Spheres of Influence

This was a painting for my Modernism/Post-Modernism Mood course. We had the option of writing a 12 page paper about modernism - or doing a creative work in the modernist style. Lol, you can see which one I went for.

The work was inspired by the Cubist/planar look in modernist art by the likes of Picasso, Duchamp, and to some extent the Art Deco movement - all of which are part of the Modernism time period.

This particular piece represents the rigidity of the class structure in society. Each figure/face represents a social class with the larger figures being the more wealthy and powerful castes. Each class, exhibited most clearly by the blue figure, is holding a lower class in a suboordinate position. Yet while the upper classes oppress the lower classes, the affluent seem unaware of the suffering they are inflicting as they stare, emotionlessly, away from those they have imprisoned. They gaze, instead, at the smooth wall of the sphere in which they are confined, hoping to be able to break out of their incarceration in a desire for upward mobility in the social strata.

Anyhow, it was fun tackling a style I don't typically work with. Stay tuned for my Post-Modernism painting at some point

Acrylic on canvas. Apologies for the poor digital photography of the painting.