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viernes, 10 de enero de 2014

A little self promotions is not bad!…. here's a look at some of my personal work

I guess, when I start relating everything I like and write about I begin to understand my own work as well.




email: info@alejandrahernandez.com

The Git, The Tiger and The Three Spiritual Beings2014









Chit Chat 
2014









Femme Sauvage2013





Tropical Punch2013






My Best Friend Is A Puma2013



Girl and tiger in sofa2013




lunes, 6 de enero de 2014

Painting and other stuff: Kerry James Marshall at the M HKA in Antwerp



From the series Mementos (1998)

Kerry James Marshall's paintings play an important role in the re-configuration of the history of painting up to this days. As most of art History in Europe and America after colonization has been seen and made by white people, telling white history in their terms, Marshall reappropiates this images and iconography from our visual culture, coming from art, advertisement, religious imaginary making new relations to demonstrate other view on individual realities and reinterpret black history.

As KJM, explains in an article in Mousse Magazine 39, there is "A lack in the image bank" . He is an avid image collector and as going through all different spheres and circles among universal visual imaginary he found a huge gap missing, the figures of black men where always either connected with slavery, colonization or exoticism. His intention is to recuperate or even better, to make a recclamation, and give the black subject a place in the history of art and images in general, and not just as complementary subjects but as individuals.

There is one painting in particular that clears up this statement. It's a sort of appropriation from Manet's infamous Olympia, It's Marshall's Olympia. In Nude (2009), he gives the black woman (who portrayed as a servant carrying flowers and as a secondary character in Manet's painting) the main spot, she is in the center of the painting, literally in the spotlight, and this time she owns it and she is completely empowered and confident. This powerful image finally detaches the black figure from the burden of colonialism and slavery as seen repeatedly in the history of images coming from Europe.



Nude (2009)

The commemoration of historical figures is as important as his relation with art history. In We mourn our loss (1998-99) Marshall pays tribute to important figures in the history of USA, including Martin Luther King and Jhon F. Kennedy.

We Mourn Our Loss (1997-98)

This memorial like feeling is present on another work from the same period. In Souvenir I,  Marshall places the memorial banner in the inside of a typical 60's african american household. In the center of the piece, a woman with golden wings is inviting us in, to commemorate this fallen American leaders. In the upper part of the painting, portrayed almost as cherubs, he represents a number of political leaders who died between the 60's and 70's.


Detail of Souvenir I (1997)

Souvenir I (1997)
The twelve panel, woodcut print representing a group of young black men having a tea or coffee in a living room, as a cinematic approach representing both what's inside and out. It's an image charged with historical tension.
First of all the composition reminds us of classical paintings, yet all the characters in it are anonymous. This image is meant to challenge the stereotypes society and media have set on young African American men.

Untitled (1999)



Detail of
Untitled (1999)



Marshall's oeuvre is fueled with artistic and historical references, he gives them a whole new meaning and weight. Like in the portrait below, he portrayed an important character in America's fight to abolish slavery. David Walker's father was a slave and died being one, his mother was free and he was born free but he still witnessed a lot of atrocities brought by colony. He published a pamphlet encouraging slaves to rise up against their masters.

He manages to give his portraits an enigmatic hue, maintaining that gaze and distance that we can recognize in 19th century painting and most importantly he confronts the viewer with his/her own background, culturally, visually, historically and very often we find out how one sided has it all been until now.



Believed to be a portrait of David Walker (ca. 1830), (2009)

This large  painting references Edward Hopper's Early Sunday Morning (1930), he presents a scene from the neighborhood his studio is in, he uses different layers and an effect given by the light through the lenses of a camera, which makes it a very photographic or cinematographic image like in most of his works. There is an aura of tranquility and quietness.

7 am Sunday Morning  (2003)






Detail of 7 am Sunday Morning

The Vignette series have a strong 18th century Rococo style. They depict a couple of african american youngsters in love from different angles. Once again he is addressing art history and clichés. He is making a parody  but at the same time he is giving them a sort of heavenly peace and representing a genre which has been almost exclusively from the white culture. He completes the images with elements and symbols from the black culture


Part of the Vignette series (2005-2008)

The Vignette series

patrt of The Art of hanging Pictures (2002)