Visiting The Wadsworth

Wadsworth Museum

December 8, 2017

My trip to the Wadsworth Atheneum physically showed me how much art is able to write, change, and influence history. One of the first pieces I saw was a picture of a black activist named Angela Davis. Except, it wasn’t really her photo. The description next to the piece told me how after being falsely charged with kidnapping and murder, Davis’s image was shown to the public after giving her an afro and placing a gun in her hands. This fabricated image of a radical feminist/racial activist helped to create the new stereotype for black women. Another image that shocked me was a photograph of a bookshelf holding books titled, “The adventures of a an African Slaver,” “Sapphira and the slave girl,” “History of the Negro Race and Bible Defense of Slavery,” and many more similarly titled. Books like these helped to normalize slavery in early America. Calling the actions of a slaver, ‘adventures,’ seems absolutely ridiculous today, but probably intrigued many young whites at the time. In a museum where each little piece tells a bit a history, there was too much to take in.

In the exhibit of images in nature scenes, one stuck out to me. It was a beautiful image of ‘Reverend Thomas Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness in 1636 from Plymouth to Hartford.’ The image shows them traveling in a beautiful atmosphere in the sun across the land. It imitates the biblical story of the ‘Flight into Egypt,’ portraying the American colonists as equivalent to God’s chosen people fleeing evil ruling. Every piece of art is created for some reason. Those I found in the museum left me with a sinking feeling in my stomach when I realized that is what many people had as influence. Because making art is free both in cost and law, it gives power to anyone who uses it to their advantage. Art tells not just a story, but a history.

   By: MelissaScanlon

Takeaways​ from the Amistad Exhibit

 Predictions:

I predict that when visiting the Wadsworth Museum, much of the art in the museum will offer insight into the lifestyle and issues I have learned about during school already. As it is a school trip, it probably ties into our curriculum and will most likely involve events such as slavery, women’s rights, or possibly politics (such as the party systems). The museum is an art museum so I predict that the events will be visually represented in detail, but I am wondering how accurate the depictions will be when compared to the authentic history.

 

During

The Wadsworth museum was founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth. The museum possesses around 50,000 works of art spanning through multiple time periods in history. The main focus we had put on the trip was towards African American history and culture. Many artifacts and paintings helped us take a look at important events, cultures, and personal accounts of daily life.

 

An integral part of the experience on our trip to the Wadsworth was the Amistad exhibit on African American history. Most of the pieces were produced around the mid 19^th century to the late 20^th century and represented primarily the, what would be the current time period. Many of the pieces of art were used to show many of the struggles African Americans survived, such as slavery, discrimination, and prosecution. Some artifacts showed white peoples representation or fascination of the black community in similar connotation as observing a displaced animal. This misrepresentation may influence historical memory negatively and, without the proper understanding of the time period, may cause an inaccurate interpretation of the time period. The Wadsworth museum may show a triumphant and patriotic identity of America as a whole, but when focusing on solely the Amistad exhibit, it represents the dark and immoral identity America possessed during the 18^th and 19^th century of intolerance. While this accurate representation of an American identity may be clearly understood as a dark and embarrassing trait to most viewers, the exhibit does a good job at presenting it in a way that the viewer can form his/her own opinion about the pieces. The exhibit does this by displaying the pieces with descriptions that offer no opinion nor interpretation of their own.

 

Questions:

1. Are there any existing pieces of art that display a different representation of African Americans, from that time period? If so, in what way are African Americans represented?
2. How influential were the pieces of art in the formation of prejudices during that time period?

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art reveals the influence of African Americans throughout American history. The art in the museum uncovers a better perspective on the history of the people of African descent in America. The museum includes profound information about the impact of African Americans on American culture, society, traditions and lifestyle. Visiting the museum gave me a greater insight on the African American experience. The Wadsworth Museum and its exhibitions not only commemorate African American arts and literature, but also honor their fight for freedom and equality.

American Identity is represented at this Museum because it encompasses several of the most valued American beliefs and ideals. American Identity has been defined by the common values and ideologies; freedom, liberty democracy, equality, justice and opportunity are amongst the values and beliefs that define an American. The art in the museum depicts the battle of African Americans to achieve equality. The piece of art “White Squad, 1987” by Leon Golub epitomizes the African American struggle for liberty and freedom of speech by displaying a black man with an expressions of overwhelming fear and anguish; this piece of art helps us understand how the cruel inequality and injustice of the government immensely impacted the lives of African Americans throughout American history. How can a nation, founded on freedom, justice and equality, not realize their own falseness and duplicity towards the principle values and beliefs on which their nation was established? The struggles of this time period, in which people of color were considered beneath whites, and sometimes not even considered as Americans, were also represented through landscapes; “A Passing Storm in the Adirondacks” by Sanford Robinson Gifford represents not only the turmoil of America during the Civil War, but also the suffering of African Americans during this period by displaying an approaching storm with a burst of sunlight from behind a cloud.

