This Reginald Marsh painting form the '30s--"High Yaller" (here from an eBay print sale) presents all the problems of working from a source that's not one's own. Compare William H. Johnson's Harlem girls, on Song&Places post--at once more innocent and more engaging. The spirit behind the Reginald Marsh paintings (and he remains one of our key "social realists"--the artists who worked with city themes in the 1930s) always seems to have an element of the voyeur. That is, he's looking in from the outside. This shows in particular in his treatment of women (black, white or otherwise). Something important to consider here: how can we enter into another world--someone else's world--with the right measure of honesty? Humility? Understanding? The question never goes away...
It's true in the music, too. (I think Fredrik did a good job with this in his Woodie Guthrie video...)
1 comment:
Yes, this painting feels strange. I've been seeing it on the blog for the past couple of days. I just noticed, tonight, there is a male figure standing behind the staircase looking at the woman. He seems a voyeur, and perhaps adds to the voyeuristic quality of the work, as you mentioned.
How should one enter into another world, someone else's? That certainly is an enduring question, perhaps one of the most... Thank you for raising it.
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