience that his paintings are mere two-dimensional explorations, and no gods were actually harmed in the making of his art.

On his choice of medium. “I’ve always been a painter, it’s always been about how I can push painting further. I might ask people to pay attention to the pieces in ways other than conventional painting, but in the end I’m expanding the concept of what a painting is.” Ocampo was referring to his forays into installation, such as at a Los Angeles show where he stripped his paintings from their frames and laid them on the floor to be walked on, hanging one as a hammock.

On sources of inspiration. He credits his first job drawing editorial cartoons for his mother’s newsletter with his love of incorporating text in his works. He finds material literally everywhere. A postcard with the cryptic text, “comprehensive only to a few initiates,” found on the floor, was appropriated in full for a text-only painting (2000-2001). Another text that sparked a work was conceptualist John Baldessari’s quote, “Everything is purged from this painting but art, no ideas have entered this work,” which he inscribed around a Duchampian toilet, overturned and spilling intestines, in his work, Artist Examining Life Closely (1998). The work currently on exhibit, An Object at the Limits of Language—Necromantic Kippian Emancipator: No. 2 was painted in response to the death of German artist Martin Kippenberger, whose absurdist humour Ocampo greatly admires.

[meret118]

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Artist in the Age of Revolution by Laura Auricchio. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749-1803) was one of the few women artists granted membership in the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and the examples of her exquisite portraits in this book show why. But she was also important because she didn't flee France during the Revolution, but remained to help rebuild and reinvent the county and the role of women artists and art. A fascinating woman!

American Eden: David Hosak, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson. Unjustly overlooked now, Dr. David Hosak (1769-1835) was perhaps the most important physician of the early American republic, pioneering smallpox vaccinations, cancer treatments, and pharmacology. and creating an idyllic educational garden for the medicinal study of plants where Rockefeller Center now stands in New York. He was also excellent company, and friend to many of the most notable people of his time. Interesting fact: Dr. Hosack was the family physician to both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and the attending doctor at their fateful duel.

Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Dunbar. Enslaved by the most powerful man in the young United States, Ona Judge (c1773-1848) took the courageous step to run away from the Philadelphia household of George and Martha Washington. Unlike many in her situation, she succeeded in her self-emancipation - but her freedom was tested again and again as the Washingtons continued to pursue her until their deaths. A powerful, disturbing, and yet ultimately inspiring story of a once-forgotten woman.

More at the link.

[adultswim2021]

Assy McGee #2: “The Flirty Black Man” | December 3, 2006 – 11:30PM | S01E02

In this episode a famous painting “The Flirty Black Man” is stolen. The portrait was said to inspire Abraham Lincoln to draft the Emancipation Proclamation, Which is so goddamn fucking funny, the idea that Lincoln wanted to free the slaves because he had the hots for one. It’s up to Assy McGee to find the culprit, requiring him to enter the art world undercover. We don’t see him do art while undercover, he merely attends art shows and art auctions while in hot pursuit. He eventually gets a finger print from the portrait and uses magnificent artistry to sculpt an exact replica of the person whose fingerprint it belongs to. Unfortunately for Assy, he recreates the wrong guy: The artist and subject of The Flirty Black Man himself (It was a self-portrait, which is why his fingerprint was on there).

While spending 3 days on this sculpture, the case was solved without him. It’s also revealed Assy shot a hole through it when he fired at a van that contained the painting. Assy goes home and paints a magnificent self-portrait of himself with long blonde hair. Turns out Assy wasn’t going undercover as an artist because he already is one. It makes you think. 

As a long-time defender of Assy McGee, it’s nice to see that I am ABSOLUTELY FUCKING CORRECT. This episode, save for the last chunk when it admittedly did fizzle out (though the ending is very satisfying if you ask me), is EXTREMELY HILARIOUS, and maybe in the running for one of my favorite episodes of Adult Swim EVER. I laughed out loud multiple times, and even kept having to pause the episode to stop laughing. Satisfying gags and lines just kept coming, up to and including the casual use of some now-legendary slurs.  

