Brooklyn Museum: Soul of a Nation

The Soul of a Nation exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, really brought chills up my spine. Every piece of artwork meant something, it showed pain and sorrow but also courage on how African Americans spent so many years of their lives or rather all their life. Each piece of art also showed how many people fought for their equal rights and had the courage to stand up for themselves and their own people. The art piece that left me without words was The First One Hundred Years: He amongst You who is without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone; Forgive Them Father for they Know Not What They Do by Chicago artist Archibald Motley. With only focusing on the colors in this piece we can see that the artist is showing the lightness falling into darkness using different tones of blue with black and grayish shadows. Right away I could see all the evil in this work, there was a window mural on a tree what seemed to be baby angels with whom was supposed to God, but his face was shattered or splattered in black ink. Then there was the head on MLK Jr and JFK on the tree as well, and below there was a lynched body. Motley showed suffering and mistreatment by the whites towards the blacks in this painting, he added specific detail in what they were called and groups such as the KKK, all these people were the devils themselves using their power to harm others. The painting depicted “hell” for the African Americans, it is a powerful piece of art, which showed assassinations, murder, pain and suffering.

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