Stereotypes in the Arts

Artists use stereotypes for varied purposes, sometimes ironically or critically, other times as mere description.

Image: The photograph is of a three-dimensional artwork, a rectangular red box, standing upright on its shorter side, and open to the viewer. The inside of the box is covered with repeated images of Aunt Jemima. In the box stands an Aunt Jemima doll. An illustration of Aunt Jemima, holding a white infant, is superimposed over the lower two-thirds of the doll's body.
Caption: An advertisting image is used in Betye Saar's The Liberation of Aunt Jemima.
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum; purchased with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (Selected by the Committee for the Acquisition of Afro-American Art.) Photographed for the UC Berkeley Art Museum by Benjamin Blackwell.

"After a great deal of haggling and squabbling, Fagin beat down the amount of the required advance from five pounds to three pounds four and sixpence: protesting with many solemn asseverations that that would only leave him eighteenpence to keep house with."

Caption: Charles Dickens frequently refers to the villain, Fagin, only as "The Jew" in Oliver Twist.

Image: The image is a photograph of a painting which looks like a frame from a cartoon. A woman with yellow-blonde hair sits at a grand piano with the lid raised. She is wearing a low-cut white dress and a necklace. A thought bubble above her head reads, "ALTHOUGH HE HOLDS HIS BRUSH AND PALETTE IN HIS HANDS, I KNOW HIS HEART IS ALWAYS WITH ME!"
Caption: Stereotypical images, such as this cartoon, are used in the art of Roy Lichtenstein. This painting is entitled Girl at Piano.
Copyright - Estate of Roy Lichtenstein, used by permission.

Image: The image is a reproduction of a black and white photograph of an Asian woman's face. In the photograph, the woman is pointing to the edge of her left eye with the index finger of her left hand. Superimposed in white type over the image are the words "OBJECTIFIED OTHER."
Caption: References to Asian facial features are part of Yong Soon Min's photography. This example, Objectified Other, is from an installation of four photographs.
Photograph courtesy of Yong Soon Min.

Image: This photograph shows a silhouette of a jockey with Caucasian features standing on top of and riding a woman. He holds a whip in his right hand and dangles a carrot in front of the woman with his left hand. The woman has African American features and appears to wear a torn skirt; she is running. In the lower left corner a rabbit appears to be shooting a gun at the woman.

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