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Global cultures 1980–now
Course: Global cultures 1980–now > Unit 1
Lesson 10: Figuration, the body, and representation- Identity Politics: From the Margins to the Mainstream
- Stephanie Syjuco, The Visible Invisible
- Wangechi Mutu, Preying Mantra
- Wangechi Mutu, The NewOnes, will free Us
- Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
- Rineke Dijkstra, Odessa, Ukraine, August 4, 1993
- Maryam Hoseini's Every Day Abstractions
- Jordan Casteel Paints Her Community
- Luchita Hurtado's body of work
- Shirin Neshat, Rebellious Silence, Women of Allah series
- Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps
- Kehinde Wiley, Ice T
- Kehinde Wiley, Rumors of War
- Yinka Shonibare, The Swing (After Fragonard)
- Shonibare, The Swing
- Freud, Standing by the Rags
- Kiki Smith, Lying with the Wolf
- Kiki Smith Quiz
- Catherine Opie, Figure and Landscape series
- Stefanie Jackson, Bluest Eye
- Amy Sherald, Precious Jewels by the Sea
- Michelle Browder, Mothers of Gynecology
- Douglas Coupland, Terry Fox Memorial
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Amy Sherald, Precious Jewels by the Sea
Amy Sherald's "Precious Jewels by the Sea" is a vibrant painting that challenges racial stereotypes. Sherald uses grayscale for skin tones to shift focus onto her subjects' individuality. The painting showcases a group of young African American girls, dressed in bright, stylish clothes, enjoying a day at the beach, a scene often underrepresented in art. This work invites viewers to appreciate the joy and innocence of childhood, regardless of race. Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(soft bluesy piano music) - [Narrator 1] We've just
walked into one of the galleries at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and one of the largest paintings in what is already a sizable gallery is Amy Sherald's "Precious
Jewels by the Sea". - [Narrator 2] There is a
grouping of four figures, two young men, on their
shoulders are two young women, posing as if you're standing near, taking their picture on the beach. - [Narrator 1] What first
grabbed my attention was the colors that remind me of summer. We're seeing these gorgeous
azurite blues and turquoises and this almost cherry red
and these bright yellows and greens and everything
is so saturated and lush. It calls to mind what we think
of as the colors of summer. - [Narrator 2] This is an
incredibly sunny, sun-struck day, but it doesn't feel like it's too hot. The figures look really comfortable. Their feet are nestled softly in the sand. There are beautiful touches of white to give a sense of a breeze. A sailboat is passing by. And these colors are so vibrant
that they also remind you of this title, "The
Precious Jewels by the Sea". They have the sense of jewel tones, emerald, amethyst,
garnet, topaz, even opal for the woman on the left who's wearing a more pastel
striped bathing suit. - [Narrator 1] There's also
these intimate details. I am looking for instance, at
the center of the composition, the young woman's fingertips are just grazing the young man's, and it's this beautiful, intimate gesture, just as his left arm is
barely grazing her thigh. - [Narrator 2] There's a
classical monumentality to this. - [Narrator 1] And I think
that idea of monumentality also makes me think of
how sculptural they are. They're very still. It's as if they're
expressing no real effort and they're very calmly looking out at us and this really is a painting
about seeing and being seen. - [Narrator 2] I think that sense of scale and the statuesque nature of the figures is very appropriate to Sherald's ambition for works like this, for figures like this to be in museums. In the context of Crystal Bridges, with our sweeping roof
line of more than 20 feet, this painting fills
the space effortlessly. You look at these figures and you think about the lasting nature of who they are, what they represent in the museum. Sherald has written about the
importance of the Black figure in the museum space, in her
art, and in art history, and working at the scale
to be able to fill the size of galleries, of museums
around this nation and the world is important. This is not a home, it's
an institutional building with power and drama in its architecture with paintings like hers to match. - [Narrator 1] Amy Sherald
is perhaps most famous today for painting the official portrait of First Lady Michelle
Obama, but she has a number of paintings that she has reflected on as offering this critique to
the cannon of American art. This idea of coming into a museum and seeing black individuals
on this monumental scale here at the beach, going
about their summer day, is a really powerful idea. - [Narrator 2] Sherald's
interest in creating new kinds of art histories, even
correctives to art histories, in which Black figures like
this have not been canonized to the same extent in the
histories of American art speak to her knowledge of American history and her knowledge of art history broadly. She talks about the fact
that she wants to quote, "Make images of things that
we normally don't get to see in spaces like museums, like Black people going to the beach." And she connects that to
memories of her own mother, who didn't know how to swim, and who quote, "Didn't like going to segregated Black beaches." - [Narrator 1] This makes me think of how she paints these
figures using a gray scale and here she has, instead of
mixing black and white paint, she mixes black and yellow. - [Narrator 2] The gradations of the gray and the charcoal and the
brown next to the expanse of the soft light blue is arresting. She said of this painting that it's quote, "Really just about creating
American narratives about American people while
critiquing it at the same time. This painting, and all of them, are about expressions of freedom." (soft bluesy piano music)