Monday, November 14, 2011

Rocket To The Moon

Romare Bearden was a famous African American artist, and this is one of his well known collages "Rocket To The Moon".  It is a collage that depicts people living in the slums, at first it looks like many have happy faces and it looks like they are having fun.  But then you can see the grim worried faces of the other people in the collage.  And at the top, almost like it should not be there, you see a rocket ship.  What this collage represents is how the country, in the past, spent all of its efforts into advances in technology and warfare.  All the while leaving the problems the people of society faces behind.

2 comments:

  1. I have studied this artist before! And your are right on point. This collage reflects the grim and oppressed lives left behind by society while people were busy with rockets and reaching the moon. How about reaching people a block from you?
    This painting definitely conveys the absurdity of today's world!

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  2. Bearden expertly addresses the question, "why are we spending billions to put three guys on the moon when we have all these social problems down here on Earth?"

    This is a great example of a mastery of both concept and execution. The fractured population in the foreground, the tilted buildings in the middle ground, and the smouldering blunt-like rocket all bring to mind human suffering. The stop light in the center of the image suggests we can't get there from here, and the black cat at the top suggests both bad luck and the social protest group the Black Panthers.

    What is left out, however, and what we need to fill in, is that the US space program, in putting men on the moon, created huge advances in technology that have found their way into things like microwave ovens, health monitoring devices, computers, and even cellphones, objects that have enriched Americans at every income level. It is said that for every dollar spent on the moon program, 3 dollars in profit to the nation came back.

    While Bearden's argument is valid, it is not the only valid argument around the issue.

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