Visual Description and Original Ideas on Dan Halter and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's Paintings

Visual Analysis Paper
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Visual Analysis Paper
Artists use different techniques in bringing the idea behind their pieces of work. The same is seen in the arts of Dan Halter and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith whom I obtained their works from the museum. The works were made for different purposes. However, they have some similarities regarding their meanings and other features. Therefore, this work gives a visual description of the pieces, the biographies of the artists, and their comparative meanings by demonstrating the original ideas about the images.
The work of Halter is made of used plastic materials which have been collected from the surrounding. The image is small in size and is of different colors. Moreover, the shape of the work is oval and the image looks light because of the materials used in making the art. Also, the colors of the plastic used to form the oval seem to be randomly placed. Moreover, the oval looks like a solid item which has been placed in the museum for display. However, Smith’s work is a painting which is created on a canvas. The artist makes a drawing of a series of circles that diverge from the center of the painting starting from a smaller circle at the center and the sizes of the next circles increase towards the edge of the piece of work. Moreover, the painting comprises of different colors which give a shining lustre. Also, the painting is large in size as it is made on a canvas of large dimensions. Additionally, the canvas over which the painting is made is rectangular in shape and is light in weight.
The artists have different biographies as they are not related in any way. First, Dan Halter was born in Zimbabwe in 1977 by Swiss parents. During the period, the country was known as Rhodesia and was not recognized until later when the name was changed to the Republic of Zimbabwe (Hennlich, 2016). Currently, Halter lives in South Africa after moving from Zimbabwe where he grew up. The artists graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa with a BAFA. Moreover, he has resided in Turin, Zurich, Scotland, Cologne, and Rio de Janeiro where he continued with his artwork. The experience obtained from the different places where he had stayed in while doing his artwork aids him in making the pieces of work which have received global recognition.
Contrarily, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was a Native American born in 1940. Around the 1970s when she was in her 30s, Smith started doing paintings to earn a living before completing a master degree in fine arts at the University of Mexico which is located in Albuquerque. Moreover, she founded artists groups during the time which aimed at expressing their concern about their Native land and native people. Further, Smith has made several achievements in the past 35 years which include claiming more than 75 solo exhibitions and attending a sizeable number of international shows (Tyquiengco, 2018). Apparently, her work has drawn people attention to given issues that are affecting their community such as alcoholism, environmental preservation, gender stereotyping, and racial problems. Generally, most of her artworks include signs of money to depict that everything in the US is for sale. However, she combines other iconic forms to reflect both the Native and Western cultures.
The two pieces of works are similar in several ways. First, the works reflect the artists’ political concern. Halter’s art shows the ideas of a dislocated national identity and the post-colonial politics of Zimbabwe with a larger African context. The major issues of concern addressed by the work include dislocated identity, migration, and displacement. Generally, the plastic mesh bags which are cheaply produced reflect the ones which are often carried by the refugees. During the colonial era, the foreigners invaded the African communities and snatched them their resources such as land. As a result, most people were displaced from their lands and forced to move to other regions. This act of dislocation resulted in loss identities as communities mixed which are reflected in the Halter’s work. Similarly, Smith’s work shows the concern of the American aboriginals where they felt that they were snatched their lands by the White settlers. Ideally, the art was created at the time when there was tension in the nation as the Native people tried to speak out their concerns so that they can be addressed. Therefore, both the works have political meaning and they reflect the concerns of the artists regarding the action of the White settlers whom they felt deprived them of their resources, and also contributed to the loss of their identity through immigration.
Further, the works have several similar features such as the use of different colors in making them which also depict almost the same meaning as intended by the artists. Halter, uses different colors as a symbol that every country is differentiated by color with sharply outlined boundaries. The idea is to show the movement of immigrants to different nations, thereby creating a mixture of a population. Further, the use of different colors indicates that identity is defined by a combination of experiences and memories and not by one nation. Therefore, those who moved to the different countries as a result of immigration assumed the new identity because of the memories and experie...