The Right Places (Finding A Home For Black Artist)
Lois Mailou Jones (Dream of Nigeria)
Ya’qub Shabazz (Abstract Chokwe Mask)
Ernie Barnes (Sugar Shack)
“Black art has always existed. It just hasn’t been looked for in the right places.”
We walk into art galleries, museums, and even classrooms across the country and see all of the greats in European culture. Artists like Rembrandt, Pollock, Picasso, and Dali all on display and in the center of dialogues about the beauty and skill of European artists and the cultures that they represented with only token representation of equally skilled Black American artists. I want to be completely clear when I address the relationship between mainstream galleries and Black American artists because it is understood that many of these galleries and museums exists for the purpose of heralding the beauty and culture of the civilizations that were born of Greco-Roman and European expansion and colonization. It must also be stated that the visual arts are a universal language that speaks to the souls of humanity, and in my opinion, its voice resonates in ways greater than any other artistic expression. Artists across cultures borrow techniques, materials, and all manner of processes to better articulate their own cultural experiences to the rest of the world, and in this regard Black American artist is no different. In the 19th century, Black American artists learned the artistic languages of our captors and told all manners of stories using this new language. Artists like Edmona Lewis, Joshua Johnson, and Henry O. Tanner became masterful at capturing moments in time using a variety of mediums, and unfortunately, their names and their works have been largely ignored in academic circles. Sadly, many of these legendary artists were robbed of by advantageous collectors that would profit greatly from their names, and their estates. In later art periods (1920-1950), there was a cultural revolution in the world of visual arts among Black Americans. There are countless painters and sculptors that not only displayed tremendous skill but started the process of telling Black stories with a freedom that would inspire future generations of Black American artist to do the same, so the question at hand is what is the "right place" for Black art to be displayed today? If we follow in the discussions about Black art that were had by the great W.E.B. Dubois and Alain Locke we may come to the decision that the “role” of the Black American artists is to “use” their works as tools of propaganda aimed at changing not only how White America views the Black experience but to also show Black America that they are more than what has been displayed about us by the dominate society. Artists like Aaron Douglas and Archibald Motley sought to insert cultural themes into much of his artwork in order to inspire Black Americans towards outcomes beneficial to us on our own terms. When we learn the legacies of those artists that laid the foundations on which we stand we also learn that every place is the right place. We will create, we will develop, we home those artistic skills, we will learn our legacy in the visual arts community and our contributions, and most importantly we will do our best to infuse the cultural narrative of our people for future generations to learn from. I assume that it is clear that I am of the position that some of our work must be used to propagandize positivity and honest depictions of our innermost aesthetic beauty. As a visual artist I have to agree with some of Dubois’s arguments and some of Locke’s positions as well. It is both the role of the Black artists to propagandize the beauty of the Black American aesthetic as well as to promote ones individual tastes to the world in ways that are universal beautiful in ways that cross cultural barrier thereby adding beauty to humanity as a whole. So where is the right place for Black American artists to display their art? Simply put, everywhere where art is found and when the doors to the mainstream galleries are closed and/or only open on occasion to Black American artists we must become more resolute in or drive to create opportunities elsewhere to have our stories told on our terms.
