"Affirmative Action"

                                          

In the past, I had never really shown very much interest in the subject of art. My senior year of high school, I took an AP Art History class and everything we studied never seemed to catch my interest in any way. I just didn’t understand how simple paintings and sculptures could draw so much attention. I just thought of the pieces as, merely just plain paint on canvas that just so happened to be worth a lot of money. So as you can imagine, I wasn’t very enthused when I found out that our very first “field trip” in English 15S was indeed a trip to the only art museum on Penn State’s campus, the Palmer Museum of Art. When I arrived, I wondered aimlessly around the first floor as I observed art from ancient Asia and Europe, and thought, “This isn’t very much compared to my several trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art I used to take with my school, but at least it’s less walking.” After I circled the first floor about two or three times, I decided to explore the second level of the museum. As soon as I reached the very last steps of the staircase, the very first painting that caught my eye was the bright red and yellow mass of “Affirmative Action” by Jack Kearns. The little plaque next to it read “painted in 1987 with acrylic on canvas”. Even though it is only one piece out of the several in the very contemporary exhibit of the second floor in the Palmer, in my opinion is the most eye-catching. It depicts a woman smashing a large rock into pieces with what appears to be a hammer. Her facial expression is aggressive and her build is very muscular, yet her attire is very feminine as she dons high heels and a sundress. Although it was the colors of the work that caught my eye, it was the subject matter that made me stay and keep on observing. “Affirmative Action” was painted during World War II, when all of the men in America were oversees defending out country. So who would do all of the work at home? I’m sure all of you have learned from a history class in high school of some sort, that in this particular situation, the women of America stepped up to the plate and this painting draws attention to exactly that. It uses pathos to play to the emotions saying “women are strong and can hold up the fort just as well as the men” since back in those times, it was frowned upon for a women to be anything other than a caregiver, a cook, a maid, and most importantly a wife. The painting was a political message promoting equality among the minority groups of America and encouraging society to allow them to go to work and lend a helping hand when the country was in trouble. Jack Kearns did an excellent job of sending out this message in a creative ways. For this, he was known as “purveyor of Pop Art with a conscience.”