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Robert Colescott
Exhibition February 27 − April 13, 2019
Blum & Poe Gallery presents an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Robert Colescott.
In the first gallery we come across numerous images of black crows - for the Colescott the bird acts as a substitute for both itself and to represent the dark aspect of American history. The disturbing use of the dark face, the popularity of the minstrel show, and the Hollywood golden age, illustrating the African American experience, are mocked in this group of works.
In the second gallery, we meet with "Tom peeping", often with dark-skinned men as criminals, entering the window of white women, victims. With incredible detailing - the brilliance of graphite satin sheets, a lampshade casting off triangular light fields dividing the image plane - Colescott focuses on the problem area of American racial attitudes and false stories that cause fear and violence in the name of retribution.
In the third gallery, the works explore the image of misogyny and overt female objectification. Portraits of women from different walks of life — sex workers, beauty queens, athletes — with storyboards of private sexual exchange scenes that are sometimes followed in the background. Frames demonstrate the intimate dynamics of power between men and women, with various undesirable or violent achievements, and in one case are marked with banal language.
In the fourth gallery, Colescott captures the colonial myth of the “dark continent” of Africa, focusing on the fictional character Tarzan as the generally accepted point of entry into this problematic territory created by the Hollywood film industry. Colescott draws caricatures and dehumanizing racist paths from this legend to explore the misuse of evolutionary theory as a justification for racist conclusions.
In the first gallery we come across numerous images of black crows - for the Colescott the bird acts as a substitute for both itself and to represent the dark aspect of American history. The disturbing use of the dark face, the popularity of the minstrel show, and the Hollywood golden age, illustrating the African American experience, are mocked in this group of works.
In the second gallery, we meet with "Tom peeping", often with dark-skinned men as criminals, entering the window of white women, victims. With incredible detailing - the brilliance of graphite satin sheets, a lampshade casting off triangular light fields dividing the image plane - Colescott focuses on the problem area of American racial attitudes and false stories that cause fear and violence in the name of retribution.
In the third gallery, the works explore the image of misogyny and overt female objectification. Portraits of women from different walks of life — sex workers, beauty queens, athletes — with storyboards of private sexual exchange scenes that are sometimes followed in the background. Frames demonstrate the intimate dynamics of power between men and women, with various undesirable or violent achievements, and in one case are marked with banal language.
In the fourth gallery, Colescott captures the colonial myth of the “dark continent” of Africa, focusing on the fictional character Tarzan as the generally accepted point of entry into this problematic territory created by the Hollywood film industry. Colescott draws caricatures and dehumanizing racist paths from this legend to explore the misuse of evolutionary theory as a justification for racist conclusions.
