Silent Generation Research Paper

Art and Graphic Design in the Silent Generation
Reaching adulthood between 1946-1963, the Silent Generation had witnessed the Great Depression and World War II in their youth. Following the Greatest Generation and all their accomplishments, the Silent Generation had big shoes to fill, but they preferred to consume rather than create. Although it was named the Silent Generation, not all the generation were silent,” there were some loud people of this Generation that spoke out for civil and women’s rights and would inspire the generation and future generations to come. However, the term Silent Generation was because they were a cautious, unadventurous and withdrawn generation, with no real power or agenda, they rather lived a conservative lifestyle.
Extraordinary people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X would all be the voice for African American’s and people of color, calling for an end to segregation and equal rights for all. This would start the civil rights movement.
Women were pressured to stay in the home, after all, the progression Women had made through keeping the factories running in the Lost Generation and winning the right to have a voice and vote, it was in the Silent Generation, that this progression slowed down. A woman’s role is to be a stay at home mom looking after their husband and children and putting herself last. The phrase “children should be seen but not heard,”(Study.com) came from this generation. There was an aspiration for perfection within the nuclear family. These new pressures were exposed through books, telling the real story of how women felt in these forced gender roles. These books would be the starting ground for the Women’s Rights movements in the next generation.
Abstract Expressionism through artists like Jackson Pollock continued into the Silent Generation, along with artists like the Dutch-American, Willem de Kooning.
Similar to Pollock, de Kooning painted with aggressive paint strokes, but “maintained a commitment to the figurative tradition” (Artsy) where Pollock was straying away from the form. De Kooning’s study of the female figure created a controversial body of work, known as his “Women” Paintings. The writer who wrote the catalogue for de Kooning’s show in Venice in 1954, “described them in terms that revealed a clear engagement with the Jungian archetypes so prevalent within the 1950’s constructions with gender, while simultaneously identifying the ‘Women’ with violence and destruction” (Barber, pg. 14). The violence and destruction could be seen with his use of sharp motioned strokes on the canvas. MoMA best describes his emotions behind the painting as a reflection of “the age–old cultural ambivalence between reverence for and fear of the power of the feminine.” This was a period where there were clearly defined gender roles, but also at the same time, they were being protested through woman’s rights activists. I feel this is what MoMA was describing, he was respecting both the women and fearing their power. Women had achieved so much up to this point, proving they are stronger and stronger in each generation, and although they were pressured to stay at home, there is strength required to raise children and a husband as well as the strength that women had to argue the gender
roles.
Another art movement that was brought about from abstract expressionism was color-field paintings, with Mark Rothko leading the way. Although he was born in Russia, he lived in the U.S from the age of 10 and all his works were created in New York. A complete new movement looking at blocks of color on a canvas. It could be said; Rothko was looking at changing up the art world during this time. Studying the human form in his earlier art, he had now moved on to using the color as the pure focal point of the piece. Questioning what made the art, the actual form and strokes or the colors. There was the air of consumerism in the silent generation, and the newest items were to be had. The technology was growing with the introduction of the television. The generation was looking for new and exciting items to have, and I could see the bold color choices of Rothko’s work being appreciated for its innovation.
Although this was a generation that made incredible movements for civil rights in America, most of the nation was conservative and did not like making too many waves. Their art almost echoed in a similar way, following on from the abstract expressionism of the greatest generation. I do have to wonder if they did just want to go with the flow because of how turbulent the war had been when they were growing up and they just wanted some peace or were they knowingly not competing because they didn’t think they could with the Greatest Generation before them? I would argue it could be a bit of both, they had seen so much, they just wanted to have a period without destruction and the hardships of war.