How art gives shape to cultural change

1) The work of art that I have chosen is the very last one. It appears in the speech at 11:09 minutes approximately. It seems to be a picture but it must be a photomontage.

It represents a hand of a black man holding something that has a cone shape. I do not know what it is. In the background there is a white landscape and a blue sky. We can also see mountains on the left and the right.

I do not understand what it exactly represents, I do not understand if there is a hidden message. But when I see this work of art I feel calm. There is peace in this work of art; it allows us to escape from reality and to dream. I can also say that there is an opposition between the white of the landscape and the black of the arm.

2)a) Thelma Golden says that images are powerful, images can change lives. It allows people to understand themselves and each others. She says that art can change the way we think about culture and ourselves. It allows talking about beauty, power, about ourselves and with others persons. She wonders how images could word and did work. She thinks that images have to change ideas in the society.

  b) Thelma Golden wonders if a museum can be a catalyst in a community and if it can allow artists to be change agents. She says that it is a place where we discuss and think about ideas. It is there that artists can expose their creativity and innovation; it is where they can be catalysts.

3) I think that Thelma Golden exaggerates when she says that artists are real catalysts. Firstly, the main objective of the art is to make something that is liked by people, something that is beautiful, original… Sometimes an artist can convey a message (like Guernica) and there are some kinds of art that are made only to convey a message (like a cartoon). But even if an artist wants to tell us something, it is not always a success. Not only, we have to understand the message but also we have to see his work. It depends also on the type of art and how the message is conveyed. For example, it is easy to understand the song Manhatan Kaboul but the message of George Orwell is not explicit in Animal Farm. Sometimes, the message can be understood only by a few people.