“You’re skating on very thin ice right now.” “Sounds like the ice’s problem”, is one that took me by surprise. The next huge laugh was a joke I’d remembered previously though I got the wording for it wrong enough in my head that the actual line delighted me: Assy is at an art gallery and he looks exactly the same except he has a bowtie on: “ I can barely breathe in this penguin suit” Assy mumbles, borderline unintelligibly. Fuck, dude, that’s so fucking funny. Anyway, Assy blows his cover when he just randomly shoots a waitress in the leg for absolutely no reason. He’s so bad!

“Sleep is for fat people”. “Freeze, art f*g!”. “E-mail’s for nerds”/”E-mail’s for COPS!” I’m sorry if I’m fucking the episode up for you by listing the funniest lines, but it can’t be overstated how much I laughed at this episode. Oh, Assy McGee. Let’s hear it for you! You are nearly perfect!

MAIL BAG

do you do any shoutouts on the blog. anyone you'd like to shoutout

Yeah, I’d like to shout out Assy Mcgee for being so funny! :D

did you ever see The History of Dance video on youtube. You'll laugh your ass off if you try to watch in 2022.

I have not seen it,

[After watching it for 50 seconds]

NO THANKS

[sourkitsch]

the met is just the dregs of the gilded age larping as european nobility

While there is a lot to critique about the structure of museums & history of collecting and subsequent repatriation, these are not those claims and I won’t respond to them as such. Any museum is inherently problematic.

You know what, I don’t think you have a goddamn clue about what I talk about on here, how I’ve repeatedly gotten upset about the erasure of my own marginalized culture in art history, and how it’s an issue I care deeply about.

The Met has tried to do better against the hegemonic bullshit that is canonized art history. In the past few years it’s specifically focused on uplifting black artists, putting on exhibitions on Afrofuturism, reframing works in their collections in a new light— How do we look at Carpeaux’s emancipation sculpture vs. the work of his contemporary Edmonia Lewis, a free born black & indigenous woman? What does it mean that the entire cubist movement was built off the backs of stolen African artwork? As one of the premier institutions in the world it has a responsibility to do this. Other museums are lagging behind while they at least try. They should not get a pat on the back but since you seem to be so ignorant to the work they actually do I’ll mention it.

You don’t get to critique something if you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Fuck off and block me.

[rabbitcruiser]

Juneteenth

The  freedom of African Americans from slavery in the U.S. in 1865 is celebrated on the holiday Juneteenth on June 19. Juneteenth is made up  of the words ‘June’ and ‘nineteenth,’ and it is on this day that Major  General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas more than 155 years ago to  inform slaves that slavery had been abolished.

The  freedom of African Americans from slavery in the U.S. in 1865 is celebrated on the holiday Juneteenth on June 19. Juneteenth is made up of the words ‘June’ and ‘nineteenth,’ and it is on this day that Major  General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas more than 155 years ago to  inform slaves that slavery had been abolished.

When is Juneteenth 2024?

Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S. and commemorates African-American freedom, is observed on June 19.

History of Juneteenth

According  to the official website of the historical event, Juneteenth is ‘the  oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in  the United States.’ Other than marking a pivotal date of significance in  American history, Juneteenth also serves as an opportunity for African  Americans to cherish their culture and heritage.

More  than 155 years old, Juneteenth celebrates the liberation of African Americans from slavery in the U.S. The reason for it being celebrated on June 19 is because, on this day in 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger of the Union Army landed in Texas, he brought the news that the Civil War had ended and all slaves were free.

The  proclamation declaring the abolishment of slavery was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, in the nation’s third year  of an ongoing civil war. Known as the Emancipation Proclamation, it  declared that ‘all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State […] shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.’ Granger’s arrival at Texas was to enforce this decree, which had originally gone into effect two years earlier.

The news had come as a shock to more than 250,000 slaves in Texas who were unaware of it.

On  June 19, in the city of Galveston, Granger publicly read General Order  No. 3, which stated: ‘The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.’

As to why the news of the abolition of slavery reached Texas so late, there  are varying accounts. One story states that the messenger bearing the news was assassinated on his journey. Some historians believe that the  report on the Emancipation Proclamation was withheld by slave owners in  Texas on purpose so that they can go about their business as usual and  keep the labor force working. Historians also note that, until 1865,  Texas remained a Confederate State, so Lincoln’s proclamation could not  have been enforced until Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army and they took over.

