Getting Critical About Art

For this assignment I've decided to analyze Andy Warhol's Race Riot. This piece was created with acrylics on four panels of canvas utilizing the silk screen process. It has been put together in the classic Warhol style of one picture repeated a total of four times, two by two. The picture depicted is one from 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama of civil rights demonstrators being attacked by police. According to the book, police commissioner Bull Connor used attack dogs and fire hoses against these peaceful demonstrators.

This work of art has been divided into four identical but separate pictures. Each picture (with the exception of two) have been colored differently. The top two are white (black and white) and blue (think black and white but with blue instead of white). The bottom two however are red (once again think black and white with red instead of white). In the picture you see two male officers (both Caucasian) with dogs on leashes that are attacking an African American man. The man is running away while in the background you see a line of other African American demonstrators. The pictures are all fairly grainy and look a bit aged. They also have a hint of overexposure.

In each picture there are four vital, visual aspects. The first is how the man running away seems helpless. He looks like an older man. The second is the facial expression of the police officers. The first looks full of hate as he instructs the dog to attack the running man. The third vital visual aspect would be the actual colors themselves. To me it looks like they have been arranged in a way that communicates discrimination while showing diversity. On the top you have white and blue equally separated. However on the bottom you have twice as much blue and white represented in the color of red. Red could communicate simply a different color dominating the other two, or could also possibly communicate evil or hate. From my point of view, the white and blue pictures represent a livable environment and the pictures look more lacks, where as the red looks almost evil and dark.

To me this question asks whether or not America was correct in a time when discrimination was allowed. Although this work was produced during the same time the picture was actually taken, I think it serves as a snapshot back into what we were and where we've come from. It also represent growth to me. America becomes more and more diversified day by day with different nationalities mixing all the time.