Old and New
- sarahdanhops
- Sep 5, 2021
- 3 min read
My image of the couple in the middle of the crowd, where the couple is in color, and the background is black and white, represents the “Old and New” theme for this unit by showing my audience a couple from today being placed in a 1940’s setting with people surrounding them. My goal for this project was to portray this couple in a time when it wasn’t socially acceptable, and the color of the couple represents the life and happiness of being able to publicly show love, no matter what, and the black and white background represents how closed off and judgmental society was towards same-sex couples in the mid-1900s. So, being able to show these differences through the feeling of colors is my goal.
I was inspired by Alexey Kondakov where he would use people from old classical paintings and position them in modern settings from around the world today. A good example of Kondakov’s work is seen in Early Morning |Spring Mood where a man is standing on top of a car, which wouldn’t have existed in the era when the man was originally painted.
(Kondakov)
I wanted to do something similar but also show a sense of growth seen in society about the LGBTQ+ community. Which I was able to show by making the couple colored, because same-sex couples are more socially acceptable today than they were, and the background not colored, because same-sex couples were not socially acceptable then. So, placing a modern-day couple in an old mid-1900s setting helped me as the artist portray my idea.
The principle of design I used in the form of my piece is emphasis. When first looking at my image, the eyes immediately track to the couple in the middle of the piece because they are positioned in full color. The color of the couple contrasts with the black and white background, creating this emphasis of color and LGBTQ+ representative in my piece. The second piece I created was along the same idea, but I think my first piece with the modern couple in the olden times speaks louder regarding the truth than my second piece which is putting an old same-sex couple in modern times, creating a happier emotion. Thus, my first piece is a great example of emphasis, because we see how happy the couple is when they are able to publicly be together than when they weren’t allowed to show their affection publicly without being assaulted.
When learning more about emphasis, I noticed Kehinde Wiley used emphasis in a few of his pieces, where he would make the main focus of his piece a person/model and then create this background that would make a lovely contrast to the person. For example, the painting he made of Barack Obama.
(Wiley)
In this piece, Barack Obama is the main attraction, with the background creating this patterned but solid color to help Obama stand out in the painting. He is also positioned in the center of the painting which catches the eye immediately and with the bright green background contrasting against his suit and chair. Using this piece as a reference for my image, I know creating a contrast and including color where I want the focus to be, would help my piece embody the principle of design of emphasis.
Bibliography
Kondakov, Alexey. Early Morning | Spring Mood. 2021. https://www.instagram.com/p/CL4Hz2iFPAX/
Wiley, Kehinde. President Barack Obama. 2018.
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