PS1

The work I will be describing for my review is the first one on the top left made by John T. Riddle 1934- 2002. 

This 3D sculpture is untitled and consists of a steel rake, where the rake's teeth are bent to a fist, on top of a wooden plinth. The rake's handle makes a vertical line which implies strength and power. It has for positive space the rake and the plinth and for negative space the background. The actual texture of Riddle's work is smooth. He makes this sculpture representational and monochromatic with different values of brown to make of the handle an african-american person's arm, and the rake's teeth their hand and fingers. Because it is monochromatic is has a sense of unity to it blending the steel and the wood together in the shape of a human's arm and hand. The fist is a symbol of the black power movement as well as a left-wing activist symbol of solidarity. The message I read from Riddle's work is that african-americans are willing to work hard for the defense against racial oppression and that they are proud of their race. And that together they have a lot of power. I believe he chose the rake because it is a tool of sweat hard work. 

The other work of art I selected is called Angela and it was made around 1970 by an unknown artist. 

Angela is black charcoal chiaroscuro drawing on a beige paper of the political activist and Black Panther affiliate Angela Davis who was arrested on charges of the kidnapping and murder of a judge in California. She was the face of activism and was proven innocent in 1972. 

Angela is a portrait made with geometric and organic shapes and it consists of a 2D work made with dry media. She is an african-american young woman with a beautiful big and dense afro hair. The drawing is of her face, neck and shoulders and it takes almost the whole piece of paper. The focal point of the drawing are her eyes. Looking at them it seems she has a lot going on in her mind. In them there is definitely pain. She looks a little confused yet there is strength to her. She looks brave. Her lips are pinched together softly making it looks like she wants to cry. Her head is slightly down and she is looking slightly up as in a submissive posture to the law or maybe the judge that is on her case or even to the fate that brought her misery and suffer. There is implied light on her cheeks and nose and her hair is so dense it has a rough implied texture. There is pattern on the lines of her jacket that goes all the way to her neck so the art work was probably made in the winter. Angela is a representational work that is not in harmony with the rule of thirds and she is drawn right in the middle of the paper. Angela is the positive space and the beige back ground is the negative space.