artCentral · 417.358.4404 · PO Box 714 · 1110 East Thirteenth Street · Carthage · Missouri · 64836
  artCentralCarthage
  • HOME
    • HOURS.DIRECTIONS.MAP.COVID-19 PLAN
    • GALLERIES
    • POTTERY HOUSE
    • MEETING VENUES
    • LIBRARY
    • BOARD of DIRECTORS
    • EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-CURATOR
    • EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-CURATOR'S WISH LIST
    • COMMUNITY SUPPORTERS
    • CONTACT
  • GIVE4ART! FUND
  • EVENTS
    • 2023 CALENDAR
    • NEWSLETTER
    • JRAC · FOILED AGAIN! · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION · 3 FEB-18 MAR 2023
    • PAINT & SIP · Dec 16 · Fri · 6-8 pm
    • 2022 HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE @ HYDE HOUSE·OCT 7-DEC 3
    • 2022 SMALL WORKS | GREAT WONDERS - SILENT AUCTION FUNDRAISER - 1 OCT-4 DEC
    • 2022 CALENDAR
    • AT HOME RESOURCES for FAMILIES
    • SPIRITUAL SPACES · AL GRITTEN & SANDRA PARRILL · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION · 5 AUG-17 SEP 2022
    • artCAMP 2022 JULY 11-14 & 18-22
    • ALICE LYNN & DAVID GREENWOOD-MATHÉ - SIGNS & WONDERS EXHIBITION 1 APR-21 MAY
    • 2022 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION 3 JUNE-23 JULY
    • JRAC · VERDANT · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION · 4 FEB-12 MAR
    • 2021 CALENDAR
    • NOV 30 #GivingTuesday 2021
    • 2021 HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE @ HYDE HOUSE·DEC 3·4
    • LORI MARBLE & JO MUELLER - PIECED TOGETHER EXHIBITION 1 OCT-4 DEC
    • 2021 SMALL WORKS | GREAT WONDERS - SILENT AUCTION FUNDRAISER - 1 OCT-4 DEC
    • 2021 SCARLET AMARYLLIS FUNDRAISER SALE - 1 OCT-4 DEC
    • DEBBIE REED & RICHARD REED - METATAMORPHOSIS - EXHIBITION 6 AUG- 18 SEP
    • SIERRA HICKS · WATERCOLOR BOTANICALS · SATELLITE EXHIBITION · CARTHAGE PUBLIC LIBRARY 2021
    • 2021 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION 4 JUNE-17 JULY
    • artCAMP 2021 · SCREEN-FREE 3rd SATURDAYS
    • PHILIP LEDBETTER · PAINT IN MOTION · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION · 2 APRIL - 15 MAY 2021
    • JRAC · KALEIDOSCOPE · EXHIBITION · 5 FEB-13 MAR 2021
    • MARCH 24 · GIVE4ART! · GIVE CARTHAGE DAY
    • SCULPTURAL SPECTACULAR | JASON SHELFER | EXHIBITION
    • INA NIDAY & MARY DATUM - 2 FRIENDS EXHIBITION
    • 2020 SMALL WORKS | GREAT WONDERS - AUCTION FUNDRAISER
    • 2020 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION 21 AUG-19 SEP
    • 2019 ARTIST of the YEAR
    • JRAC · HEART & SOUL · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • JODIE SUTTON · ENCAUSTIC AUTUMN - LANDSCAPES · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL · FOUR STATE PHOTOGRAPHY ENTHUSIASTS · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • JRAC · ARTI GRAS · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • CONNIE MILLER CONVERSATIONS IN COLOR EXHIBITION · RECEPTION STUDIO WORKSHOP · MAY 11
    • The ART of QUILTING · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • JRAC · ART SPEAKS · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • JOSIE MAI · EAT ART · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION · WORKSHOPS
    • BETSY PAULY RETROSPECTIVE
    • LOWELL & APRIL DAVIS · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • SUSIE BEWICK · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • KATIE & MADDIE · BOYLAN ART & WRITING AWARD WINNERS · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • DOUG RANDALL · MINDSCAPES · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • EDWARD LEE · EAST MEETS WEST · EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
    • ANDREW W. BATCHELLER EXHIBITION · RECEPTION
  • JOIN
    • ONLINE MEMBERSHIP
    • MAIL-IN MEMBERSHIP
    • PHONE-IN MEMBERSHIP
    • BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL MEMBERS & UNDERWRITERS
    • FRIENDS
  • BOUTIQUE
    • UPSTAIRS
  • BLOG

ART NOTES | Alice Lynn Greenwood-Mathé for ArtCentralCarthage at Hyde House | on Facebook and in The Carthage Press and The Carthage Chronicle

7/5/2020

0 Comments

 

The ART of APPROPRIATION

Picture
Jean-François Millet | The Gleaners | oil | 1857
​​In art there is a long tradition of appropriation—the practice of borrowing what has come before and using that original to engage an old conversation from a new perspective.
 
