Afro Modern: Journeys

through the Black

Atlantic
Tate Liverpool Educators’ Pack
Introduction
Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Verso:
London, 1993) identifies a hybrid culture that connects the continents of Africa,
the Americas and Europe. Inspired by Gilroy’s seminal book, this major
exhibition at Tate Liverpool examines the impact of Black Atlantic culture on
modernism and the role of black artists and writers from the beginning of the
twentieth-century to present day.

Divided into seven chronological chapters, the exhibition takes as its starting
point the influences of African sculpture on artists such as Picasso and Brancusi
in the evolution of Cubism and Abstract art. The journey continues across the
Atlantic tracking the impact of European modernism on emerging African-
American Artists, such as the Harlem Renaissance group. It traces the
emergence of modernism in Latin America and Africa and returns to Europe at
the height of the jazz age and the craze for “Negrophilia”. It follows the
transatlantic commuting of artists between continents and maps out the visual
and cultural hybridity that has arisen in contemporary art made by people of
African descent. The final section examines current debates around “Post-Black
Art” with contemporary artists such as Chris Ofili and Kara Walker.

This pack is designed to support educators in the planning, execution and

following up to a visit to Tate Liverpool. It is intended as an introduction to the
exhibition with a collection of ideas, workshops and points for discussion. The
activities are suitable for all ages and can be adapted to your needs.

Exhibition dates: 29January – 25 April 2010,

2010, Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock,
Liverpool L3 4BB

Available in the bookshop: Catalogue: Afro Modern – Journeys through the

Black Atlantic by Tanya Barson and Peter Gorschluter, Tate Publishing, 2010

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Contents:
Avant-Gardes page 3

Maya Deren page 7

Black Orpheus page 7

Dissident Identities page 9

Reconstructing the Middle Passage page 11

Exhibiting Bodies page 13

Post-Modern to Post-Black page 14

Work in Focus: Ron Moody page 16

Work in Focus: Sonia Boyce page 19

Further Resources page 21

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Avant-Gardes
It has been well-documented that the pioneers of modernism in Europe took
inspiration from non-Western sources including African sculpture, though it is
important to note that their fascination with such art was purely formal. They
had no interest in the historical, ceremonial or ritual use of masks and figurines
but admired the vitality and expressive quality of what they recognised as
“primitive” art.

An interest in ethnographic art in Europe was initially aroused through the

objects brought back from the colonies by traders and explorers in the
nineteenth-century. Picasso was a regular visitor to the ethnology galleries in
Paris, but he also amassed his own collection of “strange wooden grimaces” as
his friend, the poet André Salmon described the objects accumulated in his
studio. Dissatisfied with traditional artistic conventions during the first decade of
the twentieth-century, Picasso set out to re-invent art in his own terms, inspired
by the direct approach of non-European culture.

The mask-like face, wood-coloured body and hatched planes of Bust of a

Woman 1909 reveal the influence of African carving. This faceting and breaking
up of form would eventually lead to Picasso’s development along with George
Braque of Analytical Cubism.

Another artist influenced by non-Western culture was Amadeo Modigliani. His

highly stylised heads and figures with their almond shaped eyes and oval heads
are reminiscent of Cambodian carvings. In contrast to the angular almost
geometric forms of the cubist artists, Modigliani emphasised the sensuous
curves and rhythms of his figures in both his paintings and his sculptures.

One of the pioneers of abstract sculpture, Constantin Brancusi arrived at his

reductive expression of form through the blending of non-European sources
with the traditional wood carvings of his native Romania. He simplified form
dramatically, eliminating detail and emphasising pure universally recognisable
shapes such as the ovoid. Head c.1919-23, is part of a larger sculpture which
Brancusi destroyed, retaining only the head, which he considered the vital part
in expressing the human body. He said, “What is real is not the external form,
but the essence of things”. This drastic simplification was intended to present a
unified surface and also to emphasise the innate beauty of the materials.
The White Negress I 1923 represents a complex blend of two different
sculptural traditions in its combination of a smoothly polished head with a more
roughly hewn base inspired by African art. It also performs a racial inversion
through the use of white marble, reflecting the fusion of black and white
cultures that was in vogue in Paris at the time.

Look at examples of other European art movements at the turn of the twentieth-
century (e.g. German Expressionism, Futurism, Fauvism, Surrealism). Discuss
colour, line, form, materials etc and also how these artists could have been
influenced by non-Western cultures. Did any of them visit Africa? Where would
they have studied African art? Look at some examples of ethnographic art

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alongside these artists’ work. (e.g. Walker Evans’ photographs featured in the
exhibition).

