Artists express their opinions about social, political and cultural issues through images and through thoughtful choices of media. We will study how the Mexican-American artist, Luis Jiménez uses his art to communicate a message about social and political injustices, and how he used printmaking to spread his message. We will also study two methods of art criticism. You will learn the elements and principles of art and design and how they help us study artworks.
Social Protest/Power
How do life experiences influence the way you relate to art?
How does learning about art impact how we perceive the world?
How does art help us understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures?
How is art used to impact the views of a society?
Used with permission. Credit: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence Lithography Workshop Archive, 1999.0286
This lesson will address underrepresented populations, radical ways of making an artistic statement, and provide students an opportunity to express their own artistic statement about an issue of personal importance.
Social Protest/Power
How can underrepresented groups change the power structure in the artworld and in society?
How can you make a statement about a cause you believe in?
Students will learn about Ghetto Potter and Activist, Roberto Lugo, whose work incorporates hip-hop, history, politics and current events into formal ceramic work. Born in Philadelphia, Lugo is of Puerto-Rican descent, and has a local connection, having graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute.
Stereotypes/Racism/Individual Identity
How can artists reflect their life experiences through their art?
Students will study artists who challenge the appropriation of Native American culture in the use of mascots and sports teams names.
Stereotypes/Conflict/Power
How does art challenge beliefs, traditions and stereotypes?
Lyric from the song That Would Be Enough, from the Hamilton soundtrack. Song by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Students will study artists who use historic inspiration and re-imagine history in their contemporary work. Artist to consider: Kehinde Wiley, Roberto Lugo, Calamityware (look closely, it's not what you think), Raed Yassin, Ai Wei Wei, Kerry James Marshall.
Contemporary Views of Reality
How does art re-imagine and challenge traditions?
How do arts build on the past to create a new future?
*title of artwork by Roger Shimomura
Students will learn about the March 16, 2021 shooting in Atlanta killing eight, a majority of whom were of Asian descent. This is one of many such events of violence against the Asian-American community.
In his first prime-time speech as president, marking a year of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Biden denounced “vicious hate crimes against Asian-Americans, who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth
Stereotypes
How does art challenge stereotypes?
During his Superintendent's Report to the school board on March 22, 2021, Dr. Anthony Lewis expressed dismay at crimes and harassment directed toward Asian Americans.
“The recent rise in violence and discrimination against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community across the country really alarms me. As a learning community, Lawrence Public Schools values equity, diversity, and inclusion, and stands in solidarity with students, school families, and staff who may be experiencing any type of direct or indirect trauma as a result of these attacks,” said Dr. Lewis. “Our district is, as always, committed to providing safe and supportive learning environments, where every student and staff member feels welcome and a sense of belonging. We even talk about it in our strategic plan that includes a focus on safe and supportive schools and effective employees. Both of these are fundamental to our teaching and learning mission.”
“I encourage any student needing assistance, especially members of our Asian American community, to reach out to our school counselors or other members of our school mental health teams for support. We are here for you. I urge staff members to consider using the resources available through our staff wellness and our EAP, Employee Assistance Program. It is important that we continue to listen to and support one another. This district will not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment in our school community,” he said.
This series illustrates incidents of racial insensitivity I have experienced during my life. Accompanying each painting is a written description of the incident that inspired the piece. Also included in this series are events that have affected the Asian American community on a regional and national basis over the past 60 years - essentially my lifetime. - Roger Shimomura
Source: https://www.gregkucera.com/shimomura_stereotypes.htm
In these paintings, Shimomura depicts himself and other minority people as he believes surrounding Caucasians see them. Sometimes Asians appear in traditional dress; elsewhere they look as if they’ve stepped out of propaganda posters, with yellow skin, slanted eyes and big teeth. Shimomura incorporates stereotypes of American Indians and Arab-Americans as well, portraying characters with crooked noses and turbans.
https://www.thepitchkc.com/been-there-got-the-tshirt/
ABERCROMBIE & FITCH, 2003
Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24 inches
https://www.gregkucera.com/shimomura_stereotypes.htm
Accompanying text:
In April, 2002, retail clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch, introduced a new line of T-shirts depicting smiling men with slanted eyes wearing conical hats. The T-shirts carried slogans such as "Buddha Bash" and "Wok-n-Bowl". Asian American groups responded quickly, complaining that these images and phrases were blatant examples of racial stereotyping. Protests began at Abercrombie & Fitch stores nationwide.