Moreover, apart from the impacting art describing the challenges that African Americans endured throughout American history, the museum also celebrates the many African American accomplishments and how they overcame the unjust circumstances of their time period. For example, “The First Vote, 1867” and “Voting By Ballot in the United States, 1872” display black men exercising their right to vote, which reveal the increasing equality later in the nation. These pieces of art represent the growing democracy in the nation and reveal some of the principle values and beliefs that define American Identity. The museum further honors the African American influence of American history by displaying several historic documents that reveal the success and accomplishments of African Americans regarding American culture, economy, and politics. The “Thirty-ninth Season Jubilee Quartet, 1910” is a pamphlet that describes the success of a music group of black men; this reveals the increasing equality in the nation, further representing American Identity, and the influence of African Americans on American culture. Considering the history of persisting segregation and racism in America, how were people like the men on this music group perceived by the nation, or perhaps, by the government? Both the sacrifice and accomplishments of African Americans throughout American history is conveyed through many pieces of art and literature at the museum. The pieces of art in the Wadsworth Museum gave me a better insight on the influence and importance of African American descent on American history.

Reconstruction of African Americans after the Civil War in Art

Predictions about The Wadsworth Museum of Art

Since we are learning about the reconstruction of African American after the civil war are we going to see paintings from that era and see the different perspectives from citizens during the time period?

Are we going to learn about the civil right movement and see how African Americans lives changed during that time period.

After the civil war, there was hope that the lives of slaves would change drastically, however that wasn’t the case because oppression continued against African Americans.  African Americans were singled out of America in many ways through Politics, Voting, Segregation, hate groups, and much more which all culminated into Racism. At my visit to the Wadsworth Museum of Art in Hartford CT, I personally witnessed the different points of view towards African Americans within Art. In one painting made by Leon Golub, there is a man who is leaning down and being held at gunpoint to the back of his head by a white male. This painting truly exemplifies the inequities of state power exercise, further displaying a sense of hierarchy for the whites who ran the state government during the reconstruction era. In another painting done by an unidentified artist there is a black man who is going to vote in 1872, however everyone in the room mocks and smirks at him, but he stands high and mighty because the 15^th amendment gave him the right to vote. Though in the 1870’s there were many legal boundaries in the state that disallowed African Americans to vote and put many restrictions on them. Once again this painting demonstrates the oppression against African Americans during the 1870’s, but the African American community stood strong. In another painting by an identified artist in 1900 presents white men who portrayed as African people better known as black face, which disrespected African American through discrimination of their anatomy and the actions they supposedly took sparking stereotypes against African Americans, moreover, whites used this as entertainment for others, adding to the oppression against African Americans and how not much had changed in the aspect of civil rights after the civil war. Within these paintings, one can realize that identity of African Americans didn’t change much between the 1860’s and 1870’s. Many believed that civil rights would prosper after the civil war, but sadly it did not, however, change arose during the civil rights movement.

Visit to Wadsworth Museum

What was / is the intended narrative of the place you visited? Or, what historical memory does it convey? 

When visiting the Wadsworth Museum, many historical memories were conveyed. The main historical memory shown consisted of the history of African Americans in the U.S. There were many paintings displayed of important pieces of American History for the African American culture.

How might the intended narrative of the place you visited influence the memory of the historical event, person, movement, etc. being depicted?

The intended narrative of Wadsworth influenced the memory of the movement for abolition of slavery, and Black equality. First, there was a painting of the Uncle Tom’s Cabin novel. This painting emphasized one of the major impacts on the movement of anti-slavery, where the novel made many citizens at the time despise the concept of slavery.

In what ways does your site represent American identity, intentionally or not, and what does it have to say about it? Consider class, culture, economics, ethnicity, gender, geography, history, politics, race, religion, and values.

The site we visited stressed the representation of American identity intentionally. For race, it displayed a document from the story Twelve Years a Slave. The document emphasized the hostility that even free black men would suffer from, where Solomon as a free black man was deceived into becoming a slave. Wadsworth also displayed the major differences in classes in America. When viewing the images displayed, there was a obvious difference in class, and one’s wealth was easily depicted.

On the topic of values, which ones were present at your site and in what ways?

The topic of values in America was a very important part of the art displayed in the Wadsworth Museum. One important example of this was an image of a volunteer black man in the civil war. Despite all the segregation the African Americans suffered, many fought hard for their freedom in the war. Another example of the topic of values shown were the many painting of America’s beauty. The artists of these images valued America so highly, that they gave the country an extremely pleasing appearance.

