Charles Wilbert White and David Hammons - Finding cross-influence Research Paper

Charles Wilbert White and David Hammons - Finding cross-influence through a semiotic perspective - Research Paper Example Hammonds attended the Chouinard art institute in Los Angeles, California from1966 to 1968.Later he attended the Otis Art Institute where one of his teachers was the renowned Charles White. Hammonds finally settled in the city of New York from where he mostly worked. He is recognized as a performance artist, installation artist, and sculptor. Hammons made a significant contribution to the world of art. His work speaks of overtones of culture that employ provocative materials and aspects, for example chicken parts, strands of hair, and cheap wine bottles and elephant dung. Although some critics heavily criticized this, Hammons saw some kind of ritualistic power in them and that was the reason that he used them so frequently. Hammons work is generally centered in the black urban setting experience. He uses elements like sarcasm and irony to confront cultural stereotyping and race related issues. Hammons received the MacArthur Fellowship award in 1991. David Hammons first gained his popu larity through a series of highly creative and magnificent body prints body paints that saw revolution in the American paints art industry in the early 1970’s. One of his most popular and greatest art works is the paintwork entitled the injustice case of the 1973 drawn in Los Angeles. This highly contradictive paintwork raised numerous concerns especially in relation to contemporary racial issue that was most prevalent in the United States during those times. Hammons is an example of an artist that used a large number of visual styles and therefore he did not restrict himself to a single style. This made him stand out among other artists of his generation. Hammons works have been collected and exhibited in various art shows and seminars although he mostly prefers to sell his collections privately. Some of the institutions that have collected Hammonds works include The Contemplary Art Museum in Chicago, The New York Museum of modern art and the Museum of Contemplary Art in Chi cago amongst others. Hammons art sought to understand the place of Black people in American society. This is more vivid in his work though in a variety of ways and use of different kinds of media. This he did by avoiding one signature visual style. He shared lots of concern of why the blacks were never allowed to participate in many public affairs and could not be seen contributing to nation building (Constance 63). With the cross-cultural society and tension among the various cultural groups, his work managed to point out both private and public gaps and tried to define the components of a highly valued product. Illustration of such is found in Bliz-aard Ball Sale of 1983, which is his performance work putting himself alongside street vendors in downtown Manhattan in order to sell snowballs whose prices vary with their sizes. This brought about paradox on the product being exchanged and clears information on the capitalistic nature of art. It is satirical in the sense that it broug ht the whiteness, criticizing luxury of racial classification. He also tried to put across social realities faced by the street vendors who have been discriminated against by virtue of their class or race. As