The Impact of Culture As Reflected through Artists Work By: Chris Conroy

My Story Over the years, we have come to learn and experience many different cultures. Its impact on us helps create and shape us to be the people we are today. We have both direct and indirect ways of inheriting these cultural characteristics and even building upon them ourselves. As a true artists work is a pure reflection of their life, we are given unlimited examples of how important one’s culture can really be.

Keith Haring was an American artist and political activist whose Pop Art/Graffiti Art became very prominent in the NYC street culture of the 1980’s. He was known for expressing the concepts of birth, death, sexuality, and war as experienced in this time period. His imagery is recognized as the visual language of the 20 th Century. This painting expresses the AIDS awareness movement which was increasingly heightened in the U.S. during the 1980’s as he was suffering from the virus as well.

-In Music, The Red Hot Chili Peppers can be seen as the quintessential California band. They emerged from the L.A. music scene in 1983 and went on to become one of the most powerful and influential Rock groups as their sound and tonality, along with their song lyrics, is a pure depiction of the culture they live in. -The themes they write about include introspective and personal thoughts, sexual innuendos, rebirth and the meaning of life, teenage angst, drugs, loneliness, love and romance, the pros and cons of Hollywood and “good- time aggression” to name a few. -Their 1999 hit “Californication” is a prime example of all of these themes and ideas.

The Wolf of Wall Street - In Cinema, we are presented with direct visual demonstrations of particular events in history. In this film, Leonardo Dicaprio plays the role of real life stock broker Jordan Belfort depicting his illegal and outlandish way of acquiring money in the stock market during the late 80’s and early 90’s which was common on Wall Street at the time.

In fashion, designer Jeremy Scott has been impacted by the cultural phenomenon of the DreamWorks Motion Picture “Shrek”. He has collaborated to design and make a collection of high end clothing representing the character.

Through cultural experience, we develop ways of communicating and labeling certain ideas. The website, Urban Dictionary ( is an online dictionary of slang words and phrases defined by its users. This website is a representation of our society building upon the vast cultures that exist today.

Bibliography shrek-in-his-spring-2015-collection html shrek-in-his-spring-2015-collection html new-york new-york