Over the course of your entry, raise two questions sparked by something encountered at your site.

1. What were the Confederacy’s views on the many anti-slavery pieces of art, were they offended by them at all?
2. Despite the many paintings displaying America’s beauty, were there as many paintings that were the opposite?

 

Wadsworth Blog

Thomas Martin

US History

Mr. Zavisza

12/13/17

 

Predictions

• We will observe different pieces of art from American History
• There will be pieces of artwork we observe that we can directly relate back to the classroom

 

This past Friday my class and I visited the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is the oldest operating public art museum in the United States. Going into this experience the only information I had on the Museum was what I had learned from the museum website. The first and most influential exhibit we explored was the Armistead exhibit. This exhibit was compiled of pieces of art from the 18^th and 19^th centuries that focused on slavery and civil rights. It was very interesting to observe the different types of artwork that were present and the message behind them. The most moving piece of artwork I observed while on this visit was a wooden carving of slaves. This carving depicted slaves chained and cramped down into a very uncomfortable position while being taken from Africa on a boat during the slave trade. It really symbolized what the entire exhibit was trying to show whether it was social injustice or the oppression of African Americans as a whole. I was able to make a connection back to the history classroom when I saw a poster for the books Uncle Toms Cabin and Twelve Years a Slave. It was very cool to see that something we were learning about in class was present at Wadsworth. I believe the purpose behind the Armistead Exhibit was to remind us of the dark parts of history our country has endured and to bring awareness to the issue. This exhibit showed values of strength and perseverance. It showed the oppression of African Americans, but also had examples as to how they were able to overcome the hardships and fight back for equality. Overall, my experience at Wadsworth was very influential and I would love to go back.

 

 

Questions

1. How do different age, gender, and race groups view the exhibit differently from each other?
2. What were the artists intended message behind the artwork that was present?
   

   

Reilly Connors Wadsworth Blog

 

Reilly Connors

December 13, 2017

B1

Predictions:

We will be able to look at art work that connects to early 1800 hot topics that we learned about in class.
We will be examining artwork/documents that should do with slavery in the United States and around the world.

Observations:

Our walk through the Wadsworth Museum started off with the Amistad Center for Art and Culture. While walking through this art exhibit. It was disheartening looking at how the slaves felt and how they were treated. Its memory gave the viewers (myself and my classmates) an at depth view of these horrible times. Their historical memory influenced us grief, yet it also brought a sense of strength, in the fact that they combatted these hard times through thick and thin by never settling for failure. There were a number of significant periods they included (the slave trade and the civil rights movement), and a number of amazing people that helped strengthen black culture (James Weldon Johnson, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and countless others). The inclusion of real and non-fictional events made it all that more heartbreaking. This specific sight represents American identity by the inclusion historical race related issues that took play from the 1600s to today. These different art works made sure to convey American history by providing real implementations into the exhibit. For example, sadly, slavery was a part of our American identity and was shown by one of the pieces being a sketch that showed the construction of slaves on a ship to America. In this piece by Thomas Clark you could see the amount, and arrangement of human lives in one ship. The presentation of these pieces of artwork were meant to give you an idea of how slaves lives were treated during these periods. Another picture shown was one of the cover of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which detailed the epitome of the revolt of slavery. These two different pieces, whether we like it or not, is a part of Americas identity. As for values, civics and identity were present. Black culture was presented throughout the whole entire exhibit by including images of segregated barber shops and work in cotton fields. As for civics, the study of human rights was present by images of books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Poems of Cabin and Field, and Along This Way. These tree  pieces of writing include the endeavor for anti-slavery actions to occur in politics and government.

Questions:

1. What would be the impact of this gallery during the mid 1800’s if it was presented during this time period?
2. Do people outside of school (ages from 25+) appreciate and understand the impact of this artwork as I do?

 

Evan Akers Wadsworth Museum

Evan Akers

US History

12/7/17

Predictions:

1. I predict we will learn a great deal on African American culture in post and pre-civil war America.
2. Hopefully we will learn alot about how Connecticut looked back then through the landscapes portrayed in the paintings and other works of art
3. I also predict to see numerous art pieces depicting the life of a slave and slave culture in the 19th century.

