Post 3 - Breaking rules

One of the works that caught my attention from the Angels and Tomboys exhibition currently at the Newark Museum was "A Sure Shot" from John George Brown. The painting shows a break of the rules of painting girls as girls in the 19th century. Girls were usually painted with a lot of symbols that symbolized fertility and their role as women in society.

John George Brown, on the other hand, painted girls as free individuals that played the way they liked to play and not the way society expected them to play. The girl in "A Sure Shot" is not depicted as a fragile and innocent girl from the 19th century. She's outside excited to see her brother, who's holding a gun probably about to kill a bird. It seems like she wants to be the one holding the gun. Brown definitely makes us think about gender role in society at the time. The work can be interpreted as a step forward for women in history.

From the Modernist era, Dada was also known for the break of rules. It was a rejection of the traditional. Dada represented the opposite and was purposely offensive. Many times, Dada artists used scandalous objects as work of art in order to redefine the nature of artistic experience.

Dada artists such as Marcel Duchamp wanted to change the traditional way viewers looked at art. In "Fountain," Duchamp shows an unexpected object as art. He reconceptualizes ordinary objects by placing them out of their natural environment so the viewer would actually notice and pay closer attention to the usually unnoticed object. Duchamp wanted to shock the viewer. "Fountain" was considered very controversial and was rejected at the time for the suggestive idea of reproductive/sexual organs.

Both works are revolutionary. It's the break of the traditional. They both attempt to open minds to the world. They symbolize a step forward in history for society since both artists make us think and see things with a new perspective.



The Newark Museum Website - Angels and Tomboys exhinition
http://www.newarkmuseum.org/angelsandtomboys.html


Hunter, Sam, John Jacobus, and Daniel Wheeler. Modern Art. Third ed. New York: 

Prentice Hall, 2004. Print.