Art and Identity

1) Racism
2) Sexism

Reasons for criticizing identity in art

 Non-Western art or handcraft is not exhibited (as art) in prestigious museums or
taught (as art) at schools
 Women and POC (person of colour) are underrepresented in the history of art
 The way women and POC are represented in art is dishonourable (nudes, servants, in
the margins…)

How ya like me now?”- there are many layers:

o Presidential Candidate
o Rap Music
o Destruction of the first art work (hammers)
o Political identity
o Destroyed by afro Americans- they thought it was racist (the art was
meant to fight racism)
o Hammers: 1st destruction of the world  question in exam
o the famous African American preacher and politician was portrayed as a white-skinned,
blue-eyed blond. Painted like graffiti across the sculpture were the words “How Ya Like
Me Now?”(also referred of a rap song).The author of the work (David Hammons), himself
African America, stated in interviews that this intention was to expose the racism of the
white establishment and thumb his nose at all-white subjects commemorated nearby in
the National Portrait Gallery. Thus, in unexpected ways, this work raised intriguing issues
about the relationship between identity and art. It graphically demonstrated the
inadequacy of modernist assumptions about the universality of art and the irrelevance of
particulars like artist’s race, sex, and ethnicity. Indeed the case “How Ya like Me Now?”
the artist’s race was crucial to any interpretation of the work, and the work’s meaning
was dependent on the social and political context in which it was created.

Canon: the collection of art works that are regarded to be decisive for the history of art

Gorilla Girls:
- Anonymous activist women – feminism movement started in the 80’s
- less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the
nudes are female. “Our anonymity keeps the focus on the issues, and away from
who we might be”
- They attack the image of woman – women have to undress to catch attention
- Women are undressed or half dressed
-
Distinction between
 Naked: being without clothes
 Nude: to be naked for a spectator
o A naked body has to be seen as an object to become a nude

Valie Export  extremism, this is not a solution

 The risk of essentialism: background, colour, sex determine the kind of things you
are going to do and depict
o A synonym is ghettoized (= identified limited in a certain box)
o Women that have to undress to be considered
o Black people that have to rap to be considered
o DOT PAINTINGS- shows the tribes where they are from
o Guerrilla Girls
Irianian contemporary art  Stereotypes

The risk of essentialism? - Judged for the background (same as ghettonized) –( no

deconstructionist)

Cultural hybrids: “yes, take my icon, and make me rethink its value in the context of a
multiculturalism that is no longer reducible to ready-made pluralism… give me an
image that is neither purely Christian, purely African, purely modernist, and make me live in
the clash of perspectives presented there. More often than not, we ask of art and
language to give us back a world that we already know, reconfirm our place, our
position, our perspective. And this is precisely to sacrifice the critical perspective that
gives us the world anew.”
- Holy Virgin Mary – Ofili  mary depicted as African women surrounded by genitals
- Cultural Hybrid
o Response to essentialism
o How?
 Refusing a clear identity, ex- being both female and male

Reading questions
1. On page 242, Heartney writes ‘the multiculturalists, countered that such
arguments for a shared canon of masterpieces were simply tools of oppression’.
What is a canon? And why could a canon be a tool for oppression?
- art canon: collection of art works that are regarded to be decisive for the history of
art
- It limits the expression of other artworks, and it limits also the audience and the way
people interpret art  confined artistic production to a small circle of white
Europeans or Americans males (multiculturalists were criticizing it, because art must
serve everybody)

2. According to Heartney, Afro-American artists ‘risk being ghettoized’ (p.246). What

does she mean with this statement? How does David Hammons oppose this
categorisation?
- Ghettoized is the identification of people according to certain traits. It is a limited
identification
- Hammons (the artist) doesn’t want to make others know that he is black  free of
stereotypes and he wants its art to be accepted
o Against the identity-based art
o No pre-existing structure in Art

3. In her text, Hearney distinguishes between two approaches to identity in art: the
essentialist and the deconstructionist approach. How can both approaches be
found in the work The adoration of Captain Shit and the legend of the Blackstars
(1998) by Chris Ofili (p.248)?
- Essentialism = stable definition of identity  based on background ecc..
- Deconstructionism = identity as a social construct that can be manipulated for
social and political ends
Ofili celebrates both African and African diasporic identity
o Depicts the mother of a young murdered by a gang of white youths
- Capitan shit= black superhero
- The painting is both essentialism because the style is African and also
deconstructionists to denunciate the situation of black people
- ‘the paradox of contemporary black culture being avidly consumed by a
white audience is wryly noted by Ofili and played back to his own audience’
4. Do you think the work of Gómez-Peña and Fusco Two Undiscovered Amerindians
Visit Madrid (1992) reinforces the racial stereotype of Native Americans? If yes,
explain why. If no, explain why not.
- He uses essentialism to denunciate the social issue: by putting the native Americans
in cages he is depicting them as if they were wild animals, “as guides earnestly
explained their antics and culture to members of the biennial audience”. Viewers are
left to draw their own conclusions

5. In the last part of the chapter Hearney talks about hybrid approaches to identity.
What does hybrid in this context mean? Do you think it is desirable to have more
hybrid representations of race and gender in popular culture?
- Hybrid: no defined identity
- Hybridity is destabilizing, but it is also regenerative
o Identity is what defines human beings and what makes them different from
others. With hybrid art there is the risk of loosing the artist own point of view
but it also represents a way to experiment and discover new perspectives.
- Cultural hybrids are the refusal of essentialism and a clear identity: you can be
African and British… However, if all art were cultural hybrids we would lose a great
part of our heritage: it shouldn’t be bad to celebrate being white and European, the
same way it shouldn’t be bad to celebrate being black and African.