Titus Kaphar, Descent
In June, I had the opportunity to see the Titus Kaphar: History in the Making exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. Kaphar’s artistic strategy is a reconsideration of paintings from the past through his own intervention into these works through the act of cutting canvas and literally tarring his paintings. I went to the exhibition with thoughts of paintings by Robert Colescott in mind, since Colescott’s most well known work uses the strategy of inserting African American figures into paintings by celebrated white artists. His painting Les Desmoiselles d’Alabama (1985) serves as one example. But Kaphar takes an interesting and different approach to his selected paintings for consideration, approaching his paintings as sculptures rather than two-dimensional surfaces. Figures are cut from one painting and inserted in another; a figure in one painting literally falls to the floor of the gallery; and other paintings are cut into long shreds that are piled on the canvas to create a three-dimensional quality. Kaphar is well aware of the problematic nature of painting in the postmodern art world. But he notes, “If painting is dead, then I want to do the autopsy.” The content of his works serves as a reminder of the racism embedded in many of the celebrated paintings of the Western world and a suggestion of the possibility of an alternative. Kaphar’s work is beautifully executed and powerful in intellectual and emotional content.
The Seattle Art Museum website has three short videos in which Kaphar discusses his work. Check them out: http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/exhibitDetail.asp?eventID=15647
Also, check out this brief discussion of his work that includes an example of his Conversations Between Paintings: http://www.thecampuschronicle.com/arts/profiles/080307s.cfm
The exhibiton ends on September 7, 2009
Cynthia Fowler
