A Traveling Exhibit highlights art used during Anti-Black Violence Movement

Elizabeth Catlett, Target Practice, Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, Louisiana. Purchased by the Amistad Research Center. Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Elizabeth Catlett, Target Practice, Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, Louisiana. Purchased by the Amistad Research Center. Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A Traveling Exhibit highlights art used during Anti-Black Violence Movement

By Tia Carol Jones

Janet Dees had the seed for “A Sight of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence” six years ago when she began her position as the curator of Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art. Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum, the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Block Museum.

There are about 60 pieces that are part of the exhibit, which focuses on how art has been used during the Anti-Black Violence movement for the last 100 years. The exhibit will run through Sunday, July 10th.

The Mary and Leigh Block Museum at Northwestern University has a history of supporting projects that look at under studied art history and projects that can spur conversations about ideas that are important to discuss. This project for the academic museum sits on a University campus, with scholars who are invested in the teaching of African American history and African American stories.  They are from different perspectives which could serve as a good support system for this exhibit to be a good resource.

Dees began with pieces by Pat Ward Williams, titled, “Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock” and Carl and Karen Pope’s “Palimpsest.” To shape the exhibition checklist, Dees also held convenings with scholars who are experts in the subject matter for them to respond and offer their suggestions and directions.

It took Dee six years to the seed to bloom because of the research involved.  Dees wanting to engage in a collaborative and consultative process and getting feedback from advisors, community, students and faculty and other museum staff about the best way to present the exhibition, as well as the logistics of acquiring the pieces.

Thought Provoking Pieces
There are two pieces Dees talked about as examples of thought provoking in the exhibition and most interesting. One is from a 1935 issue of the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine that has a reproduction of a drawing that was gifted to the NAACP by artist, Reginald Marsh, titled “This is Her First Lynching.” It depicts the crowd at a lynching and a young child being held up by a woman to get a better view.

“It really is a very early commentary, by a white artist, about who the perpetrators are of this violence but also how it becomes part of white socialization,” said Dees, Steven and Lisa Munster Tananbaum Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Block Museum.

The other piece is “Palimpsest,” which comes from a practice of using animal skin as parchment and scraping off the previous writing to use but traces of it remain. The work is focused on Carl Pope’s body and trying to rewrite the story of how he is perceived as an African American man within our culture. “And, how he is acknowledging the history of violence and a contemporary threat of violence to his body but also taking acts to rewrite that story for himself, so he is empowered by the artwork,” Dees said.

Dees believes the art in the exhibition offers a unique opportunity to get a sense of the breadth and deep roots of racial violence within our country and people can bring that knowledge to any action they may take in the present to alleviate the violence we are experiencing. Also, African American stories are being affirmed through this art. Dees wants people to be inspired by the creativity the artists are using to process the violence and grief, but also to honor the lives of past victims of racial violence.

Care for visitors

The exhibit is presented with a structure of care for visitors. It is set up in three themes that focus on artistic strategies.  Two of them are about the ways in which artists have avoided literal representation of violence to engage with the issue. The works that are more graphic are in a gallery within a gallery so that visitors have the choice of how to engage with that material. There also is a separate reflection room for people who might need a moment to be with their thoughts or emotions.

From the Block Museum, the exhibit is going to the Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Art. Montgomery, with its history of civil rights activism and institutions that keep that history alive, seemed like an important place to take this kind of exhibition to next. The exhibit also will spark conversations and dialogue there, with the work happening in Montgomery.

For more information about “A Sight of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence,” visit https://tinyurl.com/ymbm7bua.

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