Tometic Palimpsest

The process for this project began with us thinking about Art History and its implications socially and historically on society. This includes issues of gender typically, regarding which artists receive the most attention in the textbooks. Having been in AP Art History freshman year, I can recall most of the artists we studied were in fact male, until we were on units of more modern times and movements. The purpose in fulfilling the project requirements were to express issues related to art history, and I initially was reminded of human idealism, masculinity, and hierarchy/power as being three things conveyed commonly in art. This being when art was either concerning or even commissioned to express the power of a subject, or even perfection. Since we were supposed to incorporate text into the pieces, I first made a small figure fashioned after Michelangelo's David of wire and torn pages from art history textbooks. I cut out specific phrases regarding the concepts, and made them stand out from the rest of the materials. Then I made a charcoal drawing after the figurine, which I tried to make it look like a human figure made only out of words and phrases. My final painting was a more detailed version of the David, in which I tried to use common ways of portraying male power as it has been throughout history. I used red as the background, since it is a color signifying power and is also eye catching. I tried to make the point of view from below, but I had trouble shading it to give it a large hierarchy over the viewer. I decided to use Michelangelo's David as a reference because it is a piece that famously depicts a "perfect" male figure, and I wanted to see if I could incorporate other techniques in painting to bring the concepts of art history together in one image.