art history

Redefinition of Traditional Canon:

Decentering and Decolonizing of Art History

“Decentering the Canon” implies recognition and deconstruction of

Hierarchies

Power

Inequalities

Shaped by the Euro-American, white,

male dominated art world (Museum)

Black Models: From Géricault to Matisse, Musée D’Orsay

Western Culture/Art as superior African artifact as fetishized objects

New York, 1984 Paris, 2019

Renaming the title of Works

Marie Benoist, Portrait of Black Woman →Portrait of Madeleine, 1800

Manet, Olympia → Laure, 1865

Virtual Museum Field Trip

Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition

(February 29, 2020 – January 3, 2021)

Riffs and Relations

Guest curator Dr. Adrianne Childs

“Riff” - Musical term:

Respond/Reaction to well known canonical art

works critiquing them with irony or humor

Not to destroy but decenter the master pieces

African American Artists challenge

hierarchies, power, and inequalities

of European Modernist Tradition

* Insertion of their African Culture + Personal References

Robert Colescott, Sunday Afternoon with Joaquin Murietta

Renee Cox, Cousins at Pussy Pond

Mickalene Thomas, Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe: Les Trois Femmes

Titus Kaphar, Pushing Back the Light

Emma Amos, Malcom X

Lois Mailou Jones, Africa Sanford Biggers,

Negerplastik,

Ellen Gallagher, Odalisque

Janet Picket, And She was Born

Faith Ringgold, Picasso’s Studio

Mequetta Ahuja , Xpect

Hank Wills Thomas, Icarus,

Floor Plan

Gazing Back at Manet

Room 1

#1) Robert Colescott, Sunday Afternoon with Joaquin Murietta, 1980

Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863

#2) Renee Cox, Cousins at Pussy Pond, 2001

#3) Mickalene Thomas, Le Dejeuner sur L’herbe: Les Trois Femmes

Noires 2010, color photograph and paper collage on cardboard. 10 x 12 in.

Mickalene Thomas The Luncheon on the Grass: The Three Black Women 2010, c-print

#4) Titus Kaphar, Pushing Back the

Light, 2012, Tar encrusted

Claude Monet, Woman with Parasol -Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875

#5) Emma Amos, Malcom X Morley, Matisse

and Me, Acrylic on linen with African fabric

borders and photo transfer, 1993

Henri Matisse, Large Seated Nude, 1922-29 cast 1930, Bronze

Henri Matisse Blue Nude, 1907

Malcom Morley, El Palenque, 1988-89

Gazing Back at Manet

African Art &

Modernism Room 2

#6) Lois Mailou Jones, Africa, 1935

#7) Sanford Biggers, Negerplastik, 2016 Repurposed antique quilt, cotton fabric, tar, and glitter

Gazing Back at Manet

African Art & Modernism

Reckoning with Picasso & Matisse

Cubist Lineages

Reframing Impressionism

Room 3

#8) Ellen Gallagher, Odalisque, 2005

Gelatin silver print with watercolor

and gold leaf, edition of 15

Artist as a model Henri Matisse, Odalisque with Grey Trousers, 1927

Henri Matisse, with model for 'Odalisque' series, photo by Man Ray, 1928

#9) Janet Picket, And She was Born, 2017 Acrylic on canvas with collage

Henri Matisse, Interior with Egyptian Curtain, 1948

“There’s power in the deep rich blackness that She was born out of.”

Natural Fashion

#10) Faith Ringgold, Picasso’s Studio,

The French Collection, 1991: alter

ego Willa Marie Simone

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907

Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, ????Faith Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre, 1991, acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border

The French Collection: Willia Marie Simone

#11) Mequetta Ahuja,

Xpect, 2018, oil on canvas

Mequitta Ahuja, Le Damn, 2018

#12) Hank Wills Thomas, Icarus, 2016 Part of series All Things Being Equal

Henri Matisse, Icarus, from the book Jazz, 1947

Phillips Collection Virtual Tour

https://www.phillipscollection.org/event/2020-02- 29-riffs-and-relations-african-american-artists-and- european-modernist-tradition

Curator’s Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wL-NfBUZjI