A reading of two artworks through the essential perspective of Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is an inter-disciplinary movement used by scholars to study themes of race, power systems, civil rights etc. in various fields of academia. According to Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic in their book, ‘Critical Theory: An Introduction’ (1995), CRT was first formulated by Derrick Bell, an American lawyer and started off as a movement to analyze how various aspects of life are shaped by conceptions of race. Despite its origins in legal practices, CRT can be (and is) applied to various fields of intellectual discourse such as art history. After outlining the tenets of CRT (as laid out by Delgado and Stefancic), I will provide examples of two artworks, Fon Americanus by Kara Walker (2019) and Obnoxious Liberals (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat and look at them, briefly, through the lens of CRT.
As summarized by Delgado and Stefancic, the tenets of CRT are the acknowledgement of racism, white supremacy, privileging the voices of people of colour, interest convergence and intersectionality. The first tenet, acknowledgement of racism, is the realization and recognition of the fact that racism exists in society and defines our reality on a daily basis. The second tenet, white supremacy, is the fact that institutions of power (specific to white-majority countries) and those in charge of making administrative, legal, social, economic and political decisions majorly comprise of white people which facilitates a sense of white supremacy. By maintaining a white privilege in society, this tenet points out the issues of dominance and subordination on racial grounds. The third tenet, privileging the voices of people of colour, is extremely crucial as it highlights the prioritization of giving a voice to the people who experience racial oppression and subordination. This gives a stage for the expression of minorities to tell stories about their discrimination and experiences in a white-dominant society. The fourth tenet, interest convergence, critiques the achievement of racial equality stemming from the self-interest of white people. This means that white communities advocate for and in some cases attain racial equality with the mindset of nurturing their own long-term interests, not the upliftment of minorities. The last tenet, intersectionality, talks about the inter-disciplinary aspect of CRT and recognizes the concept that discrimination against minorities is not linear and is a result of multiple superimposed frameworks like race, gender, class, profession etc.
Kara Walker’s Fons Americanus, a Hyundai commission for the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern, London serves as a perfect sample which engages with multiple aspects of the theory. The entire sculpture serves as a reminder and acknowledgement of the centuries of racism faced by people of African communities, who were shipped off and enslaved by white colonizers. With references to the ocean slave routes, statues of black people on ships with tears streaming down their faces, and the black Venus at the apex of the sculpture, Walker is acknowledging and accurately presenting the centuries of aggression fuelled by white communities throughout history. Fons Americanus is modelled after the Victoria Memorial
monument outside the Buckingham Palace, thus becoming a pointed critique of the selected history presented by white supremacists. By actively changing each aspect of the national monument to present the diaspora of racial oppression and colonized minorities, Walker subverts the glorification of the Queen to present the historical truth. One which has little to do with glory. Similarly, the entire artwork is a perfect representation of giving a voice to minorities. Walker, an artist of African origins, tells the stories of persecution and abuse faced by her fellow community members. Throughout history, art establishments have been places for elitist-white groups. In a 2019 article published on the official Tate website, the institution addressed the relation of Henry Tate’s sugar business as an industry built upon foundations of labour exploitation of racial minorities and tried to clear up insinuations about Tate being a slave owner.
Given the background of Walker’s 2014 sculpture, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby at an abandoned sugar factory in Brooklyn, New York, Fons Americanus engages with themes of slavery in spaces which have connections with racial labour exploitation. This Turbine Hall commission raises questions of interest convergence. Was it a coincidence that Walker was charged with the opportunity to create a sculpture dealing with issues of slavery in trade, and racial exploitation when Henry Tate’s profession was under the microscope for being based on the foundations of slavery? Was it also a coincidence that Walker was the first artist of African origins to present in the Turbine Hall in the same year as international social movements supporting black communities saw a rapid rise?
Obnoxious Liberals by Jean-Michel Basquiat can be analysed through some of the different tenets of CRT. bell hooks in her essay ‘Altars of Sacrifice: Re-membering Basquiat’ (2002) consistently points out the dominant white narrative of the art world and how art critics and historians tried to claim Basquiat into their overtly white canon. As pointed out by hooks, Basquiat’s paintings were always dealing with themes of white supremacy and intersectionality. In Obnoxious Liberals, Basquiat refers to the enslavement of black people, depicted by the chained-up ‘Samson’ figure on the left, with the contrasting white capitalist mindset highlighted by the cowboy hat adorned figure with dollar signs on the right. The repetition of the word ‘asbestos’ over the Samson figure and the phrase ‘NOT FOR SALE’ addresses two themes, the vulnerability and lack of welfare of black labour in money-driven industries and the capitalist greed of the white community which exploited its labour cruelly (chains around black figures and the ‘GOLD’ written on the bottom) respectively. Through this painting, Basquiat makes an intersectional commentary on the African American community as issues of social welfare depravity, education, ability, white supremacy, capitalism etc. are all spotlighted in the composition.
Many art critics (being predominantly white) could not understand these narratives and thus resorted to analysing his oeuvre superficially and formally comparing him to his white peers, namely Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Furthermore, as discussed by hooks, Basquiat’s fame, success, and inclusion in the artistic canon are due to his useful and intentional connections with white artists and institutions. Basquiat used his position to actively subvert and dilute the canon of its whiteness by presenting imagery from black diasporas such as Maasai art, American slavery etc. something which was either dismissed or overlooked by white, mainstream art critics for decades. Basquiat’s works were intentional, made with deliberation and were different from the white artists during his time. He was not trying to fit into the artistic canon, rather he created a new one.
One must understand that CRT is an active theory, meaning that it not only seeks to highlight and analyse themes of race in academia but also strives to change the field to accommodate those forgotten narratives. Without CRT, we would have questioned the majorly white institution of Tate Modern and perhaps not uncovered the true connotations of displaying Walker’s Fon Americanus in the Turbine Hall. The absence of CRT would have also led hooks to not point out Basquiat’s active and subtle subversion of the white-supremacist art industry. For centuries, the field of art history has remained centralised in the West, with white people (men specifically) leading the popular narratives. Therefore, it is essential for modern art historians to engage with CRT as it provides an extensive framework to question, critique, challenge and change our view of art history from a skewed white-dominant narrative to a story which embodies all humans, regardless of who they may be.
Bibliography:
Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic, Introduction, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, New York University Press, 2017.
Kara Walker's Fons Americanus, Tate Website, 2019, <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kara-walker-2674/kara-walkers-fons-americanus>
The Tate Galleries and Slavery, Tate website, 2019, <https://www.tate.org.uk/about-us/history-tate/tate-galleries-and-slavery>
bell hooks, Altars of Sacrifice, Re-membering Basquiat, Art in America, June 1993 issue, <https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/from-the-archives-altars-of-sacrifice-re-membering-basquiat-63242/>
Comentários