Getting Critical About Art

The image I chose is called “Race Riot” by Andy Warhol on page 16 in our book. He uses acrylic paint and silkscreen on canvas. This piece of art was inspired by an event in 1963 where police officers attacked a group of civil rights demonstrators led by Martin Luther King, Jr. The civil rights demonstrators were attacked with dogs (as seen in the image), and fire hoses. The image has four squares in it. The top left is white, top right is blue, and the two bottom squares are both red. Maybe he chose to use the color red twice to resemble blood. That is the only thing I can think of. I think that the images in the painting kind of contradict the colors he chose, which I feel he did on purpose. Each square has the same image inside of it. Two white police officers with two German Shepard’s that look as though the dogs are about to attack a black man running away. The black man that is running away from the dogs looks like an older man in his fifties or sixties, he looks as though he isn’t trying to cause any harm. Yet the dogs are still going after him, and the police officers are letting them. There is also a group of about thirty African Americans in the background of the image. They’re all looking in the same direction that the police officers with the dogs are. Except beyond them where we can’t see. I assume it is more police officers. The images in the squares are all black and white; the only colors used are the red, white, and blue in the background of each square. All of the visual aspects in this piece of art seem important to me, they all give you ideas and clues of what is going on at the time. The police officers with the dogs are very important because they are showing the attack and racism that is going on in this piece. The man being chased by the dogs is also important, I feel that it shows that the police officers don’t care if they are a threat or not, it shows that they only see color. But, like Bob Marley said; the color of your skin should be of no more significance that the color of your eyes. Another important visual aspect in this piece is the younger black man standing slightly in the background, it looks as though he is somewhat flexing with his arms up like he is ready to fight. This is showing they are not willing to back down, even though they may have to. To me this piece by Warhol is contradictory, like I said before. He uses the colors red, white and blue; which resembles many things. Like freedom, liberty, equality, etc. But, in the images he uses in “Race Riot” we see racism and many other things that contradict the colors of our American flag.