Either way, Granger’s arrival with the grand news stirred the air with  jubilance and massive celebrations across the state. A former slave named Felix Haywood gave his recount of the first celebration in 1865 in  the book “Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas” — ‘We was all  walkin’ on golden clouds […] Everybody went wild […] We was free. Just  like that, we was free.’

Juneteenth timeline

June 19, 1865 Texas Slaves Finally Gain Their Freedom

Even  though they are officially made aware of the Emancipation Proclamation  on this day, many slaves stay with their masters as paid hands.

August 28, 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’

Martin  Luther King delivers one of history’s most inspirational speeches in  front of roughly 200,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial.

July 2, 1964 President Johnson Signs the Civil Rights Act

This act gives the federal government the power to enforce desegregation  while prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin.

1980 Texas Declares Juneteenth a State Holiday

While Texas was the first state to observe Juneteenth as a state holiday, many others have since followed suit.

June 14, 2019 Call for a National Holiday

“Boston Globe” columnist Renée Graham writes that Juneteenth deserves an elevated status, noting that many African Americans regard the nation’s July 4 holiday with deep ambivalence.

Juneteenth FAQs

Why is Juneteenth called Juneteenth?

Juneteenth  is a fusion of the words ‘June’ and ‘nineteenth.’ The emancipation of African Americans from slavery in the U.S. officially happened on June 19.

Is Juneteenth a national holiday?

The only three states yet to legally recognize Juneteenth as either a state or ceremonial holiday are Hawaii, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

What is Juneteenth and why is it important?

Juneteenth is an extremely important holiday in history, commemorating the day when the enslaved people of Texas learned that slavery had been abolished and that they are free.

How to Observe Juneteenth

Fly the Juneteenth flag

Attend a Juneteenth celebration

Watch a movie about slavery

Echoing  the red, white, and blue of the U.S. flag, the Juneteenth flag  signifies that slaves and their descendants are true Americans. A star  in the middle represents Texas, with a larger outer star representing new freedom and a new people.

Some  citizens in the southern states celebrate with readings and oral  histories of their ancestors, which is an honorable way to remember a somber period in American history. Celebrations also include cookouts, rodeos, concerts, and parades.

Recent titles include "12 Years a Slave," "Glory," Amistad" and "Django Unchained."

5 Courageous Americans Who Fought For Equality

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rosa Parks

Mildred Loving

Frederick Douglass

Dred Scott

Perhaps  the most widely recognizable name associated with the civil rights movement, Dr. King gave us the famous "I have a Dream" speech in August 1963 — his 1968 murder proved that the movement still had a lot of work to do.

With  a simple refusal to surrender her seat on a public bus, Parks made a bold statement for African Americans in the South — her December 1955  arrest inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Loving  and her husband, Richard, were jailed for unlawful cohabitation in Virginia where interracial marriage was illegal in 1958 — their case  reached the Supreme Court in 1967, which ruled unanimously in their  favor.

An escaped slave, Douglass became an advocate for the abolition of slavery as well as women's rights.

Enslaved  African American Dred Scott sued for his family's freedom in 1857 — the  Supreme Court ruled against him, finding that no person of African  ancestry could claim U.S. citizenship.

Source

[wisdomthroughtime]

The Emancipation Memorial

The Emancipation Memorial is one of the most significant and noteworthy works by Thomas Ball, located in Washington, D.C. In the statue, Abraham Lincoln is depicted holding the Emancipation Proclamation in one hand and the other placed above a sculpture of a freed African American man on one knee. The statue can be stated to symbolize the end of slavery and the role played by Abraham Lincoln in ensuring that the historic moment is realized.

The symbolic nature of the statue makes it essential in that it represents the struggle and the eventual freedom gained by African Americans. It demonstrates the fight for equality since it captures a pivotal and memorable moment in the history of the United States. There, nevertheless, are some controversies associated with the statue. For instance, the depiction of a freedman kneeling elicited vast debates because it is interpreted as an illustration of power dynamics alongside an unwarranted representation of the black population. The statue's creation was funded through donations from the representatives of the formally enslaved persons, hence demonstrating its importance as a symbol of appreciation for Lincoln.

