Looking away from the horrible deprivations of slavery and everything that came with it, this painting would be merely an image of an old man teaching a young boy how to play the banjo, or does it?
I will try to test the theory. First, we eliminate any context with this presentation. No implications of suffering, slavery, race, social economic status, social class, time or style for that matter.
Well, what is left? The gratitude of the powerful essence of learning the banjo is still remained, deeply embedded in the painting. The brushstrokes is rapidly executed around the lining of the frame resembled on the buckets and the mop in the left-hand corner.
Nevertheless, the focus of the presentation is the two beings in the middle that is gently executed with passionate brushstrokes to search or achieve perfection. There is not a magnified line that separated these two areas, but just to show my point; one can see how the pot close to the left foot of the adult is disappearing in the dark.
First I thought that the light was incoming from the left, but to my great surprise, I am happy I choose to spend more time studying the shade of the objects and persons. I cannot conclude completely how the lighting is playing its role in the image, but the emphasis is clear cut. The fact that the adults right hand knuckles are projected with light, and his left knee as well makes me think that this painting was done at different times or over a long period of time.
If one brings back all the correlations with history, the artist, and society, this image immediately creates a much more harmonizing a different perceptual receiving process.
Now putting the implications into the puzzle, one can see hardship, pain, suffering, but also tradition, culture, and history.
Our artist must have wanted to emphasize the magnitude of the problem America had at the time through his art.
I think that this image brings upon us a very important stereotype about African-Americans, and just to go to the most extreme; one can discuss how this image has projected entertainment from African-Americans today.
I looked up “Man Playing Banjo” on Google, and here are some of the first images shown.
Some very offensive, some very portrayed, and some very sad.
This is the way we choose to portray our fellow citizens today. Instead of breaking the stereotypical stigma, we build upon it with cartoonized figures and such.
Sources used to gain/re-use information:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ossawa_Tanner
2. http://cghs.dadeschools.net/african-american/reconstruct/tanner.htm
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