After instructing all stores to remove the T-shirts, a spokesman for Abercrombie & Fitch said that the company felt that the shirts would be especially loved by the Asian American community and would be seen as cheeky, irreverent and funny. He said that he was surprised by the hostile reception the merchandise received.
https://www.gregkucera.com/shimomura_stereotypes.htm
In “Abercrombie & Fitch,” two jolly, yellow-faced characters with slanted eyes and conical hats smile in front of a giant red circle that suggests a rising sun; one sports a long-sleeved T-shirt with an ad for “Wong Brothers Laundry.” The work is a response to clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch’s controversial introduction of a T-shirt line screen-printed with advertisements for fake Asian businesses. The derogatory images and phrases used to market such businesses took deep root in America’s collective consciousness. “I decided to do some of these national issues because I felt like that provided a larger context for these individual, personalized incidents that happened,” Shimomura explains.
https://www.thepitchkc.com/been-there-got-the-tshirt/
Roger Shimomura
Yellow Rat Bastard (How to Tell the Difference Between Chinese and Japanese depicting Norman Gee; How to Tell the Difference Between Chinese and Japanese depicting Roger Shimomura), 2000
Acrylic on canvas, paper bag, Mickey Mouse pillow
Gift of Don Brownstein, 2018.1.1- 3
http://gtmuseum.org/human-nature/ii-pop-art/
Roger Shimomura’s art has been informed by his incarceration as a young child in Minidoka (Idaho), one of ten internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII. Highly relevant for today’s conversations about the government’s incarceration and separation of migrating children from their parents, Shimomura’s world view was forged in conflict, exclusion, and the annexation of the “other.” Working in painting, printmaking, and theatre, his works address sociopolitical issues of ethnicity and identity.
Yellow Rat Bastard, 2000, is a complex diptych with multiple painted and real elements. Over the years, Shimomura, a third generation Japanese-American, has amassed a significant collection of objects and ephemera illustrating stereotypes of Japanese people which the artist mines for inspiration including a 1940s TIME magazine article titled, “How to Tell the Difference Between the Chinese and the Japanese.” Illustrated on the left panel is a former colleague at the University of Kansas, Norman Gee, a San Francisco-born Chinese-American, and Shimomura on the right panel. Influenced by Pop Art and cartooning, each is surrounded by figures and objects of mass culture that identify their own ancestries. The artist states, “the defining moment in each painting is the fact that Norman is holding a pair of Chinese chopsticks with a long-grain kernel of rice, and I’m holding a pair of Japanese chopsticks with a short-grain kernel of rice. Chinese eat long-grain rice, and Japanese eat short-grain rice.”1
In the center of the two painted panels is a shopping bag from the lower Manhattan clothing store, “Yellow Rat Bastard,” which holds an oversized cloth head of Mickey Mouse. Shimomura frets over the use of a 1940s stereotype for Japanese people that perpetuates ignorance and racism today. By bringing these issues into the light, his work can help create a conversation about cultural differences and inclusion.
