Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

"Shirley Temple Black and Bill Robinson
White" (1980) 

The Oxford English Dictionary defines satire as "A poem...or other work of art that uses humour, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticize prevailing immorality or foolishness, esp. as a form of social or political commentary." Welcome to the art of Robert Colescott, now on display at Sarasota Art Museum. 

I wasn't sure what I thought of Colescott's art on my initial viewing. The works often made me laugh and then feel kind of guilty once I realized the intention behind the work. And then there's the fact that his work isn't, well, painterly -- at least in a classical sense. The colors can be garish, the figures misshapen and over-emotive, and the brushstrokes less than precise. I learned this wasn't due to a lack of training or ability. Colescott consciously chose to portray his subject matter in this style. 

Take "Shirley Temple Black and Bill Robinson White" as an example. I'm sure you've seen Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's iconic stair dance from the 1935 movie The Little Colonel. Their dance was the first by an interracial couple onscreen. With Robinson's big, ready-to-please grin and Temple's young charm, who could object? In his painting, Colescott's reversal of the races of the pair can cause some discomfort. Then there's the fact that Bill's overly-wide grin makes him seem a bit crazed. Shirley seems a little concerned as she leans ever so slightly away from him. The result makes viewers take a step back and think about what they're seeing. This is exactly Colescott wanted. 

"Cactus Jack in El Dorado" (1977)

You could spend a lot of time looking at Colescott's "Cactus Jack in El Dorado" and still find details that surprise you (and, yes, make you laugh). Aunt Jemima is cooking up some pancakes for a miner panning for gold. Let's start there. Did you know the name "Aunt Jemima" came from an 1895 song performed by minstrels in blackface sporting aprons and head kerchiefs? The reference was to the reassuring "Mammy" slave that took care of the household. Think Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind, a portrayal for which she became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award. (McDaniel's portrayal of Mammy was fabulous, and it was impossible not to love her. But it is noteworthy that the award was given to an actor depicting a happy slave.) Click here for a great read on the Mammy stereotype. And in case you missed it, both the Aunt Jemima brand and Uncle Ben's Rice have changed their names and packaging to move away from racist implications. Colescott summons all of this history -- some of which happened long after he painted the work -- in that one figure. 

The painting is filled with details that a casual viewer might overlook. A Black cowboy casually pees into the river. "Whut?" he says as he looks at the scene. Some Chinese men wearing Asian conical hats (sometimes referred to as "coolie hats") are frolicking in the river. They appear to be excited about some discovery as they are yelling "Euleka!" (This is not a typo.) Then there's a Native American standing on the shore whose commentary is simply "Ugh." The title of the painting contains its own bit of commentary. "El Dorado" has several definitions, but I'll go with Merriam-Webster's: "a place of fabulous wealth or opportunity." (Yes, I've quoted two dictionaries in this post.) I could go on, but you get the picture.  

"The Three Graces: Art, Sex and Death" (1981)

Robinson also took on art history by reinterpreting famous paintings to include Black and female figures. I particularly liked "The Three Graces: Art, Sex and Death." This trio has been a frequent subject throughout art history, with Botticelli's depiction perhaps being the best known. Traditionally, the three women represent charm, beauty and creativity. Not so in Colescott's world. Here we have "Death" bearing a dagger with a skull at her feet. She's wearing a garter belt and strappy sandals and her toe nails are painted a siren red. We're not sure what she's looking at -- perhaps her next victim? "Sex" is depicted as a Black woman whose clothing calls to mind Gauguin's Tahitian women. She looks directly at the viewer with a partially eaten apple in her left hand. We all get that reference. Then there's "Art," a beret-wearing painter who's working on a gravestone depicting Colescott himself. I kind of love it. Click here to see an interesting variety of interpretations of the Three Graces by artists from Botticelli to Picasso. 

"American Beauty" (1976)

I'll leave you with "American Beauty," a work that requires little interpretation. Here we have a beauty queen complete with cape, crown and a big ol' trophy. The voluptuous contestant wears not the modest one piece bathing suit familiar from beauty pageants of old but a tiny bikini. (Not being a pageant watcher, I was surprised to learn that Miss USA contestants now wear bikinis in the swimsuit competition. They strut the runway like Victoria's Secret models before Victoria's Secret made the radical shift this year from its "Angels" campaign to "What Women Want." The Miss America pageant got rid of the swimsuit competition in 2018. But I digress.) 

In the background Colescott features numerous cartoon images of a woman being sexually abused. In the first cartoons she fights off the guy. We then see them in flagrant delicto, although you never get the feeling she's a willing participant. My own take is that this guy is her boss, and he's the sort who chased his secretary around his desk and made sex a mandatory part of the job description. Of course given the setting, she could be the contestant contending with a judge before she got to the runway. Long before the days of #MeToo, Colescott was sensitive to the issues facing women. 

With three visits to the Colescott exhibit under my belt, I've come to appreciate his work. He's an artist who had a lot to say, and he wasn't shy about putting it out there. His paintings make me think about the state of our world -- both at the time he painted these works and now. I like that. 

Kudos to the Sarasota Art Museum for bringing this exhibit to our community. "Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott" runs through October 31st. It's an exhibit worth seeing.