223: Representing the Black Experience in Art

This week my briefings were all related to my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where they have a number of exhibits representing the black experience in art.  

Ceramic Face Vessels 

Museums have been making an effort to reset the balance of their exhibits and the artists promoted. It’s part of the response to the social justice movements and subsequent conversations about the lived experience of non-white and other unrepresented artists. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art had several exhibits that highlighted previously overlooked artists. One of my favorite exhibits were ceramic face vessels.  

If you’re visiting (or planning to visit) the Metropolitan Museum of Art, be sure to check out my secret hack that will allow you to skip the long lines at the main entrance.  

Seneca Village Artists 

I checked out the new exhibit called Afro-Futurism at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That’s where I learned about Seneca Village. It was a thriving community until the land was appropriated for the park and the museum. The exhibit attempts to portray what might have come from the artists if the village had been permitted to thrive.  

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Representing the Black Experience Through Sculpture 

While at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I came across an exhibit I was not expecting called Why Born Enslaved. It’s a single sculpture by artist Jean Baptist-Carpeaux. 

He created this sculpture after emancipation in America and 20 years after slavery had been abolished in France as well. The sculpture is beautiful and it’s also a reminder that this woman was depicted as a slave in what could be considered an example of a white man’s vision of a woman in bondage.  

It’s a good reminder that context is always a part of the artist’s vision.  

For more on that topic, check out two great podcast conversations: How to Be an Anti-Racist Artist and  Poverty Mindset, both with artist Erica Courdae.  

Race and Winslow Homer 

I visited this exhibit with two other artists from the incubator. We all loved his painting called Cotton Pickers. It’s a beautiful painting and we all felt that Homer depicted the two women in a powerful way without trying to romanticize the era.  

His watercolors are all realistic, and he captures the expressions of the people in his paintings in a realistic way.  

If you’d like to learn to paint watercolor portraits you can get my new Portrait Painting eBook (free!) that has my 5 steps, plus my recommended list of supplies to get you started.  

Get Paid to Write Poetry 

When I left the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I walked past a man with a typewriter and a sign that said poems $2. I was intrigued and asked him to write me a poem.  

He asked me to share a bit about myself and he wrote a poem just for me. You can follow him on Instagram at j.d.b 

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