BEING AMERICAN : MEANING – how ART you ?

1 November 202329 November 2023

The First Thanksgiving, 1621, presentation

The question is : How did the artist help form the narrative of Thanksgiving ?

“They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports”

William Bradford,* Of Plymouth Plantation

* William Bradford was the governor of the Plimoth Colony.

Referring to the 1623 harvest after the nearly catastrophic drought, Bradford wrote:

“And afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing. For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving… By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine now God gave them plenty … for which they blessed God. And the effect of their particular planting was well seen, for all had … pretty well … so as any general want or famine had not been amongst them since to this day.”

The artist : Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930) was an American painter known for his series of 78 scenes from American history, entitled The Pageant of a Nation, the largest series of paintings on American history by a single artist.
Ferris enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and his decision to paint historical scenes was the result of the influence of his namesake, Jean-Leon Gérôme.
By 1895, he had gained a reputation as a historical painter and he stated a series of paintings that told a historical narrative. In 1898, he sold one, but later decided to keep the paintings together as a series.
He sold the reproduction rights to various publishing companies which sold many copies of his paintings, such as postcards and calendars. As a result, his work became visible and popular. It contributed to the American narrative.

Two levels

Different men

Thanksgiving ceremonies :

May 1541
Spanish explorer F. Vasquez de Coronado led 1,500 men in a thanksgiving celebration at the Palo Duro canyon, in what is known now as the Texas panhandle. The expedition he was leading was in search of gold.

French Huguenots settlers celebrated a thanksgiving ceremony in a settlement in what is nowadays called Jacksonville, Florida in 1564. They were raided by a Spanish group in 1565 and their colony was subsequently destroyed.

Plymouth, Massachussetts : a temple was built to commemorate the First Thanksgiving, in 1621

In the middle of the “temple”, the stone where the Pilgrims supposedly set foot in 1620.

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation here

Freedom from Want, by Norman Rockwell, 1943

The First Thanksgiving, New Yorker cover, here

13 May 201813 May 2018

New Yorker cover, baseball

“Derek Jeter Bows Out”, by Mark Ulriksen

key words : Yankee player, last public appearance, hero, sunset.

21 March 201819 October 2023

After Dr King, a New Yorker cover, by Kadir Nelson

Look at the whole cover here

This is the January 16 2017 issue of the New-Yorker.

The picture is about Martin Luther King Junior, it’s entitled After Dr. King and it was created by Kadir Nelson, who specialises in portraits of African-American people.

The background is white, we can see a colour portrait of M.L.K. The focus is on his face and his hands. He looks wise with his joined hands.Instead of the material of his jacket and the skin of his hands,there are people demonstrating and protesting, and we can see recognize the March on Washington, that he organised with other Civil Rights leaders, in August 1963. This is the place where he delivered his most famous speech : I Have A Dream.

MLK ‘s biography

There is also a photo of the Flint Water crisis : a town where the majority of inhabitants were poor black people, and where the water was polluted. This crisis happened in 2017.

The relationship with the news is the problem of social justice in America, about 50 years after the Civil Rights movement, and MLK’s legacy.

The date of publication is important, because it was close to Martin Luther King’s day, a national day when people across the USA pay tribute to Martin Luther King.

Conclusion : the question is what has changed in the USA for Black pool since the era of the Civil Rights movement ?

Look at a presentation here

Key words :
Baptist preacher, activist, the Civil Rights movement, non-violence, Nobel Peace Prize

20 April 201623 April 2018

Bad Reception, New Yorker cover by B. Blitt, Feb, 1st 2016

Reception :

° the quality of image and sound in television or radio broadcasts.

° how people may react to a person, a book or a program.

watch this presentation about the New Yorker cover

Question : Is it possible to look at the present with History in mind ?

10 February 20144 November 2019

Freedom from Want By Norman Rockwell

This oil on canvas was painted in 1943. Its dimensions are 116cm x90 cm. It is now part of the collections of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is also part of a series entitled ‘The Four Freedom Series’, inspired by a speech by American President Franklin Roosevelt. It was published as the cover of ‘The Saturday Evening Post’, like many of Rockwell’s paintings, who spent most of his career as an illustrator. His works are mostly about American every day life and he contributed in creating the myth of America.