Source: http://gtmuseum.org/human-nature/ii-pop-art/
Yellow Rat Bastard was a clothing store in NYC (closed now)
Perhaps the most personal piece in the show is the two-paneled “Yellow Rat Bastard.” Shimomura is the main character on the right; to the left is his former colleague at the University of Kansas, Norman Gee, a San Francisco-born Chinese-American. Each man is surrounded by a collage of family members as well as people and items associated with his ancestor’s country — a red Communist star and a panda for Gee, anime characters and a Zero bomber for Shimomura. “The defining moment in each painting is the fact that Norman is holding a pair of Chinese chopsticks with a long-grain kernel of rice, and I’m holding a pair of Japanese chopsticks with a short-grain kernel of rice,” Shimomura explains. “Chinese eat long-grain rice, and Japanese eat short-grain rice.” The piece was inspired by a LIFE magazine article from the 1940s titled “How to Tell the Difference Between the Chinese and the Japanese,” which listed facial features and physical characteristics as examples of differences.
Displayed on a pedestal between the two panels is a shopping bag printed with the words “yellow rat bastard” in bold black letters; a stuffed toy mouse pops out of the top. The title comes from a New York City clothing store named after the 1940s phrase for Japanese people. Shimomura says he was shocked when he first saw the store. In an effort to be ironic, he says, “I went in and bought one of their T-shirts and wore it to one of my openings.” When it came time to give a talk that night, the shirt helped him get his points across. “What’s even more interesting to me is that fact that a lot of Japanese tourists are in there buying clothes. These are young kids who have no kind of cultural memory about things like that. They come to this country without an awareness of what they were called or their parents were called during World War II.”
https://www.thepitchkc.com/been-there-got-the-tshirt/
Roger Shimomura
Not an Indian (detail)
“Not an Indian” tells the story of Shimomura’s attempt to apply for a store credit card at Weaver’s in downtown Lawrence in 1970. The store manager wouldn’t let him fill out an application because it was against store policy to issue cards to Indians, and Shimomura had no proof that he was not an Indian. In the painting, a yellow-skinned Japanese figure dressed in red-, black- and yellow-striped flowing fabrics — and wearing a headband with a feather around his red-painted scalp — holds a sword in one hand and an item of clothing (presumably the coat Shimomura had hoped to buy for his wife) in the other. Caucasian customers stand in the background, happily completing their purchases while the silhouette of what appears to be a policeman lurks behind them.
https://www.thepitchkc.com/been-there-got-the-tshirt/
Accompanying text:
In the spring of 1970, after moving to Lawrence, Kansas, Roger went to Wilson's* (sic) Department store to buy his wife a coat for her birthday. Wilson's would not take Visa or MasterCard at the time and required that charges be made to a Wilson's* credit card only. The salesperson told Roger that he could fill out an application and obtain immediate approval to charge the coat.
As directed, Roger went to the second floor credit counter and requested an application. The woman behind the counter said it was against Wilson's* policy to issue credit cards to Indians. When Roger said he was not an Indian, the woman told him she did not believe him. Roger then asked to speak to the manager.
When the manager arrived, the woman behind the counter told him she had dutifully informed Roger that it was store policy not to grant credit cards to Indians. The manager examined Roger carefully and then said, "She's right, sir. We don't give credit cards to Indians." Roger repeated to the manager that he was not an Indian, whereupon the manager said, "You got any proof that you ain't, mister?"
https://www.gregkucera.com/shimomura_stereotypes.htm
*Correction: Weaver's
Anti-Racist: a person who opposes racism and promotes racial tolerance.
Bias: favoring or showing prejudice towards certain people or ideas.
BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
Cultural Appropriation: inappropriately and/or incorrectly using or taking advantage of, or claiming ownership and rights to use another culture's capital and patrimony; such as fashion, trends, iconography, traditional art, ceremonies, etc.
False Narrative: a story that you perceive as being true but has little basis in reality, this perception can be due to insufficient or inaccurate information or to insufficient or inaccurate assessment.
NBIPOC: Non-Black Indigenous People of Color
Person of color: a person who is not white or of European parentage.
Stereotype: a category or group that we put people into (thinking a certain type of person or thing acts/thinks/looks a certain way).