American University Visual Analysis of Blue Morning Painting Essay follow the visual analysis of a painting paper to write a research paper. we need the ev

American University Visual Analysis of Blue Morning Painting Essay follow the visual analysis of a painting paper to write a research paper. we need the evident to prove it. and it goona be a historical analysis paper. the painting’s name is Blue morning which is created by george bellows. and here is the sample and my paper Visual Analysis of a Painting
Blue Morning by George Bellows is an oil-on-canvas painting made in 1909. This artwork is
displayed in the Chester Dale Collection in the National Gallery of Art. The painting depicts
workers in a construction project with the background being high rise city buildings. The
workers in the foreground are involved in various construction activities as evidenced by smoke,
the use of a hammer, and a worker who stands next to a crane. In Blue Morning, Bellows
consistently emphasized the contrast between the foreground work site and the background city
through composition, color, and texture to portray the class differences between the working
class laborers and the middle-class city citizen.
The subject and composition of the painting create contrast between the foreground and the
background hence emphasizing class differences. The main subject of the work is the activities
of the workers in the foreground. This is created by the fact that the huge stone or heap, is the
focus of several workers and it is placed in the middle of the painting. Towards the right end and
left end, other workers are involved in construction work. This foreground is contrasted from the
background where huge buildings stand in the city. This composition creates a difference
between the on-going work in the foreground and the city living in the background. The
workplace is the subject for the painting hence the workers are also an object of focus. This
presentation of composition emphasizes the difference between the workplace and the high-rise
city in the background.
3)In addition to composition, the painting presents realistic proportions and natural poses for
the workers to create a realistic image of everyday life. The painting is framed by the overhead
train line as the upper frame and the ground as the lower frame. This produces a realistic image
from the painter’s point of view. The buildings in the background, though diminished, are
realistic in proportion compared to the workers in the foreground. The involvement of workers in
their construction work presents a natural pose for each. One worker casually sits on the lowly
hedge before the worksite. These depictions are realistic with workers being portrayed as in
usual activity. This portrayal seeks to bring out a realistic everyday image of the construction site
and highlight the normalcy of different social classes. With the bustling city in the background, it
is business as usual for these workers and their pose suggests that they are at ease with their job
and position in society hence the normalized class differences.
4) Moreover, Bellows used a clever blend of lines and space to focus the attention of the viewer
on the workers and create the contrast with the background. The most dominant lines are
horizontal and vertical hence creating a scene emphasizing the structures present. The overhead
railway makes a thick line at the top frame of the painting while one of its support structures
makes a vertical line a third way off the right frame. These lines contextualize the setting as the
backyards of the city. The buildings in the background are represented using both horizontal and
vertical lines hence forming a space between the railway and the city. This space is the
workspace of the workers and hence lines are used to enhance it. This blend of lines to create the
sense of space emphasizes the space occupied by the workers as construction workers and
contrasts it from the distant space in the background. In a way, the painting creates isolation for
the workers who are active in a space that is isolated from the rest of urban space in the
background. The setting next to a railway line shows that the workers carry out their project in a
space that is isolated from the business of the city and emphasizes the difference between these
workers and the people of the city only left to the imagination of the viewer.
5(The combination of colors and the dominance of the blue color create a barrier between the
site of the workers and the city in the background hence showing the difference between the two.
One of the most notable aspects of the painting is the dominant blue ‘sheet’ covering most of the
picture in between the workers and the city behind. This blue color alludes to the title of the
painting and produces meaning in creating separation between the workers and the city. Bellows
creatively obscures the background in the left upper corner to expose an otherwise sunny city in
the background. The city is represented by tan, brown, and even white colors for buildings hence
depicting the city as having a brilliant morning. This presentation is contrasted by the dull blue
and black colors occupying the scene of focus. This contrast could be telling a story of difference
between the site and the city. For this site, the morning is ‘blue’ showing gloom while the city’s
morning is brilliant. This play with colors shows that the workers may be undergoing hardships
that regular city dwellers do not experience in the background.
