The continuing saga to make
race irrelevant in America has manifested itself in the realm
of art and cultural
expression. What was known as “freestyle” expression
at the turn of the 21st Century, when 28 African American “post-modernists” had
their artwork put display in the late 1990s, to address issues
of social cruelty, divided personalities and expressions of non-conformity,
was suddenly re-termed “Post-Black” thought throughout
the mainstream art world by 2001. The term, “Post-Black,” by
an African American art curator, Thelma Golden, during Harlem’s
Studio Museum exhibit six years ago, has created a national debate
around the move to curb “identity politics” as colorblind
politics become more and more entrenched throughout American
society. Golden claims she coined the term for these artists
who didn’t want their art to be “labeled” by
their race. But the label that has been put on them to avoid
race labeling has created a larger dilemma about social and cultural
identity. America’s aversion to race and discussions about
race now seems to be capsulized in expressionist context, whereby
academia and art culture have a reference point for what was
once thought to be “crossover” or “mainstream” artistic
expressions - only now turns out to be post-racial identity expression.
It’s also ironic that the effort to racially de-identify
these artists as their work has become the buzz of the art world,
winning first, or runner-up, for the Johnson Prize (a foundation
award set up in 2001 created in honor of William H. Johnson,
a black painter who died in 1970, for emerging minority artists)
the last five years, and some of the artists have won larger
grants in what is really a white dominated post-modernist art
culture. Why not call it was it is, a “breakthrough” for
black artists and multicultural expression? Or was the fear that
white art critics, buyers and art enthusiasts wouldn’t
come out and see good art if they thought it was “black
art”? So it had to become “Post-Black” art,
not only making race relevant but making it real. Like when Sidney
Poitier (who the Johnson Foundation recently honored with a life
achievement award) first won the Oscar. They didn’t call
it “Post-Black” acting. They called it a breakthrough
from black actors in mainstream roles. This has been a significant
breakthrough for black artists in mainstream post-modernism (the
correct term). So much so that the New York Times and the Los
Angeles Times has given both the artwork and the term much attention
in several articles.
It is the New York Times article that has
revived the buzz about the legitimacy of the term and its reference
as an art “era.” Post-blackness,
or post ethnicity, as historian David A. Hollinger stated, have
implications that are too far-reaching to ignore—as skin
color is one of the defining facts of American life and when
you don’t feel compelled to think about skin color, chances
are that you are white; and those that do, most likely fit a
demographic description, namely, African-American, Asian American,
Latino, American Indian, or a blend of any of these. In a 2004
Jewish exhibit in Philadelphia, Cary Leibowitz’s “Assimilatiana:
Conscious Consciousness” sought to use mainstream art to
establish a Jewish link to the American colonies. When it was
suggested that his work was “Post-Jewish” art (in
comparison to Golden’s reference to black art), the term
was called irreverent as the Jewish community became uncomfortable
that artwork suggested that their cultural influence was somehow
referred to in post thought. The artwork was re-termed as a link
to Minimalism, without the ethnic reference.
To suggest that art, like historical periods,
have a beginning and an end in cultural context (like the Reconstruction
Period,
the Civil Rights Period, the Pro-Black Radical Period, Feminist
Period and the subsequent, Post-Civil Rights Era) then suggests
that there was a “Black Thought” period in the art
world that was embraced and appreciated by the mainstream curators.
We know that there wasn’t one. So why a Post Black art
period? Is there a Post-Feminist, or Post-Gay period to follow?
No, many feminist and gay/lesbian artists are mainstream and
their experience is an extension of their personal and cultural
insights. There is no “post” separation to define
them or their desire to mainstream their expression. So it should
be for black artists.
The Harlem Book Fair will debate this issue
this weekend at the Schomberg’s Langston Hughes Auditorium under the topic, “Post-Black
Thinking: Where Black Becomes Irrelevant” (www.qbr.com/page8833.asp),
where C-SPAN will give the nation an insight as to how black
academics view this new (and convenient) cultural construct.
Racism is as prevalent in the “art” and “museum” circles
as it is every where else in society where social elites dominate
the patronage.
Colorblindness has now reached into art
and culture, and the relevancy of race in Post-Black Thought,
again, is only a subterfuge
for wanting to identify artistic expression for what it really
is, an Afrocentic view, or artistically “culture-centered” social
critique, of what America has become in the new century - but
not being able to, for fear of having to discuss race history
or race realities. Or simple fear that race conscious whites
will withhold their appreciation for great breakthrough art if
they knew out of what cultural experience it came. The artist
is supposed to be an extension of the expression. That is what
art’s supposed to be about, isn’t it? Except when
they’re Black. Then the artist becomes secondary to the
expression. Why don’t we call it, Post-Racism Thought?
Because we know, just like there is no “afterthought” on
black expressionism, there has been no afterthought on racial
expressionism. Both are real, and still very relevant.
BlackCommentator.com Columnist
Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of
the Urban
Issues Forum and author of the upcoming book, Saving The Race: Empowerment
Through Wisdom. His Website is AnthonySamad.com. Click
here to contact Dr. Samad.
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