Individual Art vs. Racial Art

The issues of race that arise for current African American artists are complex and seem to be rather frustrating for certain artists. While many artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Lyle Ashton Harris create art that explores racial, sexual, and or gender controversies (Robertson, McDaniel 46, 53), many artists have moved away from expressing their ideas about their own identity through their artwork. As Robertson and McDaniel write, “Many [post identity artists] express little interest in being spokespersons for racial, ethnic, or gender identity and prefer to focus on their individual projects” (57). Lyle Ashton Harris expresses struggles with controversy over identity in works like “Unique Polaroid” from his 2003 series, Memoirs of Hadrian (Robertson, McDaniel 46, 47). According to Robertson and McDaniel, “Harris, who is black, queer, and male, uses costume, make up, gesture, and pose to deconstruct and mock simple binary codes: male versus female; homosexual versus heterosexual; black versus white” (46). Kehinde Wiley investigates similar ideas through appropriation (Robertson, McDaniel 53). By placing young black men in various historical portraiture settings, he explores ideas about masculinity and race (Robertson, McDaniel 53). As stated by Robertson and McDaniel, “Wiley’s insertions of black men into the world of aristocratic portraiture serve to unmask the Eurocentrism and class privilege that created a visual history of the white, wealthy, and powerful and excluded people of color” (53). Wiley investigates traditions of the hierarchy of portraiture based on race and class. Though artists like Harris and Wiley bring up racial, sexual, and gender issues in need of discussion, it is a misconception that every black artist is interested in dealing with issues concerning their personal identity.

This topic is interesting to discuss because a question is brought up about how detrimental or problematic the stereotypes in the art world are for African American artists who want to focus on their artwork from an aesthetic standpoint rather than a racially motivated point of view. When discussing curator Thelma Golden’s thoughts on the subject of “post-black” artists Robertson and McDaniel write, “Golden explained that post-black artists “emerged empowered” by the multicultural debates and identity politics of the previous decade: as a result, they have the confidence to develop in individual directions” (57). Artists like Harris and Wiley were two artists of many who set the stage for post identity artists to move beyond racial and other identity-related issues. However, there seem to still exist many collectors and gallery owners who want to showcase the work of black artists as “black art” rather than “art”. Many seem to be interested in the biography of the artist or the concept of “folk art” rather than aesthetic value. This mode of thinking about the work of African Americans is offensive to artists who end up being tied to and questioned about their racial background instead of whatever message (if there is a specific message) they want to express through their work. The work of artists focusing on racial and other issues of identity has an important place in the art world, but it is racially bias to assume that all black artists are only interested in communicating racial issues.