As with the choice of colors, Bellows used light and shadow to create gloom in the foreground
while depicting brilliance in the background. The area closest to the bottom frame is shaded by
the shadow of the overhead railway hence maintaining a dark appearance. Similarly, the use of
dark tones to represent objects in the foreground such as the huge rock which workers seem to be
working on creates a shadowy appearance. Moreover, dark shadows of the workers and activities
are indicated on the ground while in the background, the lighting is brighter with no shadows.
The workers appear to be in a darker space than the city behind them. The use of dark shadows
in the foreground helps to highlight the apparent differences between the workers’ world in the
site and the seemingly thriving city in the background. Class differences between laborers and
middle-class city dwellers are thus shown through contrast and lighting.
6) Lastly, the texture of the painting is seen through the thick brush strokes of the workers and
their environment to portray crudity and hardship. The focal point of the painting is the workers
in the foreground and their immediate environment. In this case, the texture of their painting is
rough whereby the author has used thick layers to paint their clothes as well as the work they are
engaged in. The thick layers portray a rough and crude image of the workers and their tasks. This
is opposed to the light brush strokes representing the background blue ‘veil’ and the city beyond
it. By portraying a crude image of the workers, the artist evidently emphasized the hardship they
are undergoing working in the site. The rough texture portrays hardship in the forefront while
distinguishing it from smooth-sailing city life in the background.
Through color, composition, and texture, Bellows creates comparison between the seemingly
struggling working class and the luxurious middle-class life in the background. The focus of this
painting was to depict the work site and compare it with the distant city in the background. To do
so, the author trained the viewers’ sight on the workers but also maintained awareness of the
background. Visual aspects used show the foreground as crude and dull while the background is
brilliant and promising. This contrast can be interpreted as showing the existent class differences
between workers and middle-class city dwellers. The painting can be seen as a critique of society
and how social classes dominate and are normalized in America.
Visual-Historical Analysis:
Susan Hauptman’s Copper Self-Portrait With Dog, 2001
The elusive complexity of identity makes self-exploration a longstanding process that has
enthralled great minds for generations. Identity has been explored through a variety of manners
and mediums, one of which is art. Countless artists have used their craft to explore and question
their own identities. One such artist, known for realistic, nearly photographic self-portraits was
Susan Hauptman. Hauptman, a former New York based artist, worked on paper with charcoal
and pastel to render unflinchingly detailed self-portraits. These portraits presented Hauptman
accurately, with androgynes features and the natural marks of age on her face. However, the
Susan Hauptman depicted in her works sported a variety of hyper-feminine clothing or
‘identities.’ Like many artists, Hauptman used her craft to both display and explore her own
identity and its possible fluidity. One work by Hauptman, Copper Self-Portrait With Dog, hangs
in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. This work, completed in 2001, depicts
Hauptman in a manner consistent with her other portraits, that is, with androgynous features: a
bald head and no makeup. In the work she wears feminine attire including a frilly blouse and
skirt, flats, and a church hat. The assertion made in the previous visual analysis, that Hauptman’s
work depicted the self as flawed, was not incorrect but rather incomplete. Here I will argue,
based on my visual observations and my research, that Copper Self-Portrait With Dog
demonstrates the artist’s self as imperfect. Yet Hauptman pushes against concepts of
binary/female gender norms to demonstrate a journey of self-revelation that resonates with the
historical moment. This journey is expressed both through visual realism, such as with the
portrait-like facial features, and experimentation that departs from it.
