HBO’s Black Art in The Light features canonical black artists whose incredible work has influenced the cultural perception of black art. Kerry James Marshall, Kehinde Wiley, and Kara Walker discuss their participation in black art and the historical implications of the canon. The selected artists’ work testifies the unique relationship black art occupies within a white supremacist society.
Black artists whose work garners acclaim and accolades must interrogate their radicalization for consumption. Bell Hooks Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance examines the cultural relativity of the racial majority’s desire to interact with the other in an attempt to absolve themselves of racial discrimination. The dynamic of creating consumable content for the racial majority is present in all the work executed by black artists.
Black art that enters the contemporary mainstream is subject to racial consumption. Hooks states, “Within current debates about race and difference, mass culture is the contemporary location that both publicly declares and perpetuates the idea that there is pleasure to be found in the acknowledgment and enjoyment of racial difference.” (Hooks 366) Audiences engage in an intellectual acknowledgment of racism through the consumption of media interrogating racialization’s traumatic aftermath.
Marshall’s lively paintings starkly celebrate blackness, Walker juxtaposes racist caricatures, and Wylie paints glowing black figures shrouded in natural elements. The survey of work questions social iterations of blackness, thus subjected to racial relativity and othered for consumption by the majority.
Spike Lee’s epic Malcolm X represents the evolution of black cinema from Hattie McDaniel’s performance in Gone With the Wind to Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight. Malcolm X painstakingly honest depiction of its controversial titular character allowed future black creators to craft narratives that humanizes its characters without altering them for white audiences. The aesthetics of the film alludes to its importance within black cinematic history. T
he legendary ensemble cast and stellar production quality does not hint towards the financial difficulties that arouse when funding the film. The film’s black production is noteworthy and is evident in how the story is portrayed, a deviation from blaxploitation era films. The physical production is aesthetically gorgeous and immerses the audiences in Malcolm’s political and spiritual journey.
The varied scenery and stylistic cinematography communicates the lasting effects of systematic disenfranchisement, Malcolm’s personal growth, and his lasting influence. The film features Sam Cooke’s iconic A Change Is Gonna Come, Gordon Park’s photography, and documentary footage, furthering the importance of black creators’ involvement in productions centering their identities.
The production of Malcom X assists in ushering in a new era of burgeoning black filmmakers who refuse to create exploitive content, instead opting to create film and television shows that are refuges for audiences. Spike Lee’s significance in the black visual canon should not be ignored, his authentic productions and critical commentary continue to influence black visual artists and creators.
W.E.B Du Boi’s distinct visualizations of Black America skillfully utilize color and shape to communicate slavery and racism’s continual subjugation of the black community. Plate 22’s utilization of color and shape encourages a deeper questioning of how the different eras impacted the black community’s ability to acquire wealth.
Plate 22’s unique configuration is comprised of colorful circles of varying width encompassing each other with daggers that pierce into the inner circles. Initially, the plate appears to be a circle with daggers piercing into the center. Upon closer inspection, the width of the circles represents the amount of wealth that was accumulated.
During 1885 and 1890 the black community saw a massive increase in wealth yet the growth stagnated in 1895 and 1889. This information questions which political or cultural events occurred during these eras that caused the accumulation of black wealth to stagnate. The daggers all pierce the centermost circle, the initial amount of wealth the black community possesses in 1875, further attesting to the black community’s continual prosperity amidst the racism they’re encountering during the Reconstruction Era.
The color choice is also very intentional: primary colors and tones are used in this data visualization. The unique data representation further communicates the black community’s resilience in resisting racism and aspirations of improving their livelihoods. W.E.B Du Bios’s tactful and intentional representation of the black community’s ability to amass thirteen million dollars in taxable property three decades after the Civil War contradicts the popular eugenics beliefs arguing the black community’s inferiority.