Identity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. - See
more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.4OD1YWDz.dpuf
Identity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. - See
more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.CpxcUFq9.dpuf
Identity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. - See
more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.CpxcUFq9.dpuf
dentity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, - See more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.CpxcUFq9.dpuf
Identity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. - See
more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.CpxcUFq9.dpuf
Identity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. - See
more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.CpxcUFq9.dpuf
Identity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and video drawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. - See
more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.CpxcUFq9.dpuf
Identity,
triumph, tragedy, pride, prejudice, humor and wit. 30 Americans: An
exhibition bound by one nation and divided by 30 experiences. A dynamic
showcase of contemporary art by African American artists, this
exhibition explores issues of racial, political, historical and gender
identity in contemporary culture. See more than 50 paintings,
sculptures, installations, photographs and videodrawn from the Rubell
Family Collection, created by many of the most important African
American artists working over the past 30 years, including Kerry James
Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Kehinde Wiley,
Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon and Lorna Simpson. - See
more at:
http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4998&iid=#sthash.4OD1YWDz.dpuf
![]() |
Fig 1. Equestrian Portrait of the Count Duke
Olivares, 2005 by Kehinde Wiley img source: https://rfc.museum/30a |
Children
are the most easily impressionable victims of indoctrination. Gary
Simmon's 1992 installment piece, Duck, Duck, Noose, offers a haunting
reminder that childhood is no exception to the violence permeating every
aspect of segregated society. A circle of small desk chairs evokes
memories of the classic schoolyard game, Duck, Duck Goose. Rather than a
figure in each chair, child-size Klan hoods stare blankly from the
wooden seats. A noose, the titular twist referencing lynchings, hangs
down into the middle of the scene.
I
found Kara Walker's 1998 Camptown Ladies to be particularly
educational. Having grown up with the titular--seemingly
innocent--campfire song myself, I was horrified to learn of its sinister
implications. As a viewer, I was confronted by two full walls of black
silhouetted figures and scenery, illustrating the depravity within the
lyrics. Among the more disturbing portrayals are a caricatured man
being ridden like a horse, and a woman running with a carrot in her
anus. Considering the outline-only nature of silhouettes, Walker makes a
point to ask her viewers why we continue to interpret some figures as
white people and some as black people.
In
order to reclaim historical visibility, several artists reinvent
"classical" Western art with Black protagonists. Barkley L. Hendricks'
1975 portrait, Fast Eddie, perfectly parallels Michelangelo's David (fig. 2.)
Kehinde Wiley's 2005 painting, Equestrian Portrait of the Count Duke
Olivares (fig. 1,) features a modern Black man atop a white steed, brandishing
his sword and shield. Proud Black men are inserted as Renaissance
knights, Greek gods and other traditional hero figures.
![]() | ||
Fig. 2 Fast Eddie by Barkley L. Hendricks img source: https://rfc.museum/30a |
Perhaps
the biggest shortcoming of first-wave feminism is its lack of minority
representation. Women of Color struggled to find empathy for their
unique concerns, let alone an adequate platform upon which to express
themselves. Amid the quest to empower "the fairer sex," even the
language used perpetuated Western ideology. From the fight for women's
suffrage through the popularized images of Rosie the Riveter, the
feminist movement's politicized fight for "equality" consistently failed
to recognize, and actively excluded, Women of Color.
The
60s Civil Rights Movement challenged the West's outdated, ethnocentric
beauty ideals. Innovative campaigns, including "Black is Beautiful,"
fought against the damaging psychological effects of centuries of
internalized racism by promoting self-love and cultural pride within the
Black Community. Mickalene Thomas' 2005 portrait, Hotter than July,
bejewels the subject's full lips, natural hair and dark areolas. By
emphasizing physical traits we view as traditionally African, Thomas
draws appreciation to the uniquely feminine aesthetic of African
American women.
Lorna
Simpson's 1994 serigraph, Wigs, deconstructs a long and painful history
of forced conformity to Western ideology. I stood beneath a staggering
display of hairstyles, reading testament after testament to the intense
societal pressures placed on Women of Color to alter their appearance
according to their surroundings. I tried to imagine the anxiety of
selecting a wig for every occasion and realize a glaring absence.
Not
among the wide range of styles detailed as situationally appropriate
for Women of Color were any representations of natural hair, revealing
the depths of our country's determination to separate the Black
community from definitions of "beautiful." A lifetime of
criticism--nuanced and explicit--must take an unimaginable toll on a
person's self-esteem. I lament that even today, the less African a
person looks--whether referring to skin color, hair texture or other
physical features--the "easier" his or her life will be in our biased
society. 30 Americans brilliantly encourages us to journey together,
beyond the precipice and toward a new Enlightenment, in which we are all
truly equals.
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