The state of the art scene in New York at the time of the work’s creation – the 2000s –
illuminates aspects of gendered identity exploration that are relevant to Hauptman’s Copper SelfPortrait With Dog: this investigation allows us to understand the values and principles that are
reflected in the artist’s work, for art of this time often reflected the realities of the world. These
realities included economic downfall, effects of the AIDS epidemic, and culture wars. In reaction
to these and other struggles, art was used as a means of protest. Art often “reflected the realities
of the day, good and bad, with a new kind of content: politically informed, activist in spirit, often
self-consciously ethnic in reference.”1 Some of these values may be seen in Copper Self-Portrait
With Dog. In the work, the question of binary gender expression through a juxtaposition of
feminine elements against an androgynous physical appearance may be described as ‘politically
informed’ and ‘activist in spirit.’ Though Hauptman’s work is more in reference to her own selfrevelation than a social statement, it remains ‘activist in nature.’ Especially during this time,
gender binaries were expected to be rigidly followed. According to the politics of the time,
women looked a certain way and men looked a certain way. There was no room for
interpretation. By presenting a different form of femininity Hauptman consequently questioned
the binary nature of gender and demonstrated its fluidity. Lastly, the concept of postmodernism
emerged in the late-20th-century. This postmodernist style seems to be present in much of
Hauptman’s work, including Copper Self-Portrait With Dog. For context, postmodernism is
1
Cotter, Holland. “Decade in Art: Fairs, Ethnicity, Looting and Technology.” The New York Times, The
New York Times, 31 Dec. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/arts/design/03shift.html.
2
defined as an artistic style, “that demonstrates a distrust of major theories or ideologies and a
problematical relationship with any notion of art.” This style was noted in Hauptman’s works
largely through the dramatic shift in costumes Hauptman depicted herself in, according to the
San Diego Union Tribune2. For example, in Copper Self-Portrait With Dog she wore ruffled and
slightly ill-fitting women’s dress clothes while in another work, L’après-midi d’un faune selfportrait, she sports a ballet tutu. The ‘distrust of major theories’ she demonstrated was, as
expressed earlier, the assumed rigid nature of gender, identity, and feminine expressions of
beauty.
The background and color palette of Copper Self-Portrait With Dog demonstrates
Hauptman’s use of art for self-exploration and reflection, while also reflecting the general tone
of the work and subject matter. Hauptman’s work lacks background scenery or color. Instead, the
artist manipulates shading techniques to create the illusion of a background or a kind of spotlight.
This allusive quality of her works was common, even in still lifes. In reference to one of
Hauptman’s still lifes one book states, “the illusionistic textures in the drawing are a result of a
mastery handling of values. Although Hauptman’s drawing is representational, it is highly
subjective; an atmosphere of mystery pervades the work,” according to Drawing a
Contemporary Approach3. In, Copper Self-Portrait With Dog, the shadows are darkest around
the bottom and edges of the work; creating a kind of spotlight around the primary figure. As
Hauptman used her works for her own self reflections on her womanhood and identity, a
background would only distract. Standing by the visual analysis, background colors or scenery
could be used by viewers to identify and ultimately label the figure, further explaining their
purposeful exclusion by Hauptman. Additionally, as a self-portrait artist Hauptman spent years
closely studying herself in the mirror. When examining oneself in the mirror your face is clear
and sharp while the surroundings are left blurry and secondary. This is demonstrated through
Hauptman’s work. The artist’s face is extremely detailed while the background is left as
secondary. Further, the color palate of, Copper Self-Portrait With Dog, is primarily white and
grey. These somber colors reflect the tone of the subject matter and (as previously stated) the
realities of the time. Societies strict expectation of women to appear a certain way is not positive,
so to depict it with bright colors would be unrepresentative of reality. Further, Hauptman is
intended to appear uncomfortable and sombered by the feminine clothing that does not fit with
her own expression of womanhood. Lastly, the background and shading is illogical as no one
light source is clear. In a description of a similar work, Avampato Online Gallery4 wrote, “at
first, the shadows, highlights and textures seem appropriate, but there is actually no single light
source, which gives the work a spellbinding and mysterious quality.” This same technique is
used in Copper Self-Portrait With Dog. Combined with other disjointed and illogical elements,
the work gives off a mysterious and even chaotic quality. This disjointed quality contrasts the
photo realism Hauptman uses to depict her face and further demonstrates the elusiveness and
arbitrary nature of feminine identity/expectations.
San Diego Union Tribune. “Susan Hauptman Sees Her Many Selves.” Lux Art Institute, 13 Dec. 2009,
www.luxartinstitute.org/news/susan-hauptman-sees-her-many-selves/.
3
Sale, Teel, and Claudia Betti. Cengage Advantage Books: Drawing: A Contemporary Approach. sixth
ed., Cengage Learning, 2010.
