#denise murrell

[karmaalwayswins]

The Met "Harlem is Everywhere Episode 1: The New Negro" (2024)

First episode of a series of podcasts exploring The Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit, "The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism", on view until July 28, 2024.

[thefugitivesaint]

A Student Thesis Has Become a Groundbreaking Show About How Black People Have Been Pictured Across Art History

An exhibition opening at the Wallach Art Gallery in New York explores the legacy of the black model for the development modernism and beyond.

“Through the exhibition of around 100 paintings from different stages of art history, as well as letters and photographs from archives, the show traces the evolving representation of the black female figure. The show includes another Manet portrait of Laure and his portrait of Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire’s mistress, a biracial woman of French Caribbean origin.” .... ”Interestingly, the show also delves into the work of Matisse, an artist whose name might be surprising in this context. Archival letters show that on his visits to the United States, Matisse worked with women of color and interacted with artists active in the Harlem Renaissance movement, which inspired a shift in his artistic style. The final segment of the exhibition features postwar and contemporary artworks, including work by African American artists such Romare Bearden and Mickalene Thomas, that look back critically at earlier representations of women of color, including those by Manet and Matisse.” More on the exhibition here at ‘Good Black News.’ Also here’s a review of the exhibition by Kaegan Sparks for Art in America Magazine.

[dustcoveredpages]

Frédéric Bazille, Young Woman with Peonies, 1870 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. | Exhibition Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today (2018) curated by Denise Murrell

[goodblacknews]

(via Columbia University's Wallach Art Gallery Debuts "Posing Modernity," an Exhibition on The Evolution of Black Women Models in Art)

[karmaalwayswins]

Le Modèle Noir de Géricault à Matisse (Black Models: From Géricault to Matisse)

“Le Modèle Noir” at Musée d’Orsay in Paris is reaching the end of its run this weekend. I saw this exhibit a few months ago, and I just wanted to make a few comments. 

The show is an expansion of the earlier Wallach Art Gallery exhibit “Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today”, developed by the art historian Denise Murrell (I’ll include a link to the original background story at the end of this essay). Posing Modernity considered the representation of the black female in art. The show at Musée d’Orsay expands the timeframe, and includes discussion of the depiction of black males as well. 

In thinking about this show over time, I gradually came to realize that what I liked most about it, even more than the excellent art it contains, is the fact that the subjects of the show have agency (per the Wikipedia definition, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices). To make a not-that-great analogy, the models are not classic Star Trek redshirts brought along to advance the story of the main cast, but instead main characters themselves, with their own desires and agendas. They’re not just “oppressed persons” moved about by the whims of kings, queens, and other associated persons, as seems to be the case sometimes in history books, but instead Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire’s mistress; Miss Lala the aerialist; and Joseph, the artist’s model. 

“Le Modèle Noir de Géricault à Matisse” ends its run at Musée d’Orsay on July 21, 2019. Obviously, if you’re in Paris and have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. 

Another review here:

https://bonjourparis.com/art/le-modele-noir-de-gericault-a-matisse/

The story of the exhibit “Posing Modernity”

https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/posing-modernity-wallach-musee-orsay-1352365

The concept of “Agency” as defined by Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(sociology)

Photos:

1. “Le Modèle Noir” at Musée d’Orsay .

2. Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume “Moulage sur Nature du Visage de Joseph” (ca. 1834-38)

3. “Les Papillons Noir et Blanc (Miss Lala et Kaira), Cirque d’Hiver” (ca. 1884-86)

4. Charles Cordier “Homme du Soudan Francais” (1857)

Photo Credit: karmaalwayswins

[blackpostmodernart]

Denise Murrell, associate curator, Metropolitan Museum

[binkloves]

Black Female Form.

The forever muse.

Wallach Art Gallery | Columbia University

[karmaalwayswins]

Now Reading:

Naomi Rea for Artnet “A Student Thesis Has Become a Groundbreaking Show About How Black People Have Been Pictured Across Art History” (2018)

https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/posing-modernity-wallach-musee-orsay-1352365