FREE ESSAY ON WHOSE ART IS IT

WHOSE ART IS IT

Whose Art Is It?, an essay by Jane Kramer, talked about John Ahearn, an artist living in
the South Bronx. Kramer describes John as a white male living in a predominantly African
American and Hispanic community. His artworks sparked a great controversy not only in the
town but the entire city of New York. His intentions were not to offend anyone but he
created such a public outcry against his works that will be look backed upon forever. 
John Ahearn was an active part of the community. South Bronx is known as a place of
suffering, poverty, crime, drugs, unemployment, and Aids (Stimpson 18), but this did not
stop Ahearn for making his artworks. His earlier works were plaster portraits of the
people that lived there. Some even displayed them in their homes. So he gained acceptance
in South Bronx, nobody really minded he was white. The place became home to him. 
On April 1, 1986, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs began to choose... an
artist to create a piece in front of a new police station in the 44th Precinct (Stimpson
19). With his gained popularity in the town, Ahearn was commissioned to make the
sculpture. He believed that his sculptures should be looked upon as guardian angels or
saints. He believed that the people in his work should be the everyday, real people. 
To commemorate a few of the people... having trouble surviving in the street, even if
they were trouble themselves. He wanted the police to acknowledge them, and he wanted the
neighbors, seeing them cast in bronze and up on pedestals, to stop and think about who
they were and about what he calls their South Bronx attitude (Kramer 38). 
So he turned to his immediate neighbors and casted to make his pieces.
In 1992, Ahearn created three bronze figures: Raymond, a Hispanic, with his pit bull
Toby; Corey, an African American with a boom box and a basketball; and Daleesha a second
African American youngster on a pair of roller skates. They were not outstanding
citizens, but were a part of the everyday struggle that Ahearn wanted to portray.
Kramer explains that the people were insulted and wanted a more positive image of the
town. They wanted the artwork to show them not to be struggling. Some of the neighbors
wanted statues of Martin Luther King or Malcom X, or statues of children in their
graduation gowns, or of mothers carrying home the groceries, or of men in suits on their
way to important jobs downtown (Kramer 42). Some even evoked statements about
stereotypical intent and Ahearn being a racist. Neighbors complained that Ahearn was a
white man and made derogatory images about the African American and Hispanics. Some
called his works to be scary and too dark. He tried to make changes with casts, making
them brighter and more pleasant to look at, but the majority of the public still
disapproves. After five days of being displayed Ahearn would take them all down after he
had just installed them with great effort. But not the entire community disagreed with
the meaning of the sculptures they know that Ahearn's intent was not to offend.
Kramer talks about the multicultural controversy that was upon the community. She says
that even though Ahearn was white and making sculptures of a different race, his purpose
was of a positive notion. Since he has lived there, he has done nothing but positive
things for South Bronx. Trying to pinch in his share for the better of the society. His
affinity to these people was very special to him and Ahearn tried to show this through
his artworks. On the flip side of all these facts, there was a question of racism. The
people believed that, his pieces had stereotypical connotations. 
While living in the South Bronx, Ahearn learned to be like everybody else, from the
people's values, cultures, and traditions, and in return his neighbors learned his. He
looked beyond racial boundaries. He accepted the challenge of being different and the
town welcomed him. He believed that he spoke his mind through his artworks. Kramer argued
that the public was complaining so much that they oversaw the true meaning of the three
sculptures. 
Ahearn once said that Art is who we are- it's exactly who we are... Corey and Raymond are
'life,' whether you like it or not, and if we can't look at life, at what's real life,
how can we get beyond it? What are our alternatives? (Kramer 119).
Works Cited
Kramer, Jane. 1994. Whose Art Is It?. Public Planet Books. 
Duke University Press.
Stimpson, Catherine R.. 1994. Introduction of Whose Art Is 
It?. Public Planet Books. Duke University Press.