Soul of a Nation: deYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA

February 29, 2020

Soul of a Nation: deYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983

DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA
November 9, 2019- March 15. 2020

“Soul of Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” is on exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco from November 9, 2019. The show has about 150 pieces of artwork, by approximately 60 black artists who worked in the two decades after 1963. This show has traveled from Tate Modern in London, the Brooklyn Museum, the Broad in Los Angeles, and it stays at de Young Museum until March 15, 2020. Artwork in this show is not only a historical record of Black Power and the Civil rights Movement but also African American artists' expression through the period of their fights for rights. This San Francisco show was expanded with the edition of Black Panther works from the Bay Area, which includes Emory Douglas’s newspaper print images.

The exhibition is organized into eight sections by location or interest. The first two groups have all black and white photos and paintings. The first group is titled “The Spiral Group.” These black artists named themselves “Spiral” to refer to their struggle for equality for black and white. They held a group exhibition in 1965. They got the idea of ever-expanding spiral from the Ancient Greek, who used the spiral shape to represent humanism. They were showing only black and white art to reflect the social and political perspective that people were divided by skin colors in their time. Spiral fueled the activism fire so black artists became more involved in social justice through their expression with their artmaking.

The second room’s title is “Black Light.” Black and white photos, prints, and oil paintings show the many different art styles that were used to describe their enthusiasm and motivation to change their social and political status at that time. The numerous different styles of work shows more individual artmaking artists were involved in this art movement. One of the painters, Norman Lewis, had started realistic painting in his artist career, but in the 60s, he moved into abstract painting. He thought that the abstract could embrace his expression of freedom to deliver his racial difficulties and struggles. American the Beautiful, 1960, oil on canvas, was powerful enough to make people spend more time observing it. It was composed of a black matte background and white shadow looking images. White shapes could be fragments of figures or light around black people struggling or crawling. They are in a dark space and there seems to be no exit to getaway. If any of the white shapes touched the boundary of the painting, I would not be able to feel the black people’s strong claim of inequality, but the border is complete darkness. This painting transfers me into their struggle. In spite of my sad feelings of empathy toward their constant struggles, this painting is enjoyable to appreciate the delicate brush marks and black and white contrast from closer and further away.

Norman Lewis’s quote was on the second room wall. “The goal of the artist must be aesthetic development, and in a universal sense, to make in his own way some contribution to culture.” I think he would say that by aesthetically approaching the viewers, artwork has the power to deliver its own messages to the whole world and through this develop and change their society. I agree with this idea as well. My current thought is if my artwork is relevant and is able to bring a magnifying glass on issues of my culture, then my art is able to bring out other problems in a different culture when viewers see my work.

I am really interested in David Hammons’s art. His artwork appears in the third group, “the Black Impressions” and the eighth room titled “Abstract.” He uses his body as a medium, for example, printing his body on the paper or on glass. Many of his works of his whole body printed on paper or sometimes on the glass of a door showed his commitment to examining race and civil rights. Because of his physical and real print images, his artwork connects him to where he belongs in the world and in history.

In The Door(Admissions Office), 1969, wood, acrylic sheet, and pigment construction, Hammons used an actual office door to show black people’s barriers. This door blocks him or his people from reaching some places. His body was printed in black ink on the glass of the door. Two hands above a face look pressed against this glass obstacle, and his upper body print looks ghostly. It could connotate the way black people were treated as “not human” in the 1960s and not allowed to go where they wanted. This art strongly speaks of the Black Power and civil rights movements. They must have had questions, “What is the role of art?” and “What is the meaning of being an artist during the civil rights movement?” I would like to believe that they would actively use their voice to express their thoughts, even if creating art had been banned. I see that they chose artmaking as a means to change an unequal society because they were good at art.

In the sixth room, in contrast to the previous room, there were mostly colorful paintings exhibited. In Revolutionary(1971), acrylic and mixed media on canvas, Wadsworth Jarrell painted Angela Davis, an African American activist of Black rights who was wearing a revolutionary suit that was decorated with real bullets. This painting is a celebration of Angela Davis’ release from prison. Texts were painted around the figure with very vibrant colors. When I saw it from books and screens, this painting didn’t have color contrast or warm and cold contrast. I was surprised by its vivid colors and elaborate patterns creating illumination that Davis’ voice echoed in the air like a halo, and black people respected her excitedly at that time. I could read the words “love,” “rest,” and “revolution.” Using figures, and text, Jarrell could approach and deliver to a broad audience the fact that the Black community was confronting their battles – with discrimination, violence, racism, poverty.

Since seeing this show, I have been thinking about the voices of other races. I can see black and white people often contrasted rather than a spectrum of skin colors. We can probably use this racial contrast as representing other voices as well. I would like to see more diverse races and cultures represented. However, if we can’t see it, this is an excellent example to show other contrasts in peoples.