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1556cf2906c16c22ec387a401958e105
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Description
An account of the resource
**Parenthetical citation
* Appropriation for discomfort
* commericalism
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>(Forever Free) Dress Your Best</em> (from the "Forever Free" series)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
1, 2, 3 and then MLA
Contributor
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<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Fine Art
Description
An account of the resource
"Fine Art" is a contentious term with its history of excluding media, expressions, artists, and ideologies. Personally, I am not fond of the term. However, in order to explore the representation of black males in comics, it is necessary to look at the history of black males in visual cultures. Comics do not exist in the vacuum; no art form does. Art is a dialogue between a creator or creators and some other, whether that other be a person, society, history, or something else altogether. The best way to show this continuum is to curate the selected comics for this exhibit in contrast to older artworks and art forms. The similarities and differences between these media in meaning and representation black male bodies have yielded insights. <br /><br />My selection criteria (in no particular order) for this collection is as followed: <br /><ol><li>Does the fine artwork offer unique insights to these questions: (a) How are these bodies represented and framed? (b) What are the intentions and effects of these bodies? (c) How can these bodies be received? (d) What are the semiotics of the black male body in this work?</li>
<li>Each piece has its own medium.</li>
</ol>
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>(Forever Free) Dress Your Best </em>(from the "Forever Free" series)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Charles, Michael Ray
Publisher
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Charles, Michael Ray. "<em>Forever Free Dress Your Best by Michael Ray Charles on artnet.</em>" Tony Shafrazi Gallery, artnet. h<a href="Charles,%20Michael%20Ray.%20">ttp://www.artnet.com/artists/michael-ray-charles/forever-free-dress-your-best-a-Yo-DWl7n3Sz_42DkjvawDA2</a>. Accessed 15 Nov 2017.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1999
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Format
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182.9 x 152.4 cm
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Acrylic Latex, Stain & Copper Penny on Canvas
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
New York City: Tony Shafrazi Gallery
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>With </span><em><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/items/show/1">Green Lantern: Mosaic #1</a></em><span>, the comics narrative was visually laid out beside the narrative of the advertisements. Like the medium, this comic maintains the conceit that there is a line differentiating between the artistic narrative and the commercial narrative. The two narratives share a cover, but you do not visually see Hamner’s John Stewart playing basketball with the basketball advertisement, or see the rocket from the rocket advertisement fly with John Stewart. There is a distinction. This distinction does not exist in Michael Ray Charles’s </span><span>(Forever Free) Dress Your Best</span><span>. In this work from his series, the art is an advertisement. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Charles has a minstrel character modeling a shirt for sale. We know this is a white actor in blackface not only from the red hair, but the minstrel “uniform” he is attired in black skin, white gloves, and large lips. This is a white man performing as a black man to sell whatever “dress[ing] your best” is. What is that concept? Perhaps it is the whiteness of the shirt being sold, or maybe it is the covering of flesh being advertised as best. Or, just as likely, it is what the minstrel character is not doing that is being sold as best.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The minstrel character is staring forward at the viewer as he is in mid-action putting on a white shirt. His smile and gaze is a frozen mask of the minstrel, but his actions are not. He is not moving in exaggerated motions or making odd faces. There is no outrageous posture or dance moves. The character is performing blackness visually without acting black. The audience knows this is not a Black man, but the ad is selling what is not Blackness -- control, respectability, whiteness. Hence why there needs to be a white actor playing a Black person, it would not visually be transmitted that whiteness is being sold to a Black man.That is what dressing your best is (and has been, given the aged appearance of the artwork). Your best is your whiteness.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>This art piece provides a useful commentary on the black body by showing what Blackness has historically (and perhaps presently) means: not white. Charles notes that his advertisement art </span><span>“ is just as much white as they are black”; the same could be said about all discussions of whiteness or blackness (Art 21). When we distinguish between these two races, whether in fine art like this or in comics’ white and black figures like in </span><em><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/exhibits/show/black-bodies-black-ink/item/2">Captain Confederacy #4</a></em><span>, we are highlighting more similarities than differences. </span></p>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-17ed6d5f-6d60-df9f-fa5c-ff3eefc76941"><span>So who is a Black male? In visual arts, every human is a representation. A representation claims not to be what it shows but an image of it. Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is not claiming to be Marilyn Monroe. But Charles notes that concepts like whiteness and blackness are “re-appropriated and re-presented” (</span><span>ibid</span><span>). To Charles, the concept of blackness is what is shows -- blackness. It is not represented as being what it is not but is what it is. Perhaps this is where the tension and discomfort of works representing minstrel figures or </span><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/exhibits/show/black-bodies-black-ink/strange-fruit"><span>Black male figures adorned in Confederate flags</span></a><span> come from. The figures will always be representations, but the concepts and history behind them are presentations. They are always present.</span></span>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ol><li>Art21. “Advertising and Art: Michael Ray Charles.” <em>Art21</em>, PBS, <a href="art21.org/read/michael-ray-charles-advertising-and-art/">art21.org/read/michael-ray-charles-advertising-and-art/</a>.</li>
</ol>
appropriation
black art
black artists
black masculinity
fine art
minstrelsy
pardoy/satire
stereotypes
visual culture