Portrayalism: Defining a Movement of Representation
Curated by Shantay Robinson
The hierarchy of painting, developed in 1669 by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, considers portraits second in the level of importance right after history paintings and before genre paintings. While this hierarchy may be antiquated, as many of the genres of painting created today could not have been conceived in the 17 th century, in the contemporary moment, portraits have come back to the forefront of painting, especially among Black artists. Modern and postmodern movements allowed for art to take unprecedented turns to Dadaism, Conceptual Art, and Action Painting that all confirmed the notion that painting was dead after 1830 with the invention of the camera. Though portraits hold an established position in the hierarchy of art, Black artists weren’t participating in art salons that began in Paris in 1673. But today Black artists from around the diaspora are participating in art fairs and creating groundbreaking work across the globe.
With the proliferation of portraits and other sorts of figurative painting, it’s clear that Black artists have developed a yet untitled art movement, that I’d like to call Portrayalism, a movement of representation, that includes the Black image in the western art canon en masse. Though Black people have always made art, in western society their art has been “Othered” as primitive and fetishized by European artists from Cezanne to Picasso. With a plethora of institutions where the portraits of white nobility can be viewed in gallery upon gallery in museums across the western world, the invisibility of the Other is starkly apparent. In these galleries of historical record, it is as if white people are the only ones who are important enough to be recorded and displayed. Yes, there were artists who placed images of Black bodies on canvas, but more often than not they are there as support for the central figure who is often white.
Given that there is so much importance placed on portraiture, the creation of portraits was primarily reserved for the noble and wealthy. So, at the height of the creation of portraits, before cameras were invented and made portable, there weren’t many portraits of Black people, and especially Black women. Historical records chronicle many of the paintings featuring Black subjects beginning in the 16 th century. Though many of them feature Black subjects as servants, there are a few that feature Black people as the central subject of the paintings. Notable exceptions include Dodi Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray at Kenwood House, 1776 by David Martin and a portrait Portrait d’une negress (Portrait of a Negress), 1800 by Marie-Guillemine Benoist.
The circumstances by which the aforementioned paintings feature Black women subjects vary. Dodi, although a mixed raced woman, lived with her white father among nobility but was still not left with as substantial an inheritance as her half-sister after their father’s death. Dodi has history and story but others like the sitter in Portrait of a Negress lack the identification of even a name. The sitter’s identity is speculative as either a servant from Guadeloupe or a former slave of the artist’s brother-in-law. With these portraits, the Black woman’s image has a place in the western art historical canon.
Though there were Black artists participating in the western art canon as early as the 19 th century, there are still a limited number of portraits of Black sitters. The history of Black artists who were recognized by western art culture began with Robert Seldon Duncanson (1821 – 1872) in the mid 19 th century. Duncanson who was born a free Black person was trained by his father to be a house painter, but later set his sights on being a portrait painter and eventually became a revered landscape painter. Though Duncanson started out as a portrait painter, it was white abolitionists that could afford to pay him. So, he couldn’t really contribute the Black image to the western art historical canon. Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828 – 1901) was the first Black national award- winning artist. Bannister was also a landscape painter, but there are a few portraits remaining to his credit, including one of his wife Christina Carteaux Bannister. Other Black artists creating around the time, including Edmonia Lewis (c. 1844 – 1907) and Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 – 1937) also created portraits, but compared to the proliferation of portraits of Europeans and white Americans created before the invention of the camera, their contributions were minor.
During the Harlem Renaissance, Archibald Motley Jr. (1891 – 1981) stands out as an artist who created portraits at a time when art was constantly being challenged. The western art world was following the lead of artists like Marcel Duchamp who turned a urinal into an artwork, perpetuating the notion that art can be anything an artist deems. The thought that painting is dead had pushed the boundaries of what was being considered art. And Black artists during modernism, which was occurring during the Harlem Renaissance, were similarly creating artworks that defied normative standards, by looking to Africa for influence. Though there were major innovations in art by the likes of Aaron Douglas, Norman Lewis, and William H. Johnson, Archibald Motely Jr. created portraits that depicted Black experience. His portrait Octoroon Girl, 1925, won a Harmon Foundation Gold Medal.
