African American Artworks

Tanner's "Annunciation" (1898), In Which the Angel Gabriel Appears To Mary As A Burst Of Light

Henry O. Tanner. The Thankful Poor. 1894. Oil on canvas.

Introduction

The two artworks shown above are works of Henry Ossawa Tanner, who was an indisposed avatar. The artist in today's world is remembered as one of the finest artists exhibiting the African American optimum visual artworks which comprises of criticism focusing on biographical, historical and sociological issues to the disadvantage of official analysis.

The two artworks being focused in the following documents are Annunciation and The Thankful Poor by Henry Ossawa Tanner. The purpose of the document is to compare these two artworks under the light o themes the walk around and to explore these themes with how visual elements and principles of design being maneuvered in the work.

Discussion

Perturbed by bigotry and racism in the United States, in 1891 Tanner (1859-1937) decided to move to Europe in his search for a society where racism was unknown and anonymous. He wanted to find a race-blind society. Eventually he succeeded as a painter of incandescent artworks of biblical subjects that were race-blind and had no reference to the African American encounters (Johnson, 2012).

Both the artworks by Tanner, like his majority of the paintings, exhibits religious main theme. The bigger dimension of the theme is in correspondence with the religious dimensions, it signifies God in its own typical way. For the painting of Annunciation, the God appears as a burst of Light to Marry which serves as the direct manifestation of Theme. On the contrary the Thankful Poor provides focus at the dynamics of world in relation to God, of how God gives us food and we owe him thank.

Annunciation

Surely Tanner's work is one of the best illustrations of Annunciation that one can find in the history. His work exhibits all the dynamics of realism and pragmatism. Both the annunciation and the thankful poor put on view the notion that painting is fundamentally a concrete artwork and must only consist of existing and real things around, however the essence and soul of every artwork goes beyond the level of realism where one can feel, explore and view his/ her beliefs. In the painting of annunciation he showed God as lightening flash, a bright, pure, radiant and dignified light. He did not attempt to manifest Angel's physic since his paintings were based on realism. Nobody has seen angels so nobody can draw them, however the radiance, the light God and the very thought of angels bring to our souls is clear and hence can be transferred from thoughts to paintings.

With a basic knowledge of New Testament gospel texts, one can right away understand that the young lady sitting on bed is Mary, Jesus' mother, and the scene depicts the communication of Mary with angel Gabriel. As said before, the presence of angel is implied but not portrayed. In Annunciation one can see that Tanner has painted young and radiant Mary, she has both an uncertainty and solemnity ...