Interpretation of "The Family 1941"
Write a short interpretation of Romare Bearden's painting, “The Family 1941.” Make sure to use specific evidence in the painting to support your interpretation. Don't forget THE TWO MAGIC QUESTIONS: What's going on in this picture? What tells me that? Keep using those questions to refine your interpretation as you go. GRADING CRITERIA: I'm looking to see that you develop your inferences with evidence from the painting. Be sure to keep returning to evidence in the painting to support your inferences. NOTE: There is NO RIGHT ANSWER~! This is practice in critical thinking. I'm not expecting you to be a professional art critic. I'm looking to see how you exercise your critical mind, specifically regarding inferencesand evidence. Jump in and don't worry that it has to be a perfect. This is where you get to practice in advance of a more formal, academic essay.
Interpretation of "The Family 1941” by Romare Bearden
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The picture has an African American family consisting of a man, wife and their child, with the husband seemingly raising his hand as if to object to something being said or prove a point. The family sits around the table, with the mother holding the child, and there is a fork, salt shaker and potato which show that the family is humble. Nonetheless, Bearden seeks to show the family’s routine with the painting seemingly abstract. In the picture, the father, mother and child occupy more space than other elements, showing that the family 1941 depicted social relations in African American families.
In the painting, the family members have faces resembling masks and this could be the artist’s experimentation with style, but there are elements of cubism in the painting. Focusing on the family and the surrounding shows that Bearden intended to show the African American family to be like the typical family in America. The father’s hand gesture draws attention to the painting whereby he occupies the bigger part of the table. The m...