Frederick Douglass In Art?
After viewing Jacob Lawrence's Art
addressing Frederick Douglass, what are you thinking about the artists
message and how it depicts Frederick Douglass and his message? Please
respond by 2:30p.m. on Wed., Mar. 22nd.
posted by Greg T at Wednesday, March 22, 2017
7 Comments:
I think that the artist is trying to portray the struggles that Frederick and his peers went through to get out of slavery. He showed them not having a lot of facial detail, which could mean that they are all people regardless of what they look like. I think that he portrays this in a very good way. It was a new way to see images that I had only imagined in my head.
Jacob Lawrence's art serves as an illustration to The Life of Frederick Douglass and depict the most important scenes in the novel. For instance, the first piece of artwork shows the scene where Frederick Douglass defeats Covey and his entourage in a fight. Douglass describes this moment in the novel as an incredibly liberating moment in his life as a slave, and a turning point that granted him the will to live. Another moment shows the actual planning of the first escape, one that lands Douglass in jail and leaves everyone around him weary of association with him. The artwork shows Douglass leading the other three men in a plan, and shows him as the mastermind of the escape.
All of the art shown depicts Lawrence's perception of the novel and how Douglass acts. It is interesting that he shows all the scenes from the fight with Covey forward, in doing so emphasizing the latter part of Douglass' career as a slave and his transition into a free man.
After viewing these images that this artist has created. I feel that these pictures captured the moment without words, but with visual emotion. The first image truly shows the turning point in Fredrick Douglas life when he finally retaliated against his slave owner with his own power. This image makes that scene in the book look more impactful, with the combination of writing and imagery of course. This artist creates such impactful images, that I feel I can "relate" to how he is feeling and the struggles he is encountering. There isn't much to say when I look at pictures, but these pictures really use colors to speak volumes to the eyes that are looking at these pictures. The majority of these images speaks a message that Douglas would be by showing emotion. Fredrick Douglas wasn't a person in his writing to act upon his feelings. He would just observe and say things, while these pictures show that he did act upon many things, but even thought the many things were slave related things. He still acted upon it, and through the end. He made it out.
I think that Jacob Lawrence is trying to explain and portray Fredrick's life and the struggles he and his fellow slaves faced. Lawrence drew pictures showing his daily life, to the days planing his escape, to when he during his escape. Then even has pictures from his life after he escaped. All of the art shown depicts Lawrence's perception of the novel and how Douglass acts. Its interesting all of the things that he focused on and painted. Lawrence creates such impactful images that really show you there emotions.
The artist seems to depict Fredrick Douglass' journey as a very dark and challenging one. Douglass had many struggles and they were shown in Lawrence's art. The art really stresses that there was a lots of struggle and challenge throughout Douglass' story. The pictures use color to help and display these feelings and emotions.
I think this artist depicts Fredrick Douglass as a regular person, because of the way he interpreted the faces of everybody in the photos. I think its very empowering to see Fredrick depicted as a regular person, because it shows that everybody as the power to do something great with there life. Also, the images capture a better picture in my head about what Fredrick really went through.
I think that after seeing these images I feel so shocked on how perfectly the artist captured all the core moments. The first image shows the moment that defined Frederick Douglass forever. After that image or that moment, it was all about Frederick Douglas regaining the power of his own life. All these images make everything in the book look very shocking especially to someone who hasn't read the book at all. All these images show the color connected to the emotion of how hard this would have been for Frederick Douglass. Most of these images show a message that Douglas was showing in his book. Emotion. They connect to the reality of what is like to feel enslaved.
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