Comparing and Contextualizing Two Objects
Over the years, art has remained one of the ways through which the society values, ideas, way of live, culture and norms are captured and passed on to the future generation. These paintings, drawings, pictures and sculptors have become an important way through which people understand the things that happened during different periods. The field of art has also experienced changes as new forms of arts crop up. Artists are coming up with different styles in art that help to understand the society. This discussion delineates on similarities and differences of these two forms of art. One of the art, “The flag is bleeding” (1967) by Faith Ringgold’s, and the other is a blackface form named “Darky” iconography founded by Lewis Hallam (1870). The paper further analyses these two objects to understand their significance and implication.
As stated earlier, artists come up with an object to help in sending or conveying their message across. Back in their minds, they know what they want the audience to get and therefore, they employ different artistic styles to ensure achievement of this goal. In figure 1, “The flag is bleeding”, the painter uses different colors and patterns to project her message to the audience. The colors used vary from blue, red and white with some patches of yellow. Color is one of the elements of art that artist employ to help them convey the messages to the readers (Artdaily.org. 2014). Different colors are associated with different atmospheres or aspects. Therefore, selecting appropriate colors is critical for an artist in passing the message to the members of the public. The painting is representing the U.S flag and has three faces of people. One of the faces is black while the other two faces are white. The people are in different postures. The faces of the people appear to be gloomy, heightened by the red color droppings. The red dropping marks represents agony, frustration, or pain that people are going through. The woman in the middle of the painting is holding the hands of a white as well of that of the black. This is a sign that there is an effort to create some sense of unity between the two people. The disagreement can be manifest through their faces. The two appear to be not happy with each other.
The painting enhances visibility and realism. The artist appears to have used a brush to make the painting on the oil canvass. The red dropping marks illustrates that she employed or used a brush to draw the painting. On the other hand, in Figure 2 (Darky iconography), is a photography painted and used as a sheet to cover music from the 1870s to 1940. This photography disappeared in 1950s. The photograph has dark head icons with ogle eyes and inky skin. The photo contains exaggerated pink, white, or red faces of people with red lips and right, white teeth. The people in the paintings are wearing red hats. These photographs were used modestly as a common motif in entertainment, mechanical banks, and children literature and in toys and games. It was also used in cartoons and comic stripes, textiles, advertisements, postcards, in packaging and food branding and on many other consumer goods.
This form of style originated in the United States and was adopted and used as an icon. Blackface was one of the most important performance traditions in the theater industry in America as it was adopted for over a 100 years, and spread overseas. The people that used this form of style painted themselves with shoe polish that made them to appear black.
These two images have similarities in many ways. This similarities manifest in the color of the paintings. The two painting have used various colors. Some of the colors used include, black, red, light blue and yellow. Use of colors is however more exemplified in the “The flag is bleeding”. The darky photography also uses colors. The face is usually painted in black color. Therefore black is the shouting color in the darky. Color in these two paintings is essential in helping the painters to pass across the message they want to.
Another similarity in these two painting is that the tone appears to be sad. The darky painting shows the face of a person that appears to be sad and at the same time humorous. Similarly in the Flag is bleeding, the people on the United States flag are not happy. One of the people painted is holding a knife in his hand and blood is oozing indicating that the atmosphere is not calm.
The third similarity is the texture of the two painting. Both of the paintings are fine in term of their texture. The painters used soft brushes in their painting. Similarly of the two paintings is also manifest in the sage they are portraying. The interpretation of different people suggested that darky was used to represent the blacks. Similarly in the flag is bleeding the painter is showing or illustrating the suffering of the black people.
The two painting have also a number of differences in the way they are drawn and general artwork. One noticeable difference between the two pieces of at that they were created in different period. The darky preceded the red flag blooding. The red flag bleeding was created in 1960s at the time of racial discrimination. The darky on the other hand, was created in 1870.
Another difference is that the red flag bleeding is painted on an oil canvas as opposed to the dark which was done on an individual in practical scene. The people are painted the back color in the face to simply or signify a certain character but in real sense, there was a hidden portrayal to the painting. Another difference is that the red flag bleeding has made colors combined. The painter used different colors, red signify the blood; the flag refers to the failure of the government to uphold to its responsibilities. Other colors manifest in the painting influxes the patches of yellow. This color blends to for an attractive painting. The person in the darky d is painted in dark or brown to conceal the person identity. Therefore, the painting is helping the paints to achieve their objectives.
Lines are used on a large scale in drawings objects compared to the darky. Lines in the painting are clear as they help to give the outline of the objects and structure. The flag of the United States is exemplified through the use of lens and color that the flag has as a sense of its reality. The paintings are also projected defiantly. The red flag bleeding has pictures of the people in the backgrounds of the painting compare to the darky. The techniques employed by the artists therefore are aimed at enhancing the perspective and making the painting to sand out.
Even though the two images vary in the periods used, they are important in helping to understand the concept of racisms. Racism is one of the problems that have affected the people of United States for many decades. Racism is looking down upon people from a certain community based on their color. The white majority discriminated the blacks and the Indians based on their color of skin. Blacks were the majority victims as they were perceived to be salves and uncivilized (Stowe, 1994). These stereotypes therefore widened the rifts between the two communities, causing rivalry. The black Americans were discriminated in terms of accessibility to education and health facilities. They were also limited accessibility to use and visit certain public places such as buses and restaurants. The society was torn apart because of the color of skin.
