The Military Generals: Before and After by Manfred Zylla

374 Words2 Pages
This essay is to analyze an artwork named The Military General: Before and After by an artist named Manfred Zylla. He is a South African artist, who was highly against apartheid and so his art falls under the category of resistance art. The essay analyzes subject matter, focal point and style. The artwork was drawn in black and white crayon on brown paper. The subject matter of my artwork is socio-political. The artwork depicts two men in military uniforms as well as a man in a suit in the foreground. They are framed by a curtain and the background shows a collage of faded newspaper articles. In the after image these men’s faces have been obstructed by writing, this writing relates to apartheid issues. The writings as well as the uniforms the men are depicted in suggest that they were enforcers of apartheid. The obstruction of their faces also suggests that Zylla was against them. As mentioned in the last paragraph, the focal point of the before and after image sis the 3 men in the foreground. This is because the men are a) in the centre of the picture and b) drawn in more detail than the other elements in the artwork. However, in the after artwork the writings on top of and around the men draw your focus away from the men, as the writings are bold and colourful. Thus meaning that the writings become more of a focal point in the after image. There are different styles which apply to the different elements of this artwork. The newspaper articles in the background are overlapping, showing a collage style. The 3 main figures in the artwork are drawn in a representational style, it is this style because these 3 figures were most likely easily recognized by people living in South Africa during the apartheid and that is what the definition of representational specifies. In the after artwork, the writings covering the artwork are done with large bold lines;

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