For the Ted Talk I choose to listen to and dig deeper into was was Titus Kaphar. In his Ted Talk, Can Art Amend History? Titus Kaphar demonstrates and explains how African Americans were treated and depicted in art throughout history. Throughout his Ted Talk Titus refers to a trip he took to the museum with his kids. At the museum there was a statue of Teddy Roosevelt riding on a horse while on his left was a Native American and an African American. Titus’s son says “Dad how come he gets to ride, and they have walk” referring to the Native and African American. This question let Titus to think deeply about how african americans are depicted in art all throughout history. Another example from his Ted Talk was an image of an white family with an African American child in the background, but the child was kinda blurred in the background. The viewer didn’t really notice the African American child because he was depicted as part of the background like he was not even there. Titus Kaphar wants to be able to amend histories paintings to show that African Americans and other minorities are more visible.
The article “Is Art a Waste of Time” written by Rhys Southan demonstrates his views on art and the EA’s views. This article most demonstrated the views of the EA on the importance of life. The EA’s ideas are that you should give ten percent of your salary to people in need. One part of the article was explained how the EA believes people should be happy and not suffer, but then the EA explains how people should have high paying jobs just to give back to the poor and needy. The EA also believes that art is a distraction to the real horrors of the world. One quote stated “working hard to earn money and then giving as much of it as you can to the needy”, this is showing that the EA would rather people work and give money to be happy with their own job and life. At the ending of the article Southan states his own opinion by saying “I’m not ready to give up writing. I’m not ready to take up some high-paid job that I’d hate in order to reduce the world’s suffering”
I agree and disagree with both Rhys Southan and Titus Kaphar, throughout both their arguments. When Titus Kaphar demonstrates how African American people were mistreated I agree with that statement. I also agree with the EA’s views on everyone should be happy and people including myself should try and do what we can to help reduce the suffering throughout the world. Even though I agree with this, I disagree with the argument that people should have high paying jobs even if they don’t like it, just so they can give to the needy. Titus Kaphar demonstrates that we should amend histories artwork to fix how minorities are depicted throughout history, I found this very interesting but in my opinion we should start making new pieces of art that demonstrate everyone how they should be treated. I believe we should not try to change the past but learn from it instead.
