1
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120eea276948015b284c416a15b9d5a8
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Description
An account of the resource
* Apropriation: or Awareness?
* Grainy, blurriness of Black bodies - dehumanizing?
* Center focus
X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters)
Source
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1, 2, 3 and then MLA
Title
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<em>Birmingham Race Riot</em>
Contributor
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<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
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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>
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Title
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<em>Birmingham Race Riot</em>
Creator
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Warhol, Andy
Publisher
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Kristen Rudy, Collections Manager, Hofstra University Museum. 15 Nov 2017.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1964
Contributor
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<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Format
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50.8 x 61.0 cm
Type
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Screenprint on paper
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Hempstead: Hofstra University Museum
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>The name “Andy Warhol” is as ubiquitous in the American cultural landscape as Campbell’s soup cans are in grocery stores or Marilyn Monroe imagery on the internet. Commercializing consumer products and celebrities are how Warhol made his name and legend. Warhol’s name is not usually associated with the Civil Rights Movement or any form of identity politics activism. And yet, Warhol associated himself with the fight for American racial equality through this artwork.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span>This silkscreen, made in 1964, is manipulated by Warhol from a 1963 newspaper photograph documenting the Birmingham Civil Rights movement (Hofstra University Museum). Warhol’s use of another artist’s image without giving credit for the purpose of his own art is appropriation. However, given this artwork’s subjects -- a black human figure being attacked by two dogs -- the question arises of whether there is more than one type of appropriation occurring.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span>This image is being removed from the context provided by the newspaper and made to stand alone. The image is removed from time and space, requiring the viewer to see the image for what it is -- a human figure being attacked as other human figures standby. This act of violence, regardless of race or political views, could possibly be condemned as universally bad, if not for two features. Firstly, we cannot see the attacked human figure’s face, and therefore his humanity. Secondly, Warhol’s process of transforming a black-and-white newspaper-print photograph into a silk screen has blackened all of the print, rendering most of the figures with black skin to be just black skin and no faces (look to the figures in the background). Warhol has made the black bodies just that -- no longer black Americans or black humans, but black figures. These people, who at the time of Warhol showing this work were experiencing the battle between Jim Crow and Civil Rights, are made inhuman. These people are made art without their consent via Warhol’s appropriation of their body.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Warhol appropriated, but to what ends? What was his intention with this work? Was Warhol hoping to immortalize a moment of socio-political change or require the privileged urban gallery viewer north of the Mason-Dixon line to see oppression in black-and-white? Is this a commentary on how mass media such as newspapers were also commercial products producing and reproducing humans as media fodder? Or was Warhol producing Warhol -- the brand that created Gold Marilyn Monroe (1962) and Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) -- at the expense of objectifying and selling off of black bodies (Museum of Modern Art)? At the end of the day, does Warhol’s intentions in 1964 truly matter? Given who he branded himself then, who his work was shown and sold to, and how he is known now, then <a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/items/show/5">Michael Ray Charles</a>’ words regarding his own reception of his work may apply to this Warhol print:</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>But for the most part, collectively, I would say that blackness continues to hover around this comfort zone of entertainment—providers of entertainment. You know, I think those areas are pretty comfortable for whites to see blacks in (qtd. in Art21).</span></p>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ol><li>Hofstra University Museum. Museum label for Andy Warhol, <em>Birmingham Race Riot</em>. Hempstead, NY. 18 Dec 2017. </li>
<li>Museum of Modern Art. “Andy Warhol | MoMA.” <em>The Museum of Modern Art</em>, <a href="http://www.moma.org/artists/6246">www.moma.org/artists/6246</a>. </li>
<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>
activism
appropriation
black bodies
fine art
history
white artists
-
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dd06f89768874b9d1572a5e72a6cc04a
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>Captain Confederacy #4</em> (first series) [Cover]
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
25.6 x 14.3 cm
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
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013c3c5fe5a6892692116afb64916afe
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>Captain Confederacy #4</em> (first series) [Page 13 (three panels, bottom tier)]
Format
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12.7 x 16.5 cm
Contributor
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<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
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cad7c8e3d1b57dead20e062c5b61fa6e
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>Captain Confederacy #4</em> (first series) [Page 13 (two panels, top right)]
Format
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13.0 x 7.6 cm
Contributor
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<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
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0408d2cc0cad90dc66265e62869324aa
Dublin Core
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Title
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<em>Captain Confederacy #4</em> (first series) [Page 15 (full page)]
Format
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25.6 x 14.3 cm
Contributor
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<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Dublin Core
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Title
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Comics
Description
An account of the resource
Being my medium of academic interest, the comics used for this exhibit outnumber any other media in this exhibit. As such, they warrant their own collection. More than just the quantity of the presence, comics are an important medium when discussing black male representation. Comics use of both images and text for a mass consumer culture makes them accessible to all people: young and old, native speakers and foreigners, rich and poor. It does not cost much to make a comic -- a person just needs paper and a pen, not necessarily computers and crews. From there, a creator can create within the confines of the page and beyond, with only their imagination as their limit. The American Underground Comix and 80s and 90s West Coast Zine movements, as well as today's webcomic and crowdfunding comics, are a testament to the accessibility comic creators and readers have. Their mass consumer price and portability make them easily shared among the masses. Comics are the most democratic of mediums. As such, analyzing how black male bodies are created, consumed, and reproduced in comics is vital to understand black masculinity in culture. <br /><br />My selection criteria (in no particular order) for this collection is as followed: <br /><br /><ol><li>Does the comic 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 comic differs in genre, tone, and art style from the other three.</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
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<em>Captain Confederacy #4</em> (first series)
Creator
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Writer: Shetterly, Will.