The speech delivered by the American president in 1941 was about the war that America was about to fight to protect democracy and freedom. Therefore, the painting inspired by such a speech two years later can be regarded as a patriotic endeavor to participate in the propaganda effort to create a positive image of America and its values.

The very fact that Norman Rockwell worked after photographs of his fellow citizens enhances the meaning of the painting : any American family gathered around a meal for Thanksgiving could identify with the people in the picture, lifelike icons of simplicity, meekness, love, sharing and unity. By the way, the other title of the painting is ‘The Thanksgiving Picture’.
The origin of the Thanksgiving holiday, created by another President, Abraham Lincoln, after the tragedy of the Civil War to help American people unite after a four years’ war is to be remembered, although the symbols have changed. There is no mention here of the Native Americans or the Pilgrim Fathers, only a meal and a family gathering.

Yet, behind the impression of simplicity, there are also subtle references to the sacred…

21 March 201331 March 2013

I Have A Dream, aide

Introduction

Place /Time / Author / Context

Plan of the speech :

– Introduction

– The various paragraphs

Main Themes :

–

Influences :

–

Rhetorical devices :

– the issues :

– logic :

– persuasion technique :

– figures of speech :

– the orator and his art :

Conclusion :

how famous this text is…

the consequences of the Civil Right Movement

Black people in American society nowadays.

11 March 201323 May 2017

I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King Junior

Listen to the speech

Read the text.

Highlight the parts corresponding to the following themes :

– American ideals

– Biblical references

-Black people

– Religion

Watch this video for a recent treatment of the same question.

17 January 20124 November 2019

The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell

Look at these documents about the painting, context and details : my presentation

See : segregation, the Civil Rights Movement, Travels with Charley, Martin Luther King Jr, Ruby Bridges returns to school

READ THE TRANSCRIPT of the Ruby Bridges video below :

3811 Galvez street, another empty building ravaged by Katrina but spared the wrecking ball, because 50 years ago, History whistled through these windows.

Archives : “A (?) break in the colour line : A New Orleans girl goes to school.”

Now 56, the memories flow easily for Ruby Bridges,the little girl who integrated William Frantz school protected by a team of Federal Marshals.

(….) crowd yelling

Ruby Bridges : “There was lots of people outside and they were screaming and shouting at the police officers but I thought it was Mardi-Gras, you know, I didn’t actually know that all of that was there because of me.”

Her parents were committed to challenging Jim Crow law and made the uneasy decision of sending their child daily into the teeth of a hate-filled crowd.

R.B. : “There were days when they would come and they would bring a baby’s coffin and inside this baby’s coffin was a black doll and I used to have nightmares about the coffin.”

“We don’t want any …beep in this school”crowd yelling.

Resistance was ugly and downtown protest turned violent. White parents scurried to take their children out of the newly ntegrated schools.”

(….) crowd yelling

Ruby Bridges : “They went into every classroom and they pulled out every child.”

But the next day, one family took a stand.

Lloyd Foreman : “I simply want the privilege of taking my child to school …”

34 year- old Methodist minister Lloyd Foreman was the first to crack that school boycott : he took his five- year -old daughter Pam and without Federal protection, walked right through that same angry mob.Days later, a handful of other parents followed Foreman’s lead and the protest began to fade.

(…) Pam and Ruby greeting eachother.

Now for the first time in 50 years, Ruby and Pam reunited at Frantz school.

Pam Foreman : “Daddy always called it the longest walk because in my case, our white race was against us, I mean we had bomb threats, we
had to move out of the house, it was terrible.”

Journalist : “Why do you think your father stood his ground in face of all of that ? “

Pam Foreman “Because of his faith in God and his beliefs that every child, regardless of their race, deserved a white-term education.”

Pam and Ruby “Is that your father ?” “yes, that’s Dad”.

Reliving their separate, but equally painful memories ( Pam’s father died in 2005) the two former schoolmates say times have changed but the issue remains : by the 1980s Frantz had become nearly all black. Ruby hopes that one day, the school can live up to its legacy.

“I entered this building to integrate the school. If we are going to get past those racial differences it’s gonna come from our kids but they have to be together to do that.

Michelle Miller CBS News, New Orleans

16 January 2012