Coming off the heels of the Black Arts Movement was another moment where portraiture depicted the pulse of the people. Barkley Hendricks (1945 – 2017), a photographer and painter, depicted Black people on large canvases dressed in contemporary styles beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. Hendricks was able to capture the attitude of the people he painted who were like-minded friends and acquaintances. His paintings convey the ethos of the people that will allow their swagger and style to permeate museum walls throughout history. Hendricks has influenced many of the biggest art stars creating work today, including Mickalene Thomas and Rashid Johnson.
Though Black artists since the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement have been creating art that propelled art forward, no other movement created as many portraits as this contemporary movement. And the artist who might be most responsible for this plethora of portraits in the movement of representation could be Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977) with his opulent and ornate portraits of Black men in poses reminiscent of Renaissance and Baroque paintings. His portraits set off Portrayalism as he blatantly and purposefully inserted the Black body into predominantly white spaces. The abundance of contemporary portraits on the art market is signaling a movement of representation that places the Black body in spaces where they have historically been absent, in many instances, because of racism and discrimination.
Portrait of a Woman
Images of Black women’s bodies which are more often than not seen as excessive has been exhibited through the works of Kehinde Wiley but also by contemporary Black women artists, Simone Leigh, Wangechi Mutu, and Lorna Simpson. These artists have been intentional in depicting narratives that portray the Black women’s experience. Nicole Fleetwood’s framework of excess flesh considers the idea that Black women’s bodies are seen as being too much and goes on to express how Black artists are performing hypervisibility to normalize the Black women’s body. Having been maligned for so long, from the auction block to hip hop videos, Black women have been depicted as objects for commerce rather than human beings with feelings.
For this exhibition “Portrait of a Woman,” 25 paintings by as many artists from Black Art in America’s collection were chosen that exemplify the beauty of the Black woman’s body, spirit, and mind in the portraiture genre. These artworks show the humanity of Black women as more than the people who are called on when the going gets tough. These portraits exude humanity, exhibiting a part of Black women that often gets overlooked. Many of the portraits included show Black women in moments of solitude and reflection.
Stephanie Brown’s Solace is a photograph on plastic sequin and polyester of a woman folded in a seat with her legs pressed to her chest. The gentleness in her eyes is in stark contrast to the harshness of the image, making the two a juxtaposition of the environment and the subject. Ted Ellis’s My Day depicts a lone Black woman in a rowboat on the lake. This act of leisure shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it’s not a typical image of a Black woman in a leisure space. In Ellis’s painting, she’s independent and not responsible for anyone else while taking a moment for self.
Suzy Schultz’s I AM, James Taylor’s April and Lamar Bailey’s Soul Sista are contemporary everyday depictions of Black women. Each presents Black women in various states of contemplation. Schultz’s artwork depicts a woman in a defensive posture with the words “I AM” sketched above her. Taylor’s artwork is a watercolor painting depicting a young woman who seems contemplative, like the viewer is seeing her in mid- thought. Bailey’s painting features two women, one with a purple afro, deep in thought as her hand rests on the side her head with a downward gaze, leaning against another supportive Black woman. Each of these artworks depict contemporary. Black women in moments of reflection, as they take a break. Here, they aren’t excessive. They aren’t loud. And they don’t have attitudes. They are vulnerable and beautiful.
While some portraits featured depict Black women in experimental and nontraditional ways, Alfred Conteh’s Assa, Traci Mims’ I Ain’t Coming Back, and Taoheed Akinola’s Portriat of Temi depict more traditional portrait styles. But these portraits also each have particular unconventional elements that reflect the artists’ unique and individual flairs. Assa pictures the subject with revolutionary fist raised in blue skin and features Conteh’s signature distressed background. Mims’ portrait depicts an extreme close up of a Black woman with a determined look in her eyes, a figure reminiscent of Nina Simone. Akinola’s portrait uses Black paint for the sitter’s skin tone and dresses her in a bright red blouse and blue hair for a bold and dramatic statement.
In the contemporary moment, the plethora of portraits of Black women are doing the work of centuries of erasure and omission. In a society where Black women have been the workhorse of the culture, depicting Black women in thoughtful and caring ways reciprocates the labor that they have endured for centuries. The artworks chosen to be part of this exhibition depict Black women as tender and picturesque. Through these artworks Black women are depicted as fully human instead of superhuman, and it is the vulnerability depicted that makes each of these artworks so powerful.
