Pouring Meaningful Colors Into Art

Imagine a world where one’s race or class doesn’t provide a meaningful advantage toward their notoriety. We still have a while to get there. The good news is that today’s world is now taking notes on why inclusivity matters in art. Over time there has been an undermining of creative voices, especially those of women of color. These female artists haven’t been given an equal opportunity for the spotlight in all museums or galleries. By omitting their stories, there’s potential permanent damage to the history of art, which they are an important part of. 

Delita Martin, Soul Keeper, 2016; Gelatin printing, acrylic, conté, hand stitching, and decorative papers on paper, 52 x 41 in.; Private collection; Photo by Joshua Asante.

Virginia Treanor, associate curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), shares her thoughts on women of color artists’ importance. Also, two movers and shakers in the Latinx and Black art communities and beyond, artists Scarlett Baily and Tenbetee Solomon AKA Trap Bob join our discussion.

Solomon is a beloved artist in the D.C. community, who empowers viewers with her artwork to embrace authenticity and freedom. She has gained national notoriety by working alongside Refinery29, Giphy, Pabst Blue Ribbon, the Elizabeth Warren Campaign, BET, among others. She is also known for her eye-catching murals across the DMV area, and for promoting female creative opportunity through GIRLAAA.

Baily is a muralist and painter based in Mexico City. She intertwines cultural identity and cultural experiences. Baily showcases the duality of being Latinx from a personal and social perspective. She is also an advocate for women muralists through Mujeres Muralistas, a collaborative platform that brings attention to the street art form being embraced by female artists.

Know Your History 

Suzanne Coley, All I Have, 2018; Artist’s book; Courtesy of the artist; On loan from Private collection; Photo by Emily Shaw, Courtesy of Betty Boyd Dettre Library & Research Center.

It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that a woman of color made her mark in the art world for sculpture. Mary Edmonia Lewis, "Wildfire," was the first African American woman sculptor to achieve national and international accolades. Augusta Savage, a Black sculptor from New York of the 1900s, on the other hand, was rejected from an art program in France during 1923 because of her race, yet became one of the leading artists of the Harlem Renaissance.

Notwithstanding these two documented historical accounts, it is hard to fathom the full extent of unrecognized artistic talent lying dormant in women of color since the 19th century. Challenges persist today in the form of lack of exposure and opportunity. Being a woman of color myself, it is natural to desire to see your cultural peers’ names displayed by a painting or sculpture in a variety of art expressions. 

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is a pioneering entity for representing all women, including women of color artists. During the past 30 years, they’ve held countless exhibits featuring such artists.

Treanor from NMWA comments:

There is no particular narrative that drives us to showcase a particular artist - it's the work itself that is the deciding factor. It's important not to pigeon-hole artists of color by showcasing work that is only about identity. There are many artists of color who make work that is not specifically about identity. This was explored in Magnetic Fields, which highlighted abstract works of art by African American and Caribbean women artists. Also, Colombian artist Fanny Sanín works exclusively in geometric abstraction.  

Scarlett Baily in front of her beautiful mural in Mexico City.

Artists should get a fair shot at having their work displayed, without being corralled into an identity-based category. Sure, there are cultural aspects of works that allow audiences to learn more about the artist’s journey and reason behind the work. Fairness also calls for a delicate balance between works that represent culture and those that do not. Some artists do share their through cultural identity, as Solomon and Baily do, and that should be represented by art entities as organic expression without labels. 

Baily expands on her vision of culture and art:  “Everything I read about Mexico was negative, you never really heard about other things. I wasn’t really  taught to value my own culture, but instead to negate the noise. This is when I felt the strong need to tell our story of what makes us unique, to talk about the journey, and to diversify how people are perceiving Latin culture. I felt I had so much work to do to recuperate this. You have to work from the heart. I hope my kids are born loving their heritage instead of having to recreate it. It’s okay to be bi-cultural. It’s cool and it’s a superpower. This is the time to use your art as a benefit.”

Making a Difference

Magdalena Cordero, Poems by Gabriela Mistral, Translations by Ursula K. Le Guin, Long Chilean Gaia, 2016; Artist’s book; Photo by Emily Shaw, Courtesy of Betty Boyd Dettre Library & Research Center.

There is so much depth to be explored artistically aside from how women of color choose to express their cultural identities. These artists should prominently be part of all museums and galleries as they are telling an important story, the artists’ story, that is frozen in time in their art. Through abstraction (like renowned artist Alma W. Thomas), minimalism (like Zilia Sánchez Dominguez), and installations (like Teresa Burga). 

Solomon comments, "I think in the past women of color's voices were not accounted for as they are now, so it automatically will create change and influence moving forward. Our perspective and creativity is not subtle, it's impossible for us to not make noise. Most importantly, I think it will open the flood gates to other women of color wanting to enter the industry, but maybe never saw a place for themselves or didn't have anyone they could relate to, to look up to. I myself was in that position before I became an artist, never even thought it was a possibility for me. Now things are so different, it's beautiful and really gives me a sense of pride." 