The black face images characterized the later 1800s and early 1900s and received mixed reactions on its uses. When this form of style was adopted, it was not at first viewed as intriguing or assaulting the black America people. It played an important role in shaping the perceptions and the prejudices of the black people in particular (Black history, 2014). Some of the social commentators argue that this form of style provided an outlet for the whites’ fear of unknown, and at the same time it was a socially acceptable way they expressed their feelings and fears about control and race. Hence, was one way that the whites employed to show their dominance over the blacks. They wanted to indicate that they had the powers to control the blacks by using such style in their arts and music photos (Au, 2002). Most of the blacks were used as slaves by the whites and therefore, they had no powers to defend themselves. They were despised and looked down upon as inferiors and uncivilized people. Therefore, to portray this powers, the whites adopted this style of representation to show their mighty and strength over the blacks. The cartoons and the funny portrayals that is much exaggerated was aimed to demean the blacks as they could not stand up and oppose such portrayals.
Even as this kind of style continued to gain prominence, it reached at some point when the public became sensitive about the aspect of racism. In the earlier years, the style was used in disguise, as most of the blacks were not aware of its intentions. The increased rate of discrimination and racism made people to begin to think and ponder about the representation of this style (Artdaily.org. 2014). The perception of the people about race change and the photos were associated with bigotry and racism, leading to their ban. Increased lobbying by the human right activists aggravated the ban.
The quest to ensure racist free society did not stop as anti-racist groups continued to lobby for the freedom and equity of all the people regardless of their color of skin. In the 1960s, the level of racism became rife and this triggered more human activism to also come out to lobby and to agitate for the equal rights of all the members of the society.
Art continued to be used in the society and by the human right activists to demand for the rights of all the people regardless of their color of skin. Therefore, this saw employment of different avenues to help in informing them about the dangers of discrimination based on the color of the skin. One of the most famous pieces of paintings was the Faith Ringgold painting named, “the flag is bleeding” (Artdaily.org. 2014). The painting was done in 1967 and as the name suggests, it shows the way the people are being treated. The bleeding flag is symbolic and well literally represented. The painting shows the flag bleeding through the droppings of red colors scattered. The flag belongs to the U.S and it indicates the racism that is ailing the society. This symbolically means that the artist is passing across the message on racism. The black Americans are at the center of this oppression and mistreatment and therefore, they are experiencing problems and suffering.
The African blacks have been affected greatly by the racism. The artist is acting as the mirror of the society through her artwork. She is agitating and speaking for the voiceless that are discriminated and subjected to unnecessary mistreatment. The U.S government has the obligation of ensuring that it stamps out the evil of racism and ensure that it protects is citizens without favoritism. The people of the U.S are all important as they all contribute to the growth of the nation, and they are not required to be discriminated and looked down upon (Artdaily.org. 2014). The artwork serves to help liberalize the black Americans. The blacks could not vote and elect their leaders; they could not attend to good schools and could not get certain jobs just because of their color of skins. Hence, through this artwork, the artists speak and aim to defend the blacks in the U.S. Her voice is therefore through the piece of art. The artist has also done a number of arts or paintings which aim at pointing out the atrocities and the mistakes characterizing the society. Some of the piece of art includes American people (1962-1967) and Black Light (1967-1969), which explore on the artist’s experiences of racial conflict in the U.S. They further explore on the black and whites conditions and on how the blacks felt or perceive the aspect of integration. In another piece of work, Flag for the moon: Die nigger (1969), the artist used images of the U.S flag and placed the word ‘Die’ behind the stars of the flag and ‘nigger’ within the stripes, indicating the hidden evils of the American society through her own experiences living in U.S as a black woman. The history of this artist indicates her determination and dedication to end racism. The kind of the artwork she has ventured is an indication of her wish to ensure that the society becomes a better place. The experiences she has also gone through as a black Americans indicates the level of mistreatment and her quest to approach the problem head-on. Her determination and portrayals of the problem through these pieces of paintings contributed to greater magnitude in reducing the problem of racism. Therefore, it is an indication that art is a very strong medium to influence behavior and change people attitude.
In conclusion, painting and art is a very strong avenue of commutation and representing the ideals of the society. The two-piece of arts analyzed are similar to certain level through their portrayals and the messages they convey to the readers. The painting “the flag is bleeding” is a clear illustration and portrayal of the agony and the suffering the blacks went through as well manifest the use of various elements of art. Similarities I these forms of art is the use of color and other forms of art. The difference is in which lines are adopted and the variety of colors used.

Reference list
Artdaily.org. 2014, ‘Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s are the Focus of an Exhibition,’ Retrieved from: http://artdaily.com/news/40753/Faith-Ringgold-s-Paintings-of-the- 1960s-are–the-Focus-of-an-Exhibition
Au, S 2002, ‘Ballet and Modern Dance,’ 2nd ed. London: Thames & Hudson.
Black history, 2014, ‘Blackface,’ Retrieved from: http://blackhistory.com/content/61585/blackface
Stowe, D 1994, ‘Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America,’ Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 131–132.

Figure 1: Faith Ringgold, The Flag is Bleeding, (1967)

Figure 2: Lewis Hallam, “Darky” iconography (1870).