Taking a Closer Look
Rosa Parks is described as a woman of quiet strength who has always taken a firm stand for what she believes in. In this painted-wood sculpture, Marshall D. Rumbaugh depicts Parks and the historical moment for which she is famous. The sculptor uses the visual language of folk art—forms that are often not realistically carved and anatomical distortion and exaggeration—to convey these character traits in his portrait of Parks in the clutches of two officers of the law.
How do the differences in proportion between Parks and her captors, as well as the flatness of the piece, help to communicate this message of determined resistance?