4
“Artist Profile .” Avampato Online Gallery, Sunrise Collectors Club,
www.avampatoart.com/profiles/susan-hauptman.pdf.
2
3
The only other figure in Copper Self-Portrait With Dog is the dog, which after research
seems to have been used by Hauptman for a myriad of purposes. The dog is used as another
gender identifier, another identity for Hauptman to explore, and to further demonstrate the self as
imperfect. The previous analysis, that the dog is overly idealistic to contrast with Hauptman’s
realistic depiction, stands. The dog is a small, white, fluffy puppy. It seems perfect, which
actually causes it to fall into the background. With the in-depth, imperfect, and interesting
depiction of Hauptman’s self the dog feels inconsequential. It appears to be a flat character
intended to highlight the imperfections in Hauptman’s portrayal. The dog is placed separate from
the figure. However, this separate depiction has a different purpose than previously
hypothesized. Originally, the visual analysis suggested the dog’s separate depiction was intended
to prevent the audience from labeling Hauptman. Research has discovered that this separation
further demonstrates the fluidity of identity and femininity. A small, puffy, perfect, dog has long
been connected to wealthy and traditionally feminine women (like Beverly Hills women).
Images of wealthy and conventionally attractive women strolling with fluffy little puppies have
been present in photography, art, and film for generations. So, the dog in Copper Self-Portrait
With Dog is likely used by Hauptman as another hyper-feminine element to juxtaposed against
her androgynous features as a way to further question gender binaries. Finally, Hauptman often
depicted herself as ‘trying on’ different identities in her work. From a ballerina to a clown to a
fancy women with a little dog. The dog is used to demonstrate yet another identity but is kept
separate to remind the audience that this is not Hauptman’s self but merely a costume. The
clothes Hauptman depicts herself in serve a similar purpose.
Hauptman uses her clothes to explore her own fluidity identity and to question
expectations of femininity. Hauptman depicts herself in ‘nice’ or formal clothing; ruffles, a skirt,
and a flowery hat. However, the outfit lacks cohesion and sits ill-fitting and awkward on the
subject. As described by Allison Malafronte, “Repeated themes in many self-portraits Hauptman
created were her identity as a women- specifically the juxtaposition of how she saw herself and
her gender verses what society saw and expected.”5 Hauptman’s androgynous features represent
how the artist saw herself as a women while the frilly clothes and fluffy dog represent what
society expected from her. The two contrast so starkly to demonstrate that this expectation is ill
fitting and unimportant. Further, the clothes and dog remain detached to distinguish between the
two; her gender identity/express versus society’s expectation. Hauptman’s depiction of herself
could be likened to Barbie. Barbie is one women’s whose features do not change. However, give
her a stethoscope and she is a doctor. Place a veil on her head and she is a bride. The accessories
she is depicted with morph her identity and how she is perceived by the audience while her
features remain the stagnant. Perhaps Hauptman is aware of this similarity and comments on
society’s expectation of women to be like dolls; pretty, nice, quiet, and neatly/easily molded.
Overall, the clothes depicted in Copper Self-Portrait With Dog stand as a signifier of femininity
(as expected by society), and are contrasted again Hauptman’s androgynous and imperfect
features in order to question gender binaries and expectations.
Hauptman’s questions of gender identity and expressions in Copper Self-Portrait With
Dog bring to mind Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. This theory is evoked by
5
Malafronte, Allison. “Susan Hauptman: Delicacy and Daring.” Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies
Center, American Arts Quarterly, 2016, www.nccsc.net/essays/susan-hauptman-delicacy-anddaring.
4
Hauptman’s work, whether purposefully or by coincidence. In Performative Acts and Gender
Constitution: An Essay In Phenomenology and Feminist Theory, Butler demonstrates her theory
of gender performativity explaining that, “gender is an act which has been rehearsed, much as a
script survives the particular actors who make use of it, but which requires individual actors in
order to be actualized and reproduced as reality once again.”6 Basically, Butler suggests that sex
and gender are separate and have no biological connection. Sex is the scientific anatomy people
are born with while gender is the idea of what it means to be a gir…
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