Assignment task: Choose one of the three groups below to address Black artists' strategies in presenting religious subject matter. Please compare their strategies in response to the attitudes and expectations reflected in first artwork in the group.
Respond specifically to prompt for the group you chose.
Please compare the Black artists' strategies in response to the attitudes and expectations reflected in first artwork in the group.
Be sure to talk about the artwork in detail (what it shows and says, and why the artist picked this subject matter, style, material, form of display, etc.).
GROUP A
Jan Muller, The Separation of Darkness and Light, 1589
Juan de Pareja, The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1661
Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ at the Home of Lazarus, c. 1912
Group A prompt: Both Pareja's and Tanner's paintings include self portraits designed to refute the kind of stereotypes presented in Muller's work. What parallels and differences do you see in the obstacles encountered by Pareja and Tanner, and what parallels and differences do you see in their strategies, as reflected in these two religious works?