Summary Of Strange Fruit By Cerny

For women of color, it is as if society was against them two times. As if being a woman is not already hard enough, don’t throw race into the picture as well! As this piece was viewed, my mind could hear “Strange Fruit” playing in the background. The struggle of living during such a depressing time is visible in the gaze of Miss Holiday. Ironically enough, since this painting as well as others in the gallery were of African American jazz musicians, I assumed that the artist themselves would also be of African American decent and I was incorrect. This was only odd for the emotion stirred in me by the piece was far too spot. Although many aspects of African American culture is hard to grasp for someone who is not of that decent, Cerny does a
great job of capturing a mood of the times authentically. Cerny states on her FineArtAmericia page that she trained in non objective abstract expressionism at the Cooper Union Institute for Science and Art in New York City, 1956-59. This training influence is visibly be seen in other pieces of on display created by Cerny, as well as the one which was ultimately chosen for this analysis. The Joyce Gordon Gallery had a lot of her pieces, and the number of Jazz musicians she has painted speaks on her love for this period of music. She explained that “For the past 15 years I painted jazz musicians as they performed and from photos, in a small setting in Santa Barbara, CA. I was hired by the well known jazz historian, Ted Gioia, to illustrate for articles written about jazz musicians.” (fineartamericia). Painting artists live has to be a thrilling experience! It is far to make the assumption that this could potentially be a reason she does such a grand job capturing the emotions of the moment in time so flawlessly.

Overall, regardless of perceptions of the world around her, Cerny eloquently recreates one of her own paintings into another astounding piece of artwork. With the use of warm and generally neutral colors she takes our eyes on a trip full of detailed shadows and intricate flowers. Cerny does a great job of turning an already wonderful piece of art into something that is a totally different, but just as nice as the original. Suzanna Cerny is a perfect example of a great female artist that is not as well known as she should be.