Devayanie Singh

U.S History

Evolution of Society

The painting, ‘Still Life Number 36 (1964), by Tom Wesselmann, was done on found paper, with oil and acrylic on linen. It was separated into four painted parts and put together to make a complete painting. This piece comprised a huge glass of milk, an enormous sandwich, a giant pack of cigarettes, some discarded commercial billboards that were scavenged from trash cans, and what looks like a clipping of a picture of the countryside. Tom Wesselmann’s creation was influenced by modern society and the changes that are happening. The interpretation of this piece is that the artist put different pieces of life and making art, as he believes that anything can be art. These kinds of paintings tell the artist is unique and wants to make the world better for everyone. The colors that he uses reflect his personality. With the use of such bright and bold colors, you can conclude that the person is confident with his work. He works with these colors to make his work stand out and become recognized. As I was walking around on the 7th floor of the museum, there were all these small paintings, and small videos being displayed but, when I reached towards the end, there it was, an enormous painting, almost like a wall divider. This painting not only bigger than the others, but it is also unusual. In my opinion, the surrounding art pieces are all influenced by the changes in society over time. Thus the name of the paper. The surrounding pieces include art pieces that are influenced by the role of women in society. Some of these art pieces that are influenced by women express different aspects of a woman’s life. Also during this time, the role of women in society began to change. I think that this was also an influence on these art pieces. One of the surrounding pieces includes four women and a dog, by Marisol. This piece of artwork is not made up of regular women nor a regular dog. The women, some of them have multiple faces, dressed differently, but they are all square blocks. Two of the adult women had several faces, and the other had an oddly shaped head with a picture as her face. Women with different faces denoted the different personalities that people express in society. These different faces can also express the different emotions that human beings express. The other piece that consisted of women was an artwork by Allan D’Arcangelo and it is called Madonna and child from 1963. It was acrylic and gesso on canvas. This piece, as the name says, consists of a woman and a child, however, they are both faceless. However, judging from their postures and given clothes, they are upper-middle-class people. The colors in this piece are used according to the personality of the characters. For the kid, the artist used a color that was lighter and more fresh color, he used light blue. As for the adult, he used a more dense and mature color, he used crimson. There are also halos around their heads. The final piece of art that had a main feminine character was the painting by Rosalyn Drexler. It is an acrylic and silver gelatin photograph on canvas. This piece of work was a collage that was painted over, to create the current image. The artist said that her source images were “hidden but present like a disturbing memory.” this tells us that the artist has some kind of emotional approach when it comes to this particular piece of work. This art piece was about Marilyn Monroe and her bodyguard fleeing from paparazzi in tow. This piece can also be connected with the changes in society because women in ancient times were inferior to men but in modern times, the role of women in society was advanced. The other creations, that were surrounding the ‘Still Life Number 36’ were not physically connected but had individuality. The other three pieces of work that were an abstraction, ‘Little Big Painting’ (1965), by Roy Lichtenstein, ‘Elvis 2 Times’ (1963) by Andy Warhol, and ‘Three Flags’ (1958) by Jasper Johns. The abstraction was flat on the canvas, even if you look closely, you cannot see any brush lines, not a trace of the artist. He was able to imitate the work of the generation that preceded him, but with his personal touch. He was able to create an abstract that was bold and very powerful composition. The background of this abstract was dotted to create a reference to modern mechanical devices. Roy Lichtenstein’s made a very successful kind of abstract painting with these wonderful tones of white and red and yellow. Also at the same time, he makes the painting look like an incredible abstract. The next piece of art is the ‘ Elvis Two Times’. This painting is a screenprint and aluminum paint on linen. It comprises of two images of Elvis standing his ground and pointing his gun. This piece is in black and white, there are no other colors. The final surrounding artwork is the ‘Three Flags’. This piece has nothing to do with the ‘Still Life Number 36’. This piece of art is a representation of the American flag, but it is three flags and it does not have the same number of stripes or even the same number of stars. This painting is believed to be useless, but some people still consider it a great piece of artwork, for their reasons. To sum up, all that was being said in this paper, most parts were related to the changes in society, thus the name of this paper. Almost all these paintings are related to the evolution of society. As Tom Wesselmann believed, anything can be art. There may be several different opinions on a specific piece, however,  in the end, it is an art masterpiece. If an artist can create a beautiful art piece from a sandwich, a glass of milk, and a pack of cigarettes, definitely art can be made from anything. In society, we are growing, getting bigger and better every second. We will keep striving until we reach our life goals.

The following is a report for an on-campus jazz concert.

Concert Report

On Thursday, November 7, 2019, at 12:30 pm, the jazz professors at City College conducted a jazz concert at Shepard’s Hall where they performed several songs by different musicians, such as ‘West Coast Blues’ by Wes Montgomery, ‘the Masquerade is Over’ by David Porter, ‘I’m a fool to want you’ by Billie Holiday, and ‘The Meaning of the Blues’ by Route 66. Some of the musicians were Prof. Suzanne Pittson, the vocalist, Prof. Steve Wilson, on the saxophone, and on the bass, Prof. Aidan O’Donnell. The instruments that were played in this concert were the piano, a saxophone, drums, and the bass, also there was the vocalist. Many consider jazz as having a swing feeling, something that you can dance to. In this concert, in some of the tunes, there was no swing feeling. In others, however, the music had you swinging. This jazz concert was my first time listening to live jazz music. I was very excited to attend this concert, not only is it my first jazz concert, it is my first live concert.

At the concert, the musicians played a total of seven or eight songs. In some, there was singing, where the vocalist, Prof. Pittson, did scat singing in her performances. Scat singing is improvised jazz singing where the voice imitates the instruments. Scat singing was famous with the singer, Ella Fitzgerald. Throughout the concert, all of the musicians did their improvisation along with the accompaniment of other soothe-sounding instruments. Each improvisation lasted for about one to two minutes. However, the drummer’s improvisation period was shorter than all the other improvisations on the other instruments. The drummer’s improvisation was like something under one minute. During the improvisations, the accompanying instruments played a calm background tune. While the pianist had his solo, the bass, and drum played the accompaniment, also when the bass player did his improvisation, the accompaniment was played by the drummer. In both of these improvisations, the drummer was brushing the drums, which created a smoothe sound. In the bass improvisation, with the brushing of the drum, one could hear the sound of the bass. 

 With as many different tunes as this, there is aught to be differences in the tunes. In the third and fourth songs, the rhythm sounded like a train. In others, the rhythm was rather fast and others, slow. As for the song by Wes Montgomery, the tempo was very much upbeat, it sounded like calypso. The effect of the songs varied, some were calm, some were exciting, some were melancholic and some were slow. The form of the music was not very clear to me since it is my first live music and I have not had much experience in this type of music. Even though I think that it was in the AABA form because I kept hearing a sequence of beats, then it changed and it returned. The audience also was very interactive. There was a lot of clapping and cheering after every improvisation, they seem to be enjoying the music. The musicians also said that the audience interaction was an encouragement to them to keep playing. 

In conclusion, the concert was interesting but not very exciting. After speaking to some of my colleagues, those who were not first-timers said that the singing was not so upscale, but the instrumentals were good. In my opinion, the singing was quite good but not impressive. The instrumentals, on the other hand, I think that the jazz faculty did a good job. Also at certain parts, I had a feeling to sway to the melody. As for the rest of the audience, they seemed very interested. Some of them clapped, whistled and some were even tapping their feet, this is probably a sign that people enjoyed the music. Although this is my first, it is not my last. The beats and melody of this concert gained my interest and I would like to go to more jazz concert.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.