My husband David recently sent me the image of a provocative painting he saw on Facebook. The painting titled “Agency Job”, an oil on canvas created in 2009 by the British artist known as Bansky, is a classic example of appropriation art.
Picture
Bansky | Agency Job | oil | 2009
​​As an introduction to his contemporary conversation, Banksy borrowed “The Gleaners”, the 1857 canvas painted in oil by Jean-François Millet. The original painting describes the activity of collecting leftover corn and other crops from farmers’ fields after the harvest. Millet depicts three French peasant women each involved in one of the three aspects of gleaning: searching for ears of corn, picking them up and tying them together in a sheaf. Their tasks were backbreaking but made an important contribution to the diet of rural workers.
 
An analysis of “The Gleaners” offered on www.visual-art-cork.com tells us:
 
“The painting's focus on the lowest ranks of rural society attracted considerable opposition from the upper classes, who were upset by its artistic pretentiousness and its social radicalism, and linked it with the growing Socialist movement. ‘The Gleaners’ was however accepted for display at the annual Salon of the Academy and was greatly admired by French republicans for its dignified and realistic appreciation of the rural poor.
 
Millet paid close attention to the “Gleaners” composition, using artful devices to imbue his subjects with a simple but monumental grandeur. The angled light of the setting sun accentuates the sculptural quality of the gleaners, while their set expressions and thick, heavy features tend to emphasize the burdensome nature of their work. Furthermore, these figures, bent double and toiling in the darkened foreground, are set against a warm pastoral background scene of harvesters—with their haystacks, cart and sheaves of wheat—reaping a rich harvest. The contrast between abundance and scarcity, and between light and shadow, is cleverly used by Millet to emphasize the class divide. And the remoteness of the landlord class is also highlighted by the blurry image of the landlord's foreman, sitting on a horse in the remote distance (right).”
Picture
Bansky | Agency Job | detail | oil | 2009

Appropriating “The Gleaners” for his own artistic purposes, as though tearing a page out of history, Banksy left a raw-edged hole in Millet’s painting when he removed one of the bending women and repositioned her.

​“Agency Job” features Banksy’s cut out of the woman smoking a cigarette as she takes a break from her field work while sitting on the frame of Millet’s painting. By way of his 2009 appropriation and alterations, Banksy created his contemporary spin and social comment on an age old theme—the plight of those seen as an underclass.
 
The conversation Bansky broached over a decade ago is once again in media headlines and in the chants of protestors—“Black Lives Matter!” Banksy insists we pay attention. When we do pay attention we will see and find Millet’s original message.
“Millet had been deeply affected by the 1848 revolutions and their promise of democracy. Becoming the first European painter to portray the peasantry, a doomed class impoverished by advancing capitalism, he was castigated by the bourgeois class.”
 
In Millet’s calm imagery of the 'Gleaners' he declares that there are signs that the world can be changed into a better place—that change is coming. The white vest and red and blue hats of the gleaners form the three colours of the Tricolour—the flag of the French Republic and the symbol of popular Revolution in France - as captured for instance in "Liberty Leading the People” (1830) by Delacroix.
 
For us as citizens of a nation that flies the Red, White and Blue, is not Bansky offering the same message delivered by bold French artists almost two centuries ago?
Picture
Eugène Delacroix | Liberty Leading the People | oil | 1830
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    ​​

    ​

    ​​

    ​Author
    ALICE LYNN GREENWOOD-MATHÉ
    Executive Director-
    ​Curator


    artCENTRAL
    for the love of Art &
    ​
    for the love of Artists

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

HOME      EVENTS     JOIN     GIVE! 4ART FUND     BOUTIQUE      BLOG

© 2014 artcentralcarthage.org · All Rights Reserved · artCentral · 417.358.4404 · 1110 East Thirteenth Street · Carthage · Missouri · 64836