The Family

Eric Perenyi
Dr. Mary J. Sullivan
HUM 3999
11 July 2013

The Family

            After my trip to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, I realized how little I know about art.  I also realized that if given a chance, an artist and his/her work could have a lasting impact on me.  Although I was treated to several different works while at the Fine Arts Center, the one that had the biggest impact on me was a sculpture call “The Family” by William Zorach.  As a father and a husband, this was a sculpture that I could personally relate to.  Having read some of Berger’s arguments, I was able to further put into perspective what I had just seen.  As a Women’s and Ethnic Studies (WEST) major, I have learned to look at certain things from a social class and gender point of view.  In the book Ways of Seeing, John Berger addresses the issue of gender.  The purpose of my essay is to analyze and confirm Berger’s argument about gender as it relates to art.

            In 1963 (three years before his death), William Zorach created a sculpture that he called “The Family.”  This statue depicts a man (the father), a boy (older son), an infant (male or female) and a woman (wife and mother).  The first thing that came to mind when I looked at this sculpture was that the entire family was without clothing and the context of the image was as if they were in a public venue (I will address this later).  While analyzing the art, I realized that the statue depicted the separation of gender.  Berger makes reference that a man’s presence is dependent upon the promise of power and this promised power may be moral, physical, temperamental, economic, social and or sexual (Berger 45).  In this sculpture, Dad stands taller and firmer than everyone else (physical) and he appears to be very attentive to his surroundings as he functions as the protector and provider for his family (moral, temperamental, economic and social).  Although mom is playing an active role in the family structure as she nurtures the infant, it is clear that she is not in a position of power and that she is an object (not a subject).  Mom is in a supporting role.  She is the nurturer and the educator of the children and she provide whatever services are needed to support the man’s family.  For her efforts, she is rewarded by a label in society that is in association with her husband and her children and on display for others.  In essence, she is not her own person but rather an extension of her husband.  Although the infant is very much in need of mom’s services, the older child displays the maturity and appearance that he no longer needs mom’s teachings and nurturing, thus, he is ready to peruse manhood.

            Earlier, I addressed the fact that the entire family was without clothes.  As described by Berger, there is a difference between being naked and being nude.  Individually, mom would be naked (a form of dress or lack of) and on display for others to view.  As a family and with the presence of dad, the classification changes to nude, which makes it a matter of art according to Kenneth Clark (Berger 53).

            Although created in 1963, The Family sculpture is timeless and probably represents a historical period that covers thousands of years.  Although families are never nude in public, the statue represents gender (past, present and future).  In closing, most of the art that I saw at the Fine Arts center addresses gender (usually in an oppressive manner for the female).  History teaches us that gender inequality has existed for a very long time so it makes perfect sense that this inequality would be depicted in most forms of art.

John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin Books, 1972), 45, 53. Print.

 

 

 

William Zorach (1887-1966)
THE FAMILY, 1963
bronze
Gift of First Nationwide Bank, FA  1994.2

Modernist William Zorach exhibited in the landmark 1913 Armory Show in New York.   Born in Russia, he and his artist wife, Marguerite, are both represented in the Museum’s collection.  The Family is the first in an edition of two bronzes cast after an earlier rejection of the image in a public commission competition at the Dallas, Texas, State Fairgrounds, and was originally placed in a niche especially created for it in the Mining Exchange Building in downtown Colorado Springs.  After the building’s sale and a brief time in Denver, the sculpture was installed here in 1995.