History of Brown vs. Board Through Art :: Race Racial Segregation American History

History Through Art Brown vs. Board was a landmark case that changed America’s education forever. Some of these changes produced many opinions among the different states. One county even shut their public schools down for five years and posted signs blaming it on the Government. I am shocked that picture wasn’t in the exhibition at the Krannert Art Museum. Many of the featured artists have found their calling in capturing some aspects of the racial issue especially the equal education facet. The forms of painting and photography will remain in our world for many years and will help educate future generations on how those in our time coped with the feelings that racism brought to many of us. The exhibit in the museum stimulated my curiosity in the social realm of the decision in that courtroom. People began to see their futures differently. One painting that struck me as inspirational was Brett Cook-Dizney’s self-portrait. The colors he used were mainly bright. This usage of bright tones forced me to think about the reason he used them. Brett Cook-Dizney arranged the colors around his figure in such a way that the tones seemed to give the portrait a glow. He had many achievements that surrounded his painting that caused me to figure out why he used those bright colors; he was a bright young man. The painting had taken him three years to portray his feelings through his artistic approach. He had graduated high school in 1986, thirty years after Brown vs. Board. His work showed that there were still issues in racial equality in the school. Cook- Dizney’s self-portrait seemed to be a way to show the world how he wanted to be seen as opposed to how his teachers and peers saw him. In art he could paint himself in his true light. Cook-Dizney noticed that he had a shot at a bright future and owed much of it to the decision of Brown vs. Board. This court result offered him a chance to pursue a better education. You can see this in his work. He took his own critical approach to his self-image and made the viewer see him his way. This is an effective action for even the amateur art appreciator. After looking at this painting for a few minutes, you can feel the way he feels about the person he is and hopes to be. Brett Cook-Dizney had a couple more note-worthy paintings on display.