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| Affirmative Action by Jerry Kearns |
When I was first looking around the Palmer Museum I saw a lot of different
pieces that caught my eye.
I went around
taking pictures and writing descriptions of everything, but I knew right when I
saw the painting
Affirmative Action by
Jerry Kearns that it was the one that I would do my blog post on.
This piece caught my attention for a few
different reasons.
To start off, it
might have been less elaborate and colorful than the other ones, but it said so
much more.
It wasn’t just a painting, it
was an argument.
The first thing that I
thought about when I saw this piece was women’s rights.
With a little more research, I discovered that
the artist of this painting, Jerry Kearns, was a cultural activist.
He takes issues that he is passionate about
and makes statements through his art.
Kearns got is MFA degree from UC Santa Barbra and won the Rome Prize for
Sculpture in the same year.
Shortly
after he joined a multitude of different activist organizations and continued
to speak through his art.
Today his work
is displayed throughout 33 different museums and public collections.
Kearns was an American
artist and he was born in 1942.
A year
after his birth the view on women in the workforce changed dramatically.
It was during World War II and there were
tons of new factories opened to produce weapons.
When it was time for the soldiers to be
deployed the companies realized that they didn’t have enough workers to
continue with the amount of production that they needed.
The government came out with “Rosie the
Riveter”, the ideal working women, to lure women into the workforce.
This painting is quite
similar to Rosie the Riveter.
The woman
portrayed in
Affirmative Action is a
strong, hard working woman.
The look on
her face makes her appear determined to accomplish whatever comes her way.
She is shoveling dirt which is not an ideal
job.
She is doing the dirty work while
still dressing to impress.
At the time
when this was painted, many people saw women as always having to look nice. They
not only had to look good but they were also expected to, not only take care of
the household, but also take on a job.
Another thing to point out is the perspective of the painting.
The woman is a giant in comparison to the red
and yellow cityscape behind her.
This makes
her seem like she is, once again, very determined.
She is ‘on top of the world’ and nothing can
stop her.
The colors that Kearns chose
for the background are ones that represent anger and energy.
All of these things together make for an awfully
moving piece of art.
I chose this painting
mostly because I am a firm believer in women’s rights.
Not only should women be able to work the
same jobs as men, but they should be treated equally.
In the era that this was painted women
couldn’t even compete with men for jobs.
A lot has changed since then but things are still not equal; there are
still some women who are getting paid less to do the same exact job as men.
This piece of art makes a very strong
statement against what I believe to be an extremely relevant issue.
Overall, my experience at
the Palmer Museum was enlightening.
It
is interesting to see how different people express themselves in different
ways.
Some people express themselves
verbally but these artists have a way of speaking through their art.
There were a variety of different pieces from
paintings to sculptures to drawing, but they all had something to offer.
I never thought of myself as a “museum-goer”,
but I would consider visiting other museums after my trip through the Palmer.
Sources: http://oneartworld.com/artists/J/Jerry%20Kearns.html
http://www.nps.gov/pwro/collection/website/rosie.htm
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