{"id":1840,"date":"2023-04-23T16:18:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T08:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2023-04-23T16:18:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T08:18:41","slug":"a-monumental-survey-of-black-figurative-painting-exposes-the-limits-of-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/a-monumental-survey-of-black-figurative-painting-exposes-the-limits-of-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Monumental Survey of Black Figurative Painting Exposes the Limits of Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
Zandile Tshabalala:\u00a0Two Reclining Women<\/em>, 2020.<\/span>COURTESY ZANDILE TSHABALALA STUDIO<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

The title of this exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art<\/a> in Cape Town is a riff on Ava Duvernay\u2019s 2019 Netflix series \u201cWhen They See Us,\u201d about the Central Park Five, a group of Black teenagers who in 1989 were falsely accused of murdering a white jogger, then exonerated 13 years later. Flipping the phrase to \u201cWhen\u00a0We<\/em>\u00a0See Us,\u201d curators Koyo Kouoh and Tandazani Dhlakama signal an attempt to correct the negative bias through which Black life is seen\u2014and written and spoken about. Across 200 paintings by 156 Black African and diasporic artists, whose works span the early 21st century up through 2022, the show asks a question with aesthetic, philosophical, political, and social implications: How have Blackness and Africanness been depicted?<\/p>\n

Taken together, the cast of characters in these paintings is incredibly varied: lovers, healers, heroes, villains, and mystical creatures engage in worship and dancing; running and fighting; reading, lounging, sleeping, and reflecting. On the whole, the show\u2019s framework suggests a sense of positivity attained through pride and self-recognition. Large swaths of the show focus specifically on Black joy: there\u2019s Moke\u2019s 1983\u00a0Kin oy\u00e9 ou Coulier Madiokoko \u00e0 Matonga<\/em>, which depicts a group of men and women dancing in a club radiating with dim, rainbow lights, and Joy Labinjo\u2019s\u00a0Gisting in the Kitchen<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2018), in which three women appear to gossip in a cheerful orange room.<\/p>\n

Another significant portion of the show highlights contemporary works featuring figures with exaggeratedly black, even jet-black skin, like Kwesi Botchway\u2019s\u00a0Green Earflip Cap<\/em>\u00a0(2020), Zandile Tshabalala\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Conversation\u00a0<\/em>(2020), Amoako Boafo\u2019s\u00a0Teju\u00a0<\/em>(2019), and Cinga Samson\u2019s\u00a0Ibhungane 16<\/em>\u00a0(2020). Tshabalala\u2019s\u00a0Two Reclining Women<\/em>\u00a0is a striking standout: bright-red lipstick and leopard print nightgowns leap off the canvas, showing two women with shaved heads lounging luxuriously on a sofa.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
Mok\u00e9:\u00a0Kin oy\u00e9 ou Coulier Madiokoko \u00e0 Matonga<\/em>, 1983.<\/span>MOK\u00c9: COURTESY MAGNIN-A GALLERY, PARIS<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Both the overbearing optimism and focus on skin tone pose problems. One cannot help but wonder about the limits of the show\u2019s optimistic spin in the face of continued anti-Blackness worldwide. In her catalogue essay, Dhlakama quotes writer Kevin Quashie, who laments that \u201cnearly all of what has been written about Blackness assumes that Black culture is, or should be, identified by resistant expressiveness\u2014a response to racial oppression.\u201d Still, she writes that the exhibition was formulated to counter that prevailing sentiment of exploitation and persecution. It\u2019s an understandable impulse, but at times, it feels forced, as if stemming from a need to prove something about Blackness or Africanness.<\/p>\n

The exaggeratedly black skin tone can be traced back to artists like Kerry James Marshall<\/a> and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye\u2014but it\u2019s unclear what the new generation is doing to advance or complicate the technique. And it\u2019s important to do so, since its prevalence can play into tropes of easy visibility and representation without always challenging how the Black body is seen. When artists draw such a tight connection between Black life and Black skin, they risk positioning the Black body as a gimmick.<\/p>\n

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\n
\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>
Amy Sherald:\u00a0Varsity Girl<\/em>, 2016.<\/span>\u00a9AMY SHERALD\/ COURTESY HAUSER & WIRTH, NEW YORK<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The paintings in the show that depict groups rather than individual figures, especially those by older and historical artists like Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, Meleko Mokgosi, Fred Oduya, Beauford Delaney, Helen Sebidi, and Maria da Silva, deal more pointedly with social and political issues. Mokgosi\u2019s\u00a0Pax Kaffraria:Graase-Mans<\/em>\u00a0(2014) is a 30-foot-wide triptych that, in combining several scenes, reflects the richness and plurality of Black life. In one scene, a helper cares for a small child as a man cleans his stoop with a bucket and cloth; in another, a man leans back in a chair in what looks like a classroom. The work forms part of Mokgosi\u2019s exploration of transnationality and \u201cAfricanness,\u201d paying close attention to Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe as case studies. It reflects on quieter and ordinary moments that make up daily life outside grand narratives about colonialism
\nand its afterlives.<\/p>\n

Uneven as it necessarily is, given its size, \u201cWhen We See Us<\/a>\u201d unambiguously succeeds in one respect; it brings lesser-known artists to new audiences: an artwork by self-taught Louisiana painter Clementine Hunter\u2014among the earliest pieces in the show\u2014introduces the artist to viewers on the continent. The task of \u201cWhen We See Us\u201d is urgent and timely, and it reflects the need to expand the language of Black art and to reassess the limits of figurative painting. It has become too easy to think the art world has transformed and become more diverse simply because we\u2019re seeing more Black faces on the walls at art fairs and in museum and gallery exhibitions. But seeing is not enough, and eye-catching images of Black bodies can shift attention away from pressing social and political issues. Nevertheless, these failures, tensions, and contradictions open the door for generative questioning that will fuel the way forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zandile Tshabalala:\u00a0Two Reclining Women, 2020.COURTESY ZANDILE TSHABALALA STUDIO The title of this exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town is a riff on Ava Duvernay\u2019s 2019 Netflix series \u201cWhen They See Us,\u201d about the Central Park Five, a group of Black teenagers who in 1989 were falsely accused of murdering a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-artist","7":"category-auction","8":"category-events","9":"category-gallery","10":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"\nA Monumental Survey of Black Figurative Painting Exposes the Limits of Representation - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The title of this exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town is a riff on Ava Duvernay\u2019s 2019 Netflix series \u201cWhen They See Us,\u201d about the Central Park Five, a group of Black teenagers who in 1989 were falsely accused of murdering a white jogger, then exonerated 13 years later.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/a-monumental-survey-of-black-figurative-painting-exposes-the-limits-of-representation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Monumental Survey of Black Figurative Painting Exposes the Limits of Representation - 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