An inclusive stance creates a rich, collective art history, one that future generations will share and learn about. Inclusivity should, like justice, be “blind,” and that calls for more opportunities for women of color artists. Through fellowships, scholarships, art gallery and museum exposure, and in art careers generally. 

TRAP BOB alongside her colorful, empowering artwork.

“There has clearly much more of a push among galleries and museums to showcase artists of color over the past few years - and women, too! As demonstrated in my response above, NMWA has been dedicated to doing this from its beginning (the museum opened in 1987) but we are thrilled to see such a commitment from other institutions and we hope that this trend will grow and continue,” says Treanor.

Treanor is right, as it is not a trend, it is a call for a consistent implementation of art practices going forward that will make a difference. The current need for more inclusiveness within the art world will lead to increased demand for women of color artists, which will then lead to two important things: increased value of women of color artworks and leveling out the legacy women of color artists leave behind as part of the collective art narrative, which will then become part of art history.

Baily recognizes recent changes in the art scene for women of color artists. “It’s changing. Female artists have fought their way to be in a man’s territory. It has been incredible to see this fearlessness, you just see that women are not waiting for permission anymore, they’re just doing it. For many years, we haven’t been celebrated the way we should have,” she points out. 

According to artnet News, “Just 11 percent of all acquisitions and 14 percent of exhibitions at 26 prominent American museums over the past decade were of work by female artists. According to a joint investigation by artnet News and In Other Words, a total of 260,470 works of art have entered the museums’ permanent collections since 2008. Only 29,247 were by women.” An astounding fact that shows the challenges women artists face as a collective. These numbers also show the imbalance women of color artists face, as they make up a lesser percentage of the total works displayed by women artists.

Yes, things are improving and it’s important to constantly promote inclusiveness in the arts. Not just for artists, but also for people who work behind the scenes in the art community like curators, museum directors, and creative directors. The path is there for these women artists to have a bigger voice, but it needs a collective effort originating behind the scenes, including from those in prominent positions within the art world.

Today’s poem illustrates the hope and beauty that is found in diversity:

Give Me Your Hand

by Gabriela Mistral

Give me your hand and give me your love,
give me your hand and dance with me.
A single flower, and nothing more,
a single flower is all we’ll be.

Keeping time in the dance together,
you’ll be singing the song with me.
Grass in the wind, and nothing more,
grass in the wind is all we’ll be.

I’m called Hope and you’re called Rose:
but losing our names we’ll both go free,
a dance on the hills, and nothing more,
a dance on the hills is all we’ll be.

There’s Freedom in Deconstruction

Many times, abstract art is the result of examining something tangible or conceptual, taking it apart, and presenting it in a different manner. Brazilian painter and sculpture artist José Bechara understands how to take complex, external influences from one’s life and transform them into meticulous creations that cause us to question the depth of what they may be representing. He touches on how his work engages with the space where they’re found. “Through the experimentation of different materials and territories in dimensional and three dimensional works. Along the years, I have always worked on paintings, sculptures and installations dialoguing with the space (by building or activating it), memories and time, as well as its impacts on individuals and society,” he says.

Aesthetic

Each of Bechara’s pieces are creatively planned out. The sharp edges, raw materials, geometrical conjunctions, and linear pathways show flexibility within a rigid setting. Each piece takes on such a dimensional stance that it allows viewers to contemplate its many layers and angles, even in the paintings, where the thin lines are delicate mazes that blend with the industrial-like backbone found in the background.

He explains, “Even as a fan of geometry, I like to confront its history and tradition, rejecting the idea of a “perfect form” promised by geometry as we see in art history. Geometry, in my work, celebrates failure, doubt and it hesitates against life, as I believe we do, as humans, every day.” The sculptures instigate a gravitational challenge for our perception of what we already know about art to expand. Many of these pieces act like a rebellion against what shapes should look when combined. They force you to embrace that imperfect perfection, chaos, and closely inspect each linear and material interaction within each piece.

Deeper Meaning

It is the raw elements found in Bechara’s work that makes the pieces even more engaging. The use of oxidation, wood, and subtleties of color allow the sculptures and paintings to hold a level of fragility. There’s a sense of impermanence too, as if everything could change with one touch. One that is tied to deconstructive elements of what is underneath, like looking at the structural bones of a home instead of the facade. 

This narrative takes us back to the original stance of personal dialogue with the external world when looking at his work. One that speaks of looking within to discover what is underneath the surface, and then rebuilding that narrative based on what you find there, first and foremost. Bechara expands on this topic, “I am not a narrator of daily life; I am an abstract artist. However, I am always attentive to the average dramas of existence, especially of the effects social dynamics have in individuals'  lives. The relationship between past and present, work and environment. In a certain way, I believe some of my main questions, described above as failure, inexorability of time, finitude, hesitation and the fragility of daily life, touch on some people’s social dramas.”

