Word: visualizes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
They did not, however, believe it about their own culture, especially in the field of "high" visual art. The American public, between 1900 and 1950, was distinctly timid about appreciating the work of American artists, and to modernist ones it could be quite hostile. What worked in favor of the art, in the end, was the insatiable appetite for the new that had been built into European America's social contract ever since the Puritans came to Massachusetts to create the New Jerusalem. To Americans between 1900 and 1950, however, the idea of an American Century in the arts--other...
Rarely will you find anyone so passionate about her life's work as May Stevens, artist, feminist and political activist. She may look petite, but her ideas are overpowering and inspiring qualities inherent to her visual artistry...
...series of paintings influenced by her two "mothers"--her "real" mother, Irish Catholic housewife Alice Stevens, and her "spiritual" mother, Jewish revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg--Stevens creates an emotionally-charged vision of her two main inspirations. Through visual means, Stevens strives to bring Rosa closer to herself in spirit, thus developing a sense of intimacy that she lacks in her relationship with Alice. At the same time, she creates distance between herself and Alice in an effort to separate herself somewhat from experiencing her mother's continual suffering. Her exploration of Rosa and Alice in various settings accentuates the contradictory...
Steven's endeavors to recreate emotions about Alice and Rosa seem to climax in "Forming of the Fifth International," her visual fantasy of an imagined conversation that takes place between her two mothers. The women are placed side by side in a picturesque landscape, as though they are pleasantly enjoying each other's company. The peculiarity of this painting, however, lies in the dichotomy in character of the two figures--one being vocal and active, the other mute and passive. This opposition is a source of false tension and unrealized emotion that does not quite work as well...
Taken by Julia Kristeva's words about women's desire and by Virginia Woolf's ideas about the oppression of women and self-realization through work, Stevens entered another phase in which she merged visual and literary artistry into her paintings. "Sea of Words" is one product of her experimentation. Four faceless women are presented in skiffs, struggling against a blur of repeated words accented in gold and white lettering a metaphor for women activists who are struggling to go somewhere, to achieve some goal. According to Stevens, using words is like employing "another tool, another color." Indeed, this method...