Penciler and Inker: Stone, Vince.
Publisher
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Author (25 Oct 2017)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Dec 1986
Format
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25.6 x 14.3 cm
Type
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Ink on paper
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Hempstead: Hofstra University Library Special Collections
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>Whereas </span><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/exhibits/show/black-bodies-black-ink/item/6"><span>Warhol</span></a><span> frames dehumanized black bodies for gallery walls, Shetterly and Stone frames African-Americans for the mass public of 1986 (and the 21st-century, as Shetterly made most of the </span><a href="http://pictographist.blogspot.com/"><span>series available for free online</span></a><span>). Still, even with the restoration of human identity to black bodies, the positioning of Blacks within this comic reveals the comic medium’s tensions between breaking and needing tropes.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>One of the rebels, a Black man named Mr. X, tells Jeremy he distrusts the former poster boy of the Confederacy (see <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/34789/archive/files/53ba469f74105e77244cc9da44d5a31f.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI3ATG3OSQLO5HGKA&Expires=1515324705&Signature=aj9ykoRT4Mf6OI4LfRXvdHOE1CI%3D">Fig. 3</a>). Yet, two pages later, he is asking Jeremy to be the figure of the rebellion (see <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/34789/archive/files/79304c73db9b4d4d37f9a5c612ee9b7c.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI3ATG3OSQLO5HGKA&Expires=1515324769&Signature=S05JvOSTuMfwYcNr3eTokspZEfM%3D">Fig. 4</a>). He doesn’t trust Jeremy, yet he wants the man he said has not proven himself of the resistance’s protection to visually lead them. <em>Captain Confederacy</em> is Jeremy’s story, he experiences the hero’s journey. However, why is Mr. X not the hero?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span>Mr. X is already well-known and feared by the Confederacy for his rebellious actions, as Jeremy’s introduction states. He already is a symbol. He has proven his commitment to the cause and knows how to organize such far-flung allies as Kate and Kitsune. Surely he has the confidence to be a symbol of the resistance if his “Purple Rain”-era Prince appearance is any indication. Most importantly, though, Mr. X has a greater stake in dismantling the Confederacy. Mr. X, as a man of color, is a second-class citizen -- he is persecuted. Jeremy is not. The only reason Jeremy leaves the Confederate side is because his best friend -- a black man -- is killed by the Confederacy. Shetterly and Stone have a black man killed -- ending his story -- by the government to awaken the consciousness of a white man to save society. A superficial excuse is given for Jeremy wanting to directly fight the government (he needs an antidote from the government in order to live), but that does not mask the fact that </span><em>Captain Confederacy </em><span>is a white savior story. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Why do Shetterly and Stone make Jeremy the hero? According to Shetterly, it is because Jeremy, as an attractive white male, is the symbol of the Confederacy: “The way to weaken symbols is to subvert them. That was my intention when I wrote <em>Captain Confederacy</em>” (Shetterly). What this does is make the words “hero,” “South,” and “man” synonymous with the white race. Jeremy being Captain Confederacy does not so much weaken and subvert the symbol -- it reinforces that symbol’s ideology that white is right. Having a Black man free himself and his fellow citizens -- black and white -- would be the subversion. Instead, we have Mr. X made one-note by being having a white man tell the reader who he is rather than showing Mr. X’s character via his actions. Also, Mr. X’s Prince appearance is inappropriate. It lacks the militancy of Kitsune’s costume while looking diminutive and unimaginative to Captain Confederacy’s muscles and costume (see <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/34789/archive/files/b305f293ef3b4cbaec4c3f4cf2acdff2.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI3ATG3OSQLO5HGKA&Expires=1515324823&Signature=%2F9cv7S7Zx1f4iBTCpeYRH9VQ8ug%3D">Fig. 1</a>). Mr. X is grounded in the reader’s reality, not a heroic one, with his stereotypical, humorously out-of-place attire and accent. Mr. X is created and drawn to be read as Black. That is his character, and it shows <em>Captain Confederacy</em>’s failing</p>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-17ed6d5f-6c70-d261-1a16-9c66857fc756"><span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span>Despite noble intentions, </span><em>Captain Confederacy</em>'s<span> Achilles heel is the very thing it is satirizing: it is a story trying to show the stupidity of systemic racism, yet uses racist story tropes to send that message. As such, the message fails. The black body satirizing racism will be explored in other works </span><span>Charles’s </span><em><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/items/show/5">(Forever Free) Dress Your Best</a></em><span> (1999) or even Wiley’s </span><em><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/exhibits/show/black-bodies-black-ink/item/4">Ice T</a></em><span> (2005). In regards to </span><em>Captain Confederacy</em><span>, if </span><span>Fredrik Strömberg is correct in saying comics give </span><span>“a clear picture of the spirit of a certain time,” then it stands to reason that the picture “Captain Confederacy #4” gives three decades later is of a better world for white men -- and, therefore, Black men as well (Strömberg 23).</span></span>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ol><li>Shetterly, Will. “On Subverting Symbols, Why I Wrote Captain Confederacy, and the Current Confederate Flag Controversy.” <em>It's All One Thing</em>, Blogspot, 24 June 2015, <a href="shetterly.blogspot.com/2015/06/on-subverting-symbols-why-i-wrote.html">shetterly.blogspot.com/2015/06/on-subverting-symbols-why-i-wrote.html</a>. </li>
<li>Strömberg, Frederik. “Prologue.” <em>Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History, </em>by Frederik Strömberg, Fantagraphics, 2003, pp. 22-34.</li>
</ol>
activism
black bodies
black bodies in comics
black comics
black masculinity
black masculinity in comics
blackness and history
captain confederacy
comics
parody/satire
white artists