Conclusion

The way we look at Bechara’s work can provide insight on our lives’ own twists and turns. At times, things fall apart, literally or figuratively, and that is what his work is asking us to look at sometimes. That necessary curve ball that life throws at us is at times a necessity to regain perspective and rebuild in a different, better way. 

All photos courtesy of José Bechara. For more about his work, please visit his website.

Today’s poem represents the multidimensional aspects of life found in José’s work:

My House is the Red Earth

BY JOY HARJO

My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world. I’ve heard New York, Paris, or Tokyo called the center of the world, but I say it is magnificently humble. You could drive by and miss it. Radio waves can obscure it. Words cannot construct it, for there are some sounds left to sacred wordless form. For instance, that fool crow, picking through trash near the corral, understands the center of the world as greasy strips of fat. Just ask him. He doesn’t have to say that the earth has turned scarlet through fierce belief, after centuries of heartbreak and laughter—he perches on the blue bowl of the sky, and laughs.

The Art of Curation is Evolving

As the art world slowly opens up to hosting exhibits and devising innovative ways to make art accessible and safe amid a global pandemic, many art lovers are breathing a sigh of relief. The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington D.C. is illustrating how art lovers may get their fix in the era of COVID-19. Earlier this year, they reopened the lower gallery area in the West Building to present Degas at the Opera, an exhibition that attracted all the eager art fans in the D.C. Metro area. 

Figure 1. Mollie Berger Salah, curatorial assistant at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., working behind the scenes in the Division of Prints and Drawings.

Mollie Berger Salah, curatorial assistant at the NGA in the Division of Prints and Drawings, sheds light into how her work for the National Gallery has and continues to adapt to the new ways of planning exhibitions and exhibiting art. If you love art, then you’re like me and have likely wondered how exhibits are created and how they come to be so memorable, especially now, and this interview tackles that curiosity.

There is a level of mystery to the behind-the-scenes work at an art exhibit, especially one at one of the most prominent art institutions like NGA. It is Berger Salah’s devoted expertise that guides the artwork selection, space planning, ways of connectivity with the public, and the flow of its presentation that make your visit to the National Gallery beyond worthwhile. 

Figure 2. Gregorio De Ferrari Genoese, 1647 - 1726, Saint Michael and the Rebel Angels, c. 1682, pen and brown ink with brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over traces of black chalk on blue laid paper sheet, National Gallery of Art, Elizabeth White Fund 2018.165.4

1. How long have you been working at NGA?

I have worked at the National Gallery of Art in the Division of Prints and Drawings since July 2014, but I have been working in museums since I was 16. My first museum job was at the Farnsworth Art Museum gift shop in Rockland, Maine. I learned so much there, especially customer service, which comes in handy when I am answering a question from the public or directing a visitor in the museum.

2. Can you describe your role and how you work with current/upcoming exhibits at NGA?

As curatorial assistant for the Division of Prints and Drawings, I get to do a little bit of everything. From researching the collection, including new acquisitions, to tracking the progress of curatorial projects, my to-do list varies day by day. 

For the past couple years I’ve been assisting the Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings with his upcoming exhibition, A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa 1600-1750, which opens next year. I tracked the checklist of artworks included in the exhibition, corresponded with our co-curators in Italy, and helped find images for the publication. We were two months away from the exhibition opening at the NGA, when we needed to close due to COVID-19. It was disappointing to postpone the exhibition our team worked so tirelessly to execute, but we are all relieved the show will be on view next September.

Of course, everything has changed for all of us since the pandemic began. I never thought I would be working from home, but teleworking allowed me to focus on other projects. Digital content, in particular, has been a new experience for me. I led visitors (virtually, of course) through our Mark Rothko galleries and wrote a post highlighting DC artists for the recently enacted DC Natives Day, which celebrates folks born and raised in DC. 

Figure 3. Berthe Morisot French, 1841 - 1895 The Artist's Sister, Edma, with Her Daughter, Jeanne, 1872 watercolor over graphite on laid paper overall, National Gallery or Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection 1970.17.160

3. What are the most enjoyable parts of your job?

Definitely working on exhibitions. Since works on paper are light sensitive, we closely monitor how often they are exposed to light sources. We rely on special exhibitions, which are only open for a few months, to showcase our incredible collection of prints, drawings, and illustrated books. With a collection of over 110,000 works of art on paper, there is a lot to choose from.

4. What advice do you have for someone who wants to work at a museum or gallery as a curator?

My first piece of advice is a practical one: understand and be comfortable with technology. I guarantee you will need to use spreadsheets, project management tools, and databases in a curatorial position. Proficiency, or at least familiarity, with these systems could set you apart from other candidates. There are also loads of free online tutorials, so there are opportunities for you to learn these skills. I use all of these programs, practically daily, and I believe they will only become more common as arts institutions move away from paper files, and towards digital systems.

Secondly, I believe it is imperative that anyone working in a curatorial capacity be able to articulate why their project is important, why it matters. This can be challenging to articulate, but as museums grapple with their role in the broader cultural landscape, I believe museum leadership will ask this question and curators should be able to answer.