African Americans: Seeing and Seen, 1766 – 1916

Babcock Galleries in New York City presents African Americans: Seeing and Seen, 1766 – 1916, an incisive overview of refined and controversial fine art and popular culture images of African Americans as artists and subjects. Bitter brutality and cruel caricature alternate with respectful revelations and positive portrayals of the status of African Americans. It may be said that all portrayals become betrayals in revealing the motivations and prejudices of their creator, and the images in this exhibition offer telling insights into the prevailing notions of the period. Each work is not only a signpost of the complex nature of our cultural forbearers, but also a harbinger of the ongoing struggle for equal rights in the United States.

Tess Sol Schwab, Assistant Director at Babcock Galleries and curator of this exhibition, points out that African American history “…can be catalogued by the racist and derogatory images across the centuries that have mirrored popular views while at the same time shaping and reinforcing them. Yet, sensitive portrayals of blacks by whites also exist alongside them, as well as inspiring and successful careers by African American artists.” Nothing the contradiction in a country’s founding ideal of “all men are created equal” being penned by a man who owned two hundred slaves, Seeing and Seen attempts to reveal the many layers that emerged from this complicated beginning.

African Americans: Seeing and Seen, 1766 – 1916 will be on view from January 21 – April 2, 2010. For more information, please visit the Babcock Gallieries’ official website.

Images:

• Portrait of an Adolescent, c. 1890, Sheldon Orrin Parsons (1866-1943), Oil on canvas (top)

• Mount Orford, 1864, Robert Scott Duncanson (1821-1872), Oil on canvas (bottom, top)

• A Student of ‘La Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, Gouache on paper (bottom, left)

• Julia Benson, 1852, by Francesca Alexander (1837-19170, Ink on paper (bottom, right)

Babcock Galleries
Address: 724 Fifth Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-767-1852
Website: www.babockgalleries.com
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