Museum Essay Post #2 Guggenheim Visit

                At first glance, Carrie Mae Weems' exhibition, "Three Decades of Photography and Video", appeared bland colorless and unappealing. I honestly believed that the exhibition lacked attention grabbing qualitys. As I gazed at these works of art, I slowly began to understand their purpose. As I read and pondered the writings placed next to these works of art my opinion rapidly shifted. I realized that these were simple images that provoke contemplation on ignored stereotypes. With these images, Weems challenges and exposes existing stereotypes of both gender and race.

    It the series,"Ain't Jokin", Weems confronts viewers with common stereotypes. In the series, Weems presents an image titled, "Black Man Holding Watermelon". This image simply and bluntly displays a black man standing up straight holding a watermelon. Weems also presents an image titled, "Black Woman with Chicken". This image simply shows a black woman holding a piece of fried chicken. These two images clearly shed light on the common black stereotypes that black people love watermelon and fried chicken. Although Weems displays these images in a somewhat humorous manner, these images provoke contemplation on these two offensive African-American stereotypes.

In Carrie Mae Weems' video, "Afro Chic", woman all different ages, skin tones, shapes and sizes strut down a runway showing off their exaggerated afros and fashionable clothing. What struck me about this video was its similarities in hair styles and attire with the movie "Austin Power's Goldmember". In this video, Weems directly tackles the preconceived notion that models must be thin, fair skinned, and ideally beautiful. Weems shows that these afro wearing women are not only beautiful, but they can also model. "Afro Chic", displays an image of Angela Davis and an image of Huey Newton. The significance of the first image is that Angela Davis in known for her infamous afro hairdo and for her role in the creation of the concept that "black is beautiful". The significance of the second image is that Huey Newton was a cofounder of the black panthers. These confident afro wearing women are accompanied by Marvin Gaye’s popular song, “Sanctified Lady”. These two images drawn direct parallels to the ideas that black is beautiful Weems tackle.

                This visit to the Solomon Guggenheim Museum was a lot more informative and educational, than my visit to the Metropolitan Museum. The Guggenheim displayed a controlled number of artworks with historical meaning, while the Met was a bit overwhelming with the number of artworks. Overall I enjoyed both museums. I enjoyed the different colors and varieties of styles at the Metropolitan, and I enjoyed the historical context presented at the Guggenheim.