Contemporary artists
In looking for some contemporary artists who might work well with my main focus, how an artist's personal identify informs their work and how the historical and cultural context of that artist informs their work, I had some difficulty. I could think of many contemporary artists who exemplified the idea of personal identity informing work but I struggled with deciding on an artist(s) who exemplified how historical and cultural context informs artwork. But while looking at artists, I realized that what I was struggling against was the differences in the times periods. I was trying to, in essence, make a round peg fit in a square hole. During Edmonia Lewis' time, Neoclassical sculpture was not only the predominant form of art but was truly the only option. To be successful, one had to work within that style. Thus everyone did. "Paradoxically, the art of her [Edmonia Lewis] day demanding a style, Neoclassicism, that made the work of one artist virtually indistinguishable from that of another." 36 What I kept looking for was a predominant style that was reflective of 2014 that my potential artist(s) would be working within. Then I had the aha moment, where I came to terms with why I was struggling to find an artist that was fitting my ideas…it was because there isn't a prescribed style. Contemporary art is very much about being individualistic, using any subject, any media, and any style. It is about novelty and uniqueness. This concept is so very different from Edmonia Lewis' time. I believe by explaining contemporary art in contrast to Edmonia Lewis, my students will actually gain a better understanding of the cultural context of art making in 2014.
Since I no longer felt constrained to find an artist or artists who was working within a specific style, I realized that many contemporary artists could be used in this unit because so much of contemporary art is about personal identity. So I selected three artists, all of whom have some parallelism to Edmonia Lewis. They are Kara Walker, Yinka Shonibare and Kehinde Wiley. All three use their personal identities in their work and all three look to history and other art for inspiration, much like Edmonia Lewis copying famous statues and using poetry and historic figures for inspiration.
Kara Walker
Born in 1969, focuses on gender, race, class and sexuality in her work. She is most well known for her instillation pieces where she uses cut black paper silhouettes, depicting, what seems at first glance, scenes from the antebellum south. But upon closer inspection, many of the images have strong violence, in an almost bizarrely fantastical way. Many of her images are not suitable for middle school students, so I will be very careful in selecting which ones to share with my students. Kara Walker is a female African American artist who deals with race and gender issues in her work and has a very specific point of view.
Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare, born in 1962, deals with cultural identity, race, class and colonialism is his work. He is well known for his installation pieces that use brightly patterned "African" textiles, which are actually Dutch wax printed cotton. In his work, he explores his dual identity, British and Nigerian. Born in England, he lived in Nigeria from a large part of his childhood. He also, in some work, references Western European art.
Kehinde Wiley
A graduate from Yale, born in 1977, Kehinde Wiley is known for his large scale, realistic painting of African American men depicted in heroic poses from Western European art history. Dealing with class and race, He poses his models, who are not trained models but people off of the street, in traditional poses found in Old Master paintings depicting royalty, nobility and aristocrats.
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