About the Exhibition

This painting by Emanuel Leutze, done in 1851, is an example of a history painting. George Washington is depicted as the hero of this turning point in the American Revolutionary War but Leutze takes liberty with the details: The Stars and Stripes flag was not used until 1777. Robert Colescott uses this painting as a starting point to center history on Black Americans in his painting, George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware.

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A famous example of art historical painting, Hans Holbein the Younger’s double portrait, The Ambassadors, shows two friends amidst an array of detailed artifacts from art and science. Within this celebration of human accomplishment, hiding in plain sight, is a distorted skull—a memento mori, a reminder of the inevitability of death. Kerry James Marshall replaces this skull, with a Disney-esque image of a young blonde woman in his painting, School of Beauty, School of Culture.

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The pose of Mickalene Thomas’ figure in Tamika sur une chaise longue avec Monet references the common image of the odalisque throughout art history. Odalisque translates to female slave or a woman slave in a harem. Male artists have depicted women as passive, sexualized objects for centuries. Thomas turns that history on its head by depicting women as empowered and in control.

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Knowledge of the Past is the Key to the Future is a series of paintings about the politics of representation. The title refers to Marcus Garvey: "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." These are tightly packed compositions that ponder the history and legacy of slavery and colonialism and weave together the past and present.

Learn more about Knowledge of the Past is the Key to the Future: Some Afterthoughts on Discovery

The heroic figures of Emanuel Leutze’s painting are replaced by racist Black stereotypes to confront history, the role of the artist, and the role of the viewer. Colescott calls out the selective representations of Black people as told by a white establishment.

As early as the Second Enforcement Act of 1871, antidiscrimination legislation made racist imagery a punishable offense, however Blackface was still seen as humorous by white audiences. By painting the protagonists in the boat as white actors in Blackface, Colescott makes clear that the creation of racist stereotypes, such as the ones we see here, was a tool of the white majority to oppress people of color.

Learn more about George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook

This painting uses Picasso’s appropriation of African art in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) as an example of Europe’s infatuation with exoticism and ideas of “primitivism.” Colescott takes a critical look at who is painting and who is painted, by re-casting Black subjects as agents and narrators.

Learn more about Les Demoiselles d’Alabama: Vestidas

This 17th-century painting is a triple portrait whose main subjects—the Spanish King and Queen—appear dimly reflected in a mirror. More clearly represented is the artist at work, half-hidden behind a canvas. Next to him, the young princess becomes the central figure. This painting’s unusual point of view questions the role of the viewer and who is looking at whom. In School of Beauty, School of Culture, Kerry James Marshall inserts the flash of his camera in the mirror behind the woman posing for the picture, to similar effect.

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According to the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, "the three Pan-African colors on the flag represent: red: the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry, and shed for liberation; black: black people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag; and green: the abundant natural wealth of Africa."

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"I am overwhelmed by white figure representations every time I go to a museum. It is almost universally understood that these images are the foundation of art in the western world."

– Kerry James Marshall

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The Souvenir series are history paintings about the the 1960s. They commemorate different aspects of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Liberation Struggle and pay tribute to the many individuals who were murdered or died during this time.

Learn more about Souvenir I

Medgar Evers, NAACP field representative murdered in Mississippi, 1963

Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, the four girls killed in the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963

Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, the three civil-rights workers also killed in Mississippi, 1964

Malcolm X, Black Muslim leader killed by rivals, 1965

Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, killed by the Chicago police in their sleep, 1969

This Manet painting was a watershed moment for modern art. Manet’s male figures are modern Parisians and the nude woman looking at the viewer is a recognizable model rather than a mythological figure or religious character. Without allegory as a subject, this painting was violating tradition. By breaking taboos, Manet started a conversation about painting itself, rather than subject matter. Mickalene Thomas borrows Manet's compositional format for her painting, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires

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Interior spaces are layered with personal histories in Mickalene Thomas’ work. Her use of textiles, upholstery coverings, rhinestones, and wood paneling evokes the 1970s, the decade she was born. It also questions how decorative choices and taste are culturally inherited according to class. Thomas brings the history of fashion, style, and African art face to face with the history of modern art.

Learn more about Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires

Picasso’s painting is a milestone in the development of the Cubist style. The faces of the two women to the right were inspired by Iberian sculpture and African masks. Picasso would have come in contact with these artworks because France, at the height of their colonial power, removed many artifacts from their geographical and cultural contexts and displayed them in museums.

This is one of three works created specifically for Figuring History. Mickalene Thomas uses documentary images of the Civil Rights Movement overlaid with bright colors and rhinestones. Thomas cites I Am Not Your Negro, a 2017 movie focused on the writings of James Baldwin, as an inspiration.

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"I started thinking about domesticity a lot and how the interior space really affects who we are and how it also defines who we are based on the materials we surround ourselves with."

– Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas begins with constructing installations, that are very much like full stage sets, in her studio where her models are styled and pose. Then Thomas photographs them, creates a collage, and reworks the collage into acrylic on panel compositions to which she adds rhinestones.