Interpretation of "The Family 1941"

Interpretation of "The Family 1941” by Romare Bearden
Name
Course
Instructor
Date
The picture has an African American family consisting of a man, wife and their child, with the husband seemingly raising his hand as if to object to something being said or prove a point. The family sits around the table, with the mother holding the child, and there is a fork, salt shaker and potato which show that the family is humble. Nonetheless, Bearden seeks to show the family’s routine with the painting seemingly abstract. In the picture, the father, mother and child occupy more space than other elements, showing that the family 1941 depicted social relations in African American families.
In the painting, the family members have faces resembling masks and this could be the artist’s experimentation with style, but there are elements of cubism in the painting. Focusing on the family and the surrounding shows that Bearden intended to show the African American family to be like the typical family in America. The father’s hand gesture draws attention to the painting whereby he occupies the bigger part of the table. The m...