BLACK REPRESENTATION

During the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, African Americans that had escaped the South’s violent conditions during the Great Migration began to cultivate a new image of Black American identity—one that was self-constructed and spoke to their accomplishments and contributions to the nation, particularly in the arts. This portfolio includes works that bridge early representations with contemporary ones and emphasize the cyclical nature of race relations and importance of agency. Themes addressed include cultural symbolism; art and representation; omitted histories, and connections between the past and present.

Romare Bearden (American, 1911-1988)

Romare Bearden’s densely-layered collages combine found images, text, paint, and varnish to reflect the positive and negative realities of Black life in the United States during the twentieth century. These four prints—part of the six-print Ritual Bayou series— are adapted from paintings of similar subjects. In them, Bearden evokes Black life in the South, in particular the strength of African American women and the lush richness of the landscape.

Accession Number: 1983.34.2

Title: Byzantine Frieze (from the series Ritual Bayou),

Date: 1971

Medium: Lithograph collage

KEYWORDS

national identity; folklore; women; race; the Black experience; the South; conjure woman; Black representation.

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Al Loving (American, 1935-2005)

Al Loving’s art explored a linear, geometric style of abstraction. Loving was a committed activist as well as an artist, participating in a variety of Civil Rights and related actions throughout 1060s and 70s. He came under criticism from many of his fellow Black activists whom regarded his work as failing to capture the Black experience. He would eventually adopt a new aesthetic influenced by quilting, jazz, and the collage work among other Black source materials.

Accession Number: 2016.3.14

Title: Untitled

Date: 1969

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Rights: Image courtesy the Estate of Al Loving and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

KEYWORDS

modern art; abstract; racial tensions; geometric abstraction; Whitney Museum of Art; Black representation.

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Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960)

Lorna Simpson metaphorically calls attention to the racial or gendered “surface” of the figures presented in the works. This print appropriates images from late 19th and early 20th century tabloids, one depicting the suicide of two sisters and the other presenting the execution of two fugitive slaves. Juxtaposing these two images on the unconventional felt surface, Simpson encourages viewers to contemplate historical constructions and representations of race and gender.

Accession Number: 2020.2

Title: Untitled (from SITE Santa Fe Benefit),

Date: 1995

Medium: Four-color electrostatic heat transfer on felt

Rights: © Lorna Simpson. Image courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

KEYWORDS

slavery; history; gender; intersectionality; tabloids; Black representation; the Black experience. VIEW

OBJECT FILE

Shawn Theodore (American, b. 1970)

Shawn Theodore’s work is characterized by a consistent affirmation of visual storytelling that presents Black identity beyond a uniform understanding. Theodore met and photographed poet Amanda S. Gorman in Los Angeles in 2018. Amanda S. Gorman is the first National Youth

Poet Laureate. Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb, which she delivered at the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States, has drawn national and international praise for its call for unity, action and change.

Accession Number: 2021.4

Title: Portrait of Amanda S. Gorman

Date: 2018

Medium: Archival pigment print

Rights: © Shawn Theodore. Image courtesy of Kahn Contemporary

KEYWORDS popular culture; politics; poetry; portraiture; Black representation; advocacy.

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Kara Walker (American, 1969)

Kara Walker is known for her use of cut-paper silhouette to unpack themes of slavery, brutality and racism in the antebellum South. Creating compositions that play with racial stereotypes, her medium belies disturbing narratives, illustrated through grotesque, mangled figures. the series, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), Walker enlarged illustrations from the original 1860s anthologies and overlaid them with her work to reveal the African American participants left out from the historical record.

Accession Number: 2013.34.154

Title: Scene of McPherson’s Death, from the portfolio Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated)

Date: 2005

Medium: Offset lithography and silkscreen

Rights: © Kara Walker

KEYWORDS

slavery; history; gender; intersectionality; historical omission; Black representation; grotesque.

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Hank Willis Thomas (American, b. 1976)

Hank Willis Thomas addresses themes of identity, history, and popular culture. Part of the series Strange Fruit, this photograph comments on black male identity through the mirroring of a sharecropper and modern-day football player on a playing field. The line of scrimmage breaks the composition into past and present, creating a parallel between the economies of contemporary sports and southern sharecropping.

Accession Number: 2014.1.25

Title: The Cotton Bowl

Date: 2011

Medium: Digital C-print

Rights: © Hank Willis Thomas. Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

KEYWORDS

racial inequality; the Black experience; childhood; slavery; history; agriculture; sports; modern culture; Black representation; exploitation; double consciousness; W.E.B. DuBois.

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Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917-2000)

Jacob Lawrence got his start painting scenes of everyday life in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s, and while his medium would evolve later in his career, his focus remained representations of African American history and culture. In Revolt on the Amistad, he carefully rendered the violent details, blending his signature bright colors and dynamic forms with the pain, struggle, triumph and hope of Black life in America.

Accession Number: 1995.26

Title: Revolt on the Amistad

Date: 1989

Medium: Silkscreen

KEYWORDS

slavery; history; violence; memory; death; collage; Black representation.

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Whitfield Lovell (American, b. 1959)

Central to each of Whitfield Lovell’s works is a drawing based on a photograph from his extensive personal archive, most of which date from the end of Reconstruction to World War II. By creating new personas and settings for these previously anonymous figures, Lovell recuperates the private everyday lives that are often effaced byhistoriesfocusingonheroicdeeds,inparticular those dating from the more well-known eras of Reconstruction and Civil Rights.

Accession Number: 2015.10

Title: Patience

Date: 2004

Medium: Charcoal on wood, radio

KEYWORDS

slavery; history; Reconstruction; memory; archival; objects; Black representation.

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