Some appealing details of the statue include a detailed depiction or expressive imagery of the broken chains alongside the man's posture, passing a powerful message about resilience and liberation. Secondly, the statue is a reminder or an event of historical significance in addition to the continuing struggle for equality in the United States across races. The statue speaks to me through its depiction of liberation and the moment in history it represents. The posture of the man in the statue and the broken chains elicit a feeling of triumph over slavery and oppression, resonating with the theme of justice and resilience. As such, the statue raises inquiries over themes of freedom and liberation, justice, resilience, and equality or representation. It speaks to my acknowledgment of the struggles of the black population throughout history and the need to appreciate the struggles and progress made in American society.

[noisycowboyglitter]

Butterfly Juneteenth: A Symbol of Hope and Resilience in Fashion

Juneteenth, a celebration of freedom and African American culture, finds a poignant symbol in the butterfly. This pairing of Juneteenth and the butterfly creates a powerful metaphor for transformation, resilience, and hope.

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The butterfly's journey from caterpillar to chrysalis to winged beauty parallels the African American experience of moving from bondage to emancipation. Just as a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, Juneteenth commemorates the emergence of a people from the constraints of slavery into the light of freedom.

In Juneteenth celebrations, butterfly imagery might be incorporated into decorations, artwork, or even as a theme for community events. The vibrant colors of butterflies can reflect the joy and vitality of the holiday, while their delicate nature reminds us of the fragility and preciousness of freedom.

Butterflies also symbolize endurance and adaptability, qualities deeply ingrained in African American history and culture. Their ability to migrate vast distances resonates with the journeys many African Americans undertook in search of liberty and opportunity.

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Moreover, like butterflies pollinating flowers and contributing to the ecosystem, Juneteenth celebrates the numerous contributions African Americans have made to society, culture, and the nation as a whole. The butterfly in the context of Juneteenth thus becomes a multifaceted symbol of liberation, transformation, and the ongoing journey toward equality and justice.

African Pride Afro Black Women embody strength, beauty, and resilience. These women celebrate their heritage and natural features, particularly their iconic afro hairstyles, which have become powerful symbols of cultural identity and self-love.

Their pride is rooted in a rich history of overcoming adversity and challenging beauty standards that often excluded them. By embracing their natural hair texture and African features, they make a bold statement about self-acceptance and cultural affirmation.

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These women are diverse, representing various shades, sizes, and backgrounds within the African diaspora. They are leaders, innovators, artists, and changemakers who continue to break barriers and inspire future generations.

African Pride Afro Black Women are not just defining beauty on their own terms; they're reshaping societal norms, advocating for representation, and fostering a sense of community and empowerment among Black women worldwide.

Butterfly remembrance gifts offer a gentle way to honor departed loved ones. These thoughtful items often feature delicate butterfly motifs symbolizing transformation and hope. From personalized jewelry to garden sculptures, these gifts provide comfort to those grieving. They serve as beautiful reminders of cherished memories

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and the enduring nature of love. Butterfly-themed candle holders, wind chimes, or memorial stones can create peaceful spaces for reflection. These gifts embody the idea that, like a butterfly's metamorphosis, our loved ones have transformed but live on in our hearts.

[eternal--returned]

In one of the greatest articles ever written by an art historian, his 'Mozarabic to Romanesque in Silos' of 1939, Schapiro saw in this contradiction a higher correspondence to the role of conflict in historical change itself. As the manuscript reduced human beings and imaginary creatures to two-dimensional diagrams set against flat bands of brilliant color, its style harked back to a mental state of unquestioning belief in the supernatural. By contrast, Schapiro regarded the sculpture as speaking to the changing needs of the Church in its accommodation of growing secular interests and energies. The argument conformed to a schema of progressive historical emancipation, whereby the secular naturalism of the cloister's sculpted pillars—pointing toward the human-centered ethos of the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras to come—would be deemed cognitively and ethically superior to the supernaturalist pictograms that had come before.

Thomas Crow ֍ "Illuminations Past and Present in the Painting of Mark Rothko." Toward Clarity (2019)