1
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120eea276948015b284c416a15b9d5a8
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
* Apropriation: or Awareness?
* Grainy, blurriness of Black bodies - dehumanizing?
* Center focus
X + X (Ten Works by Ten Painters)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
1, 2, 3 and then MLA
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Birmingham Race Riot</em>
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
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>Birmingham Race Riot</em>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Warhol, Andy
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
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
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
50.8 x 61.0 cm
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
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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cc73d80d5ba819d2c1710ce1da709c0b
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>Ice T</em>
Description
An account of the resource
**Parenthetical citation
* Diff type of appropriation (Reverse appropriation)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
1, 2, 3 and then MLA
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
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>Ice T</em>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Wiley, Kehinde
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Wiley, Kehinde. "<em>Ice T</em>." Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, National Portrait Gallery. <a href="http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/recognize/paintings.html">http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/recognize/paintings.html</a>. Accessed 15 Nov 2017.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2005
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a href="https://comicsverse.com/author/o0rayday0o/">Rachel Davis</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
243.8 x 182.9 cm
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oil 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
Washington D.C.: National Portrait Gallery
Description
An account of the resource
<p dir="ltr"><span>The artwork that offers the loudest dialogue to </span><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/items/show/6"><span>Warhol</span></a><span> and the Western art canon, in general, is Kehinde Wiley’s portraits of men of color. The similarities and differences between Warhol’s <em>Birmingham Race Riot</em> and Wiley’s <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Ice T</span> are fascinating. Warhol appropriated a newspaper photograph documenting the Civil Rights Movement. Wiley appropriates the icons, colors, and medium of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s 1806 </span><em><a href="http://www.musee-armee.fr/en/collections/museum-treasures/object.html?tx_mdaobjects_object%5Baction%5D=show&tx_mdaobjects_object%5Bcontroller%5D=Object&tx_mdaobjects_object%5BidContentPortfolio%5D=537&tx_mdaobjects_object%5Bobject%5D=551&cHash=d5b34980f2912c609d32c6e45f75d5d7">Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne</a></em><span>. Warhol took the photograph out of its newspaper context to make it into a piece of art -- a Warhol piece of art. Wiley adds context by replacing Napoleon Bonaparte with American gangster rapper Ice T, creating a new meaning using an established Western image of the royal white male ruler. Warhol’s work was for the elite art world. Wiley’s <em>Ice T</em> belongs to the National Portrait Gallery -- it belongs to the American people. Ice T is an American artwork in the mold of the American Dream. What is the American Dream but the promise of the self-made man regardless of birth lineage? And which man has made more of himself from the humblest of beginnings than the African-American? Unlike Shetterly and Stone in </span><em><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/items/show/2">Captain Confederacy</a></em><span>, Wiley puts the Black man as the nation’s victorious symbol.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span>This painting is, like </span><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/exhibits/show/black-bodies-black-ink/forever-free-dress-your-best"><span>Michael Ray Charles</span></a><span>’s work, is visually striking. It is meant to stir emotion and have the viewer question history with its use of a Black man in casual attire (cap, black sneakers, black sweatpants). Two noteworthy differences between this painting and the Ingres one is the positioning of the subject’s heads and the placement of the ermine hood. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Napoleon looks straightforward at the viewer (Musée de l'Armée). His head is as level as his gaze upon the viewer. Ice T’s head, however, is tilted upwards, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his forehead. We the viewer are looked down upon by him -- why? Is Ice T’s head tilt another symbol like the throne and scepters of his superiority over the reader? Or is he wary of the viewer? A Black man growing up in a racist society ascend to a throne. What did Ice T have to endure, what sacrifices and sins did he commit, to make it to that hallowed seat? What sacrifices and sins did the Black men who did not make it to the throne endure? Whether tilted in superiority or defense, Ice T does not gaze directly at t, e viewer unlike Napoleon, making it easier for the viewer to gaze upon him without the fear of “being caught.”</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span>Secondly, Napoleon wears the royal ermine, his “head emerging from a body drowned in an imposing costume, [the attire] effectively sets it apart from the [then] usual depictions of the emperor” (Musée de l'Armée). Ice T’s ermine is splayed across the throne he sits, leaving his bare, muscled arms visible as it holds the same scepters Napoleon does. Ice T does not envelope himself in the traditional attire of divine, empirical power. Instead, he wears the clothes of any American: comfy, affordable, and accessible. Yet his attire is black, like his flesh. His arms, like </span><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/exhibits/show/black-bodies-black-ink/green-lantern-mosaic--1"><span>John Stewart</span></a><span>’s and the alien in </span><em><a href="http://wst198.omeka.net/exhibits/show/black-bodies-black-ink/strange-fruit">Strange Fruit</a></em><span><em>,</em> are his power. Once again, the Black man’s power is made physical -- he is made physical. Wiley’s Studio states that his works blur “the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation and the critical portrayal of masculinity and physicality as it pertains to the view of black and brown young men” (Kehinde Wiley Studio). Is that occurring here, where once again the Black man’s physicality is on display as his power? </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span></span><span>There are neither singular nor simple answers to these questions. The lack of a singular and simple answer for a work about black masculinity is a triumph. Again like Warhol, Wiley’s work succeeds in provoking questions, and with a history of reducing black men to the same stereotypes and roles, provoking questions is a form of resisting racist and sexist representations.</span></p>
<div><span> </span></div>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<ol><li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span>Musée de l'Armée. “Napoleon I on the Throne or His Majesty the Emperor of the French on His Throne by Ingres.” </span><span>Musée De L'Armée</span><span>, 10 Dec. 2012, </span><a href="http://www.musee-armee.fr/en/collections/museum-treasures/object.html?tx_mdaobjects_object%5Baction%5D=show&tx_mdaobjects_object%5Bcontroller%5D=Object&tx_mdaobjects_object%5BidContentPortfolio%5D=537&tx_mdaobjects_object%5Bobject%5D=551&cHash=d5b34980f2912c609d32c6e45f75d5d7"><span>www.musee-armee.fr/en/collections/museum-treasures/object.html?tx_mdaobjects_object%5Baction%5D=show&tx_mdaobjects_object%5Bcontroller%5D=Object&tx_mdaobjects_object%5BidContentPortfolio%5D=537&tx_mdaobjects_object%5Bobject%5D=551&cHash=d5b34980f2912c609d32c6e45f75d5d7</span></a><span>.</span></p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr"><span></span>Kehinde Wiley Studio. “KEHINDE WILEY STUDIO: Brooklyn, NY.” Kehinde Wiley Studio, <a href="kehindewiley.com/about/">kehindewiley.com/about/</a>.</p>
</li>
</ol>
appropriation
black art
black artists
black bodies
black masculinity
blackness and history
fine art
history
parody/satire