Last week, we took a field trip to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford Connecticut. I already had a pretty good idea of what we were going to see since my Global Human Rights class visited this museum my Sophomore year. The first exhibit we explored was based on American Art, with themes of African American lives in the 19th and 20th century. One particular piece in this exhibit that I was very interested and surprised with was a blueprint  that depicted a slave ship and the amount of slaves were inhumanely and claustrophobically stuffed into these vessels. This piece conveyed the memory of Americas awful past in the slave trade, and how unfairly we treated these people. We then moved on to the next exhibit, which I believe is called “The Sublime North”. This exhibit housed beautiful landscape painting of North America and other countries like Jamaica. One painting that didn’t initially strike me as insanely beautiful or magnificent turned out to be my favorite in the exhibit. This painting depicted a valley landscape somewhere in New England. It became interesting to me when Mr. Zavisza pointed out that this landscape in the painting is now currently a reservoir. It surprised me how effortlessly we are able to completely destroy such a beautiful area and ecosystem for human benefit. This painting could be related to the current American identity of saving the environment and attempting to be more “green”. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of this painting and do not not know the title or artist, I only got a picture of this weird painting of a moon man holding up the ground.

Questions:

1. What is the purpose of building a reservoir if it destroys so much land and history?
2. Which type of person would these paintings be sold too?

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Predictions:

• Due to prior visits, I predict that we will observe exhibits which correlate with our studies on racial injustices during the late 19^th century (i.e. failure of the Reconstruction movement).
• I also believe that the exhibits may portray how racially motivated crimes were still present during the 20^th century (how it transcended throughout the last century).

Observations:

We began with an exhibit of compiled works from the Amistad Center for Art and Culture. Not only did this exhibit pay tribute to the lengthy tale concerning a group of mutinous slaves, but also it depicted racial injustices which occurred in the 19^th century. The following exhibit consisted of landscape paintings which were believed to depict the tumult within the nation (during the 19^th and 20^th century). There were differing narratives throughout both exhibits. The Amistad collections conveyed a sense of remembrance and acknowledgement of past injustices. David Washington’s intentionally crude work of art portrayed the claustrophobic and inhumane conditions of slave ships, while William Anderson’s black and white print of a barber shop spoke volumes about the apparent segregation during the mid 20^th century. Some landscape paintings blatantly depicted undertones of pride and patriotism, while others illustrated the controversial and tumultuous events occurring during the 19^th century. For example, Fredric Church’s vibrant painting of Jamaica represented a lack of unity within the nation. Both exhibits coincided with differing American identities. The first exhibit exemplified the nation’s history of racially motivated injustices and how slavery was preserved as a pinnacle of the country (a supported ideology). In some respects, the second exhibit conveyed a glorified sense of pride, while in others it showed a lack of unity within the nation.

Final Questions:

• What group of individuals would these pompous landscape paintings be tailored to?
• What motivated these artists to produce such moving and powerful works of art?

Sources: http://www.history.com/news/the-amistad-slave-rebellion-175-years-ago

Harry Raddock Wadsworth Blog

Harry Raddock

Mr. Zavisza

13 December, 2017

Museum Blog Post

On Friday December 8, we visited the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford Connecticut. I came in having a decent idea of what we would be seeing, thanks to a little googling of the galleries currently showing in the museum. The museum was a gleaming building, filled not only with art, but Christmas decorations, and carolers to match. The exhibits were clearly defined: of the two we spent the most time on, one was American art, and the other a visiting exhibition about the “sublime north.” While at first glance the two seemed to have little in common, as we delved deeper into the meanings and artists behind the creations, it became clear that the exhibits were both part of the American fabric, dedicated to telling the storied history of our country. The narrative told by both exhibits As I spent more time with the paintings, I began to see the connections tying the two exhibits to each other. One exhibit showed the mental progression of America, and its view on slaves/slavery while the other showed the physical changes in America across the same time period. Both exhibits represent a crucial time in America’s history and identity, with paintings showing a gun pointed at a kneeling black mans head, and another titled “voting by ballot.” showing a young black man surrounded in a sea of white men all staring at him. Most powerfully in my eyes, was a piece of art titled “onwards,” depicting Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington, and the famed Tuskegee Institute, famous for allowing black Americans the opportunity to get a good, sustainable job. The painting meant so much to me, because in a sea of horrific, racist art, which told the story about a horrible moment in American history, this one piece of art seemed to represent the hope that slaves never lost, that someday, somehow a younger generation would make it. Walking away from the exhibit, I was left with no questions, but rather answers, and further interest in the world of Art, and it’s powerful storytelling capabilities. One part of the exhibit did prompt a little confusion, and that was the photo of Angela Davis, titled “DKP, German Communist Party,” while I understand it showed a highly intelligent and academic black women, it seemed out of place with the rest of the exhibit, and It seemed to be the only piece that didn’t mesh with a larger network of paintings and artwork. The exhibits depicted two major American values: freedom of speech, equality (and the lack thereof in the 18th and 19th century.) The exhibit was powerful in it’s artists blunt and honest interpretation of American history. This was certainly not the “official history,” that we have come to expect, but rather for me, seemed to be a new look into an important time in American history.