“We Are the Art:” Celebrating Black visual culture at the getty center
On June 17, more than 100 Black folks gathered at the Getty Center. Even during golden hour, the stunning panoramic Los Angeles views just couldn’t compete with the rich medley of melanin and style. We’d been invited to celebrate Black visual culture with the center’s African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI) and—I’m so sorry to be that person, but—we clearly understood the assignment. (Myself, included.)
Author, curator, and professor Richard J. Powell, one of the speakers on the event panel, said as much when he underscored that “we are the art,” not only that night, but also throughout history. Look around, he encouraged us, spotlighting the care we had taken to adorn our bodies and express our individual selves that evening. Considering that we were sharing space with an institution housing more than 40,000 ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan works of art, Powell’s empowering assertion that we are, in fact, the visuals (word to Beyoncé) was as radical as it was accurate.
Mind you, our outfits ranged from casual to formal, our hair from bussdown to bantu knots, our complexions from light to deep. Still, each and every look affirmed the beauty of our Blackness, a fact that global institutions—the Getty, included—have rebuffed and denied through intentional omissions and violent erasures for centuries. Panelists Joy Simmons (Senior Art and Exhibition Advisor for Destination Crenshaw and Commissioner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum) and Halima Taha (author of “Collecting African American Art: Works on Paper and Canvas,” which I own and recommend) echoed the significance of self-appreciation and self-value, particularly for art work and artists from our community, a group that has and continues to create affirming visual images in a society founded on our devaluing and dehumanization. After the panel, Grammy-nominated singer Angie Fisher and her band kicked off the party portion of the night as we mingled, danced, and celebrated our love for the culture and our community.
This event actually marked my first visit to the Getty, and I was surprised to learn that I wasn’t alone. Then again, as the panelists mentioned, art institutions and galleries often feel—and sometimes, straight up are—exclusionary and inaccessible to most people. Is visual representation or hypervisibility the solution to achieving racial diversity, equity, inclusion, and power? The many, many Black folks, mostly women, who have since left or were let go or fired from those overnight DEI positions in the wake of 2020’s “Reckoning” would beg to differ. And yet, as Powell, Simmons, and Taha insisted during the panel, artistic imagery of and by Black Americans plays a critical role in reclaiming and reasserting how others see us, as well as how we see ourselves, on a global scale. If art has the power to challenge norms, spark discourses, and change the world, just imagine the immense power of Black art. Or, if we are the art, then we already have the power. Not a bad way to kick off the week of Juneteenth.
