4 Black Artists that use Historical African American Figures in their Artwork
While some black artists refrain from using racial identifiers in their art, others make their racial identity and the black experience the center of their practice, challenging the established cultural stereotypes and generalizations and inspiring a new generation. During the Harlem Renaissance in the United States, a cultural movement in the 1920s-30s originating from New York, an explosion of African American literature, music and art began to emerge as black creatives inspired a generation of content. African American artists aimed to reframe their identity and represent their heritage and tradition with a sense of cultural pride by taking inspiration from it.
Throughout the history of 20th-century art, black artists approached the subject of their own identity in various different forms. While some artists aimed to present black experience and culture through narrative painting in a straightforward and sincere way, others created archetypes who stand-in to represent a larger experience. Some artists tend to completely reinvent history by producing new contexts for examining “black culture” and racial identity.
Given the complexity of racial identity in this global era, the art of black artists in the present shows us there is no universal way to approach the subject and therefore we get to enjoy new creative ways these individuals frame their perspective of race.
Here are 4 Black Artists that use Historical African American Figures in their Artwork.
Kehinde Wiley
Born in Los Angeles, CA but based in New York, 42-year-old visual artist, Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting scene. As a contemporary artist descending from a long line of portraitists (including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others) -Wiley manages to “engage the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world”.
Wiley’s work disrupts and deconstructs common tropes and cliches of portrait painting. His “larger than life” figures often blur the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation; As well as the portrayal of modern masculinity as it pertains to the view of young black and brown men. Wiley’s portraits were originally based on photographs of young men on the streets of Harlem; However, in honing his craft, Wiley’s influence grew beyond the streets of Harlem and drew towards a more international view. His current work includes models found in urban landscapes worldwide, including locales such as Mumbai, Senegal, Dakar, and Rio de Janeiro, among others – accumulating to a vast body of work called, “The World Stage.”
Kara Walker
Kara Walker is a Native of California, being born in Stockton in 1969. She is most widely attributed to her work in exploring the raw intersection of race, gender and sexuality through her silhouetted paper figures. Walker unleashes the traditionally proper Victorian medium of the silhouette directly onto the walls of the gallery, creating a theatrical space in which her unruly cut-paper characters fornicate and inflict violence on one another. Her education includes studying and earning a Bachelors of Fine arts from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991, as well as a Masters in Fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994.
Walker’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and San Francisco; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. A 1997 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Walker was the United States representative to the 2002 Bienal de São Paulo. Walker currently lives in New York, where she is on the faculty of the MFA program at the University of Columbia.
Learn more about Walker at her Website
Drahuws
Toronto based artist Drahuws’ interprets stories and perspectives of life into art influenced by cartoons and fashion. Her work consists of a collective of contemporary culture inspired pop-art that store features, references and hidden messages to popular characters in mainstream media, black culture while also portraying historic black heroes as the center focus. She is well known for her use of cartoon characters “Black Krusty” or “Black Kristof” as well as her motifs of vibrant colors, black/African American historical figures and symbolism. Her subjects can be based on heroic characters reminiscent of powerful mythical figures or portray black power by using important historical African Americans as symbols. Drahuws is inspired and influenced by popular icons such as The Simpsons, Pop artist Kaws and Kehinde Wiley.
In particular her pieces “Garveyism” and “PGA-Bad Man” portray Jamaican born, first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League Marcus Garvey and the first African-American to play on the PGA tour, Charlie Sifford respectively. Both pieces convey a sense of authority and power emanating from these men that shaped history while juxtaposing the harsh, antiquated look of the old black and white photo with bright, vibrant colors. Her icon Black Krusty, adorned in modern day street fashion, snears behind both figures. Drahuws is currently working on spreading awareness of her art and the African American history contained within it. She operates from Toronto, CA and continues to contribute to the cities thriving afro art culture.
You can see more of Drahuws and her work on her Website or Instagram
Charly Palmer
Born in Fayette, Alabama in 1960, Charly Palmer moved young and spent most of his youth in Milwaukee. In his youth, Palmer was fascinated by art in Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day. “I could never get enough of the imagery in the book,” he says Keats’ work was inspiring and planted a seed in his young heart. What appealed to him most were the geometric shapes, the simplicity of layered textures and patterns, and the mix of bold colors. Though inspired by Keats’, Palmer brings unique style and technique to fine art. He creates visual theatre that gleans from history and life experience.
He later relocated to Chicago in order to study art and design at American Academy of Art and School of the Art Institute. Afterwards Palmer ran a successful art studio as an illustrator and graphic designer. Charly Palmer’s work is in private and public collections which include Atlanta Life Insurance, McDonald’s Corporation, Miller Brewing Company, the Coca Cola Company and Vanderbilt University. His previous work His Story, belonging to the estate of Maya Angelou, was auctioned by Swann Gallery in 2015. Palmer recently illustrated two children's books,There's A Dragon In My Closet and Mama Africa—a children’s book chronicling the life of Miriam Makeba--for which he received the 2018 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award. Palmer’s art evokes a sensual feeling,
He said in an interview: "A love of black people. Everything I create is about the celebration of blackness, and so I look at it from different perspectives. I often pose a question opposed to necessarily having an answer. As an artist, I ask a question instead of making a statement; and that’s why it’s difficult as an artist to make an artist statement.”
“The journey is always connected to my fascination with the black narrative, the African American story, that everything has a history or political take to it. I felt I was preaching to a choir, though, so now I focus on just how beautiful we are…"
Palmer remains in high demand for significant commissions. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA. You can see more of Charly’s works on his instagram
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