At the Whitney
Category Archives: Museums
Michelle by Sherald
Amy Sherald and the Boys
Amy Sherald & All the Girls
Dots
Bisa Butler & The World of Black Women
African American women and mothers deserve to be seen, heard, paid, and protected. They must be thanked and acknowledged for all they have done and continue to do. We need Black women.
This quote was taken from Bisa Butler’s Materfamilias which was on display in the Spring of 2023 in Pleasentville, New York at the Gordon Parks Foundation.
Feeling the need to get away from the city, I took a short train ride to Pleasentville. It was my first time at the the gallery. It was peaceful. Unlike the overpacked shows at the Met where one can’t read wall text or study art without the humdrum of a crowd, the gallery was still. Only one other person walked in the gallery.
The wall text that introduced the show was powerful. I didn’t know much about Butler’s work. I learned about her family, education, and craft. As a writer, I appreciated the written lessons a bit more than the colorful quilts. Her message was motherly yet radical.
Indeed, we need Black women! I thought while reading and seeing…. Need!! Need. We are in dire need of them. Need. Need. Black women need each other and Black women must remember that we are comrade sisters. We mustn’t forget that we want the power to determine our own destiny and we must continue to fight for it.
Butler’s words were the most striking about her show. The quilts were stunning but the stories that were told were authentic and affirming of African American life in the United States.
I came across a quilt she did at the beginning of her career and by far, very vulnerable.
Her wall text and quilt text reminded me of Ericka Higgins, Lynn French, Yasmeen Majid, Cheryl Dawson and made me feel warm inside as my mother’s love would do.
Happily, I stood there reading with the intention of sharing and reflecting.
In Butler’s story you find multi generational endurance of the Black women. She borrows from her family heirlooms and Gordon Parks archives. She spins the story into something like of Joseph’s coat of many colors. Just like the coat was given to the child of promise, each story is chosen carefully reflecting the Black Body as one with promise.
Towards the end of the show, far on the left side, was a screen of Bisa Butler talking about her career, what it means to be a Black artist and the true responsibility of an artist.
At the Bronx Museum with Artist Chris Cook
The fourth and fifth graders took a trip to the Bronx Museum. It was a wonderful joyous event. They visited many different museums throughout New York City but never visited a museum to meet up with a friend of their teacher.
Mr. Cook and I met a couple of years ago in Brooklyn at Prospect Park. I traveled there to see Art in the Park. When I arrived, I ran into his friend on a bicycle who told me I was going the wrong way. He slowed down and bicycled-walked with me ( I know that’s not a word but it should be!). He slowly rode while I walked keeping up the conversation. He didn’t even stumble as I would have on a skinny wheel bicycle.
“It sounds like I need to introduce you to my friend Chris. Y’all would get along.”
When we arrived the event had already started.
Afterwards, he introduced us and Chris and I have been working together ever since. He visited the school several times creating a wonderful relationship with the children. When I told the children about the next trip, they were overjoyed to hear that they actually knew the artist.
We arrived an hour early and took a walk to the Andrew Freeman home. Mr. Freeman owned the baseball team, the Giants, during the early 20th century. His dilapidated house-home sits there with very little going on with it besides remodel promises from the city.
By the time we circled the Block, it was time to view Mr. Cook’s work.
After the museum preliminaries, Mr. Cook started off with fun questions to get them thinking.
Next Mr. Cook and I took turns teaching about other artist who were in the same exhibition.
After spending some time on Kim Dacres’ work, the students created self portraits using pencil and feathers.
We also viewed work by Syd Abady and saw moving images from another artist. These works the students spoke about.
When it was time to view Mr. Cooks work, I taught first. Once again beginning with open ended inquiry.
After they explored his work, he spoke openly about the creation process, the ownership structure, and the political messages.
After viewing and discussing his work, students created their own newspaper or magazine cover addressing an in issue their community using neon colored index cards.
When it was time to leave the students were complaining that they still had more questions for Mr. Cook. The most popular question was- how did he get his art into a museum? But some other questions were: Why is Mr. Cook’s work being taken down? What will the museum show next? How you make art out of materials when there are no materials?
The time we are living in is somewhat blissful. My students had so many opportunities and great ones lately and I don’t know if they understand that it’s not only apropos but unprecedented and unbelievable.
A 21st- Century connection between Art and the National Summit on Education
I found the connection between the National Summit on Education and the art at Utah’s museum of Art seasonable.
While at Utah’s Museum of Art, I came across a huge electrical wall panel created by Elias Sime from Ethiopia.
The plaque next to the ‘ Tightrope: Noiseless 1’ (it’s title) reads: Sime buys his materials at the Merkato In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the largest open- air market in Africa. It can take years for him to accumulate the necessary discarded computer parts to construct an individual work. In this series, Sime recognizes the uneasy balance between the advances made possible by technology and the impact those advances have had on humanity and the environment. Sime says, ” My work reclaims these machines in a tender way, as I am not in opposition to technology. It’s about how to balance it with “real” life. We’ve become off-balance. My title for my series of collages, “Tightrope,” has a double reaming, It’s about this equilibrium, but I also wanted it to evoke a string: if you pull it too tight, it will break.”
The installation connected strongly with the keynote speakers at the conference. While looking at it, I had no questions, nor did it bring me peace. It was just about being in the moment while also thinking about the future.
Earlier that day, I sat in the Grand America Hotel and listened to Code.org founder Hadi Partovi, finance expert Tim Ranzetta and Professor of Applied Mathematics Dr. Steven Strogatz, map out critical skills for every 21st-Century student’s success.
Dr. Strogatz encouraged us to introduce our learners to Data Science which he said was the “modern version of statics, a fusion of many disciplines that give us opportunities touch every field.” Mr. Partovi pushed for us to teach finical literacy, especially to students in high school. As a true educator, he provided curriculum and even offered ways to teach others how to teach the topic. Tim Ranzetta also pushed technology – telling us that the vision of Code.org is that every student learn computer science.
The full video is posted on Youtube:
A life-size Ginger Bread House
Taken at the Grand American Hotel in Utah…
The plaque reads:
Almost all artist unknown in Arts of Africa Room
At Utah’s Museum of Fine Arts on the second floor towards the back is a room labeled Arts of Africa. It looks like a period room. Quite honestly, period rooms can be boredom rooms. But this one was intriguing because almost all of the art in there had no name on it. The artist was unknown for each artifact. Why?
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