Draw an African mask or sculpture, first of all using pencil and then a crayon or
pastel in order to get a more expressive result. Experiment with drawing
materials and different colours and discuss your resulting works.

Make a portrait of a friend in the style of Brancusi using modelling clay and
reducing the head to as few characteristics as possible yet still allowing the
subject to be recognisable.

European Modernism had a profound global influence. Artists from other

continents encountered modern art-forms through travelling or studying in
Europe. Tarsila do Amaral was taught by Cubist Fernande Léger and was
inspired by European artists’ uses of non-Western culture. On her return to
South America she turned to the indigenous art of her own continent. Moro da
Favella 1925 represents a Brazilian subject in a style that fuses a wide range of
influences experienced on her transatlantic travels. This “canabalistic” approach
was shared by fellow artists who became known as the Brazilian Antropofagist
movement. One of these artists was Lasar Segall, a Lithuanian who emigrated
to Brazil in the 1920s. Banana Plantation 1927 uses a visual language derived
from Cubism and German Expressionism allied to aspects of native South
American art. The large Caucasian head that occupies the plantation signifies
the continuing white exploitation of Brazilian agricultural land during the early
twentieth century when black slaves were replaced by European immigrants.

In the United States, artists of African descent appropriated European

modernism in order to express a new confidence and pride in the arts and
cultures of Africa. One of the first artists to use this new visual language for
depicting themes of African heritage was Aaron Douglas who became known
as the “Father of Black American Art”. Aspiration 1936 contrasts an image of
slavery with that of an ennobled and educated future for African Americans. By
combining influences from African and ancient Egyptian art with a
contemporary Art Deco style, Douglas generated a hybrid form of expression
which captures the sense of freedom and creativity of the jazz age and places
the African American in a modern Western context.

In 1934, Douglas was commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project to paint a
series of murals for the New York Public Library. His cycle traces the experience
of the African American, from slavery in the Southern States to emancipation in
the modern city, beginning with this evocation of a distant African past, Aspects
of Negro Life: the Negro in an African Setting 1934. Douglas employs vibrant,
stylised forms to express a modern interpretation of his racial history. He said, “I
refuse to compromise and see blacks as anything less than a proud and
majestic people.”

As an important member of the Harlem Renaissance group, Aaron Douglas

illustrated many of the key African American journals of the period and
designed book covers for the circle’s writers. The Opportunity Art Folio 1926 is
one of his most successful artistic collaborations, pairing his characteristic

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silhouetted illustrations with poems by Langston Hughes. The artist’s subtle
blending of stark depictions of contemporary black American life contrasted
with African art-inspired imagery finds a perfect parallel in Hughes’s blues-
structured language.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement originating

in New York in the 1920s. Harlem became the centre of the New Negro
Movement when its former white middle class housing became converted into
dwellings for predominantly black labourers at the beginning of the twentieth-
century. The neighbourhood’s diversity is expressed in the paintings of Palmer
Hayden and Edward Burra.

British artist Burra was initially attracted to Harlem through his love of jazz
music. The area became the focal point of cultural and political development
during the inter-war period which galvanised a generation of black Americans
with new confidence and a strong sense of identity. In a letter, the artist
described the neighbourhood’s “non-stop twitchery night and day” which is
captured in paintings such as Harlem 1934. The vibrancy of the modern
metropolis is combined with vitality associated with African-American culture.

In Hayden’s Midsummer Night in Harlem 1938, residents escape the stifling

heat of the over-crowded apartments by congregating on the streets. Hayden’s
naïve style has been compared to folk art and cartoons, but this radical
simplification of form has often been misconstrued as conforming to racial
stereotypes.

James Van der Zee depicted a different side of Harlem life in the portraits he
made over a period of six decades. His photographs provide a perspective on
African-American life that was rarely seen at the time by presenting
sophisticated middle-class subjects who were often transatlantic commuters.
He took great pride in carefully posing his photographs, adding props and often
retouching the negatives in order to remove blemishes. From the same
privileged background as his clients, Van der Zee’s aim was to beautify each
individual and to present them in their best light.

The vibrant music scene of the Harlem Renaissance spawned a number of

celebrities such as Josephine Baker who took her troupe, La Revue Nègre, to
Paris in 1925. Famous for her outrageous costumes and highly energetic
performances, she created her unique identity by subverting the commonly
perceived image of the native African. Graphic designer Paul Colin launched his
career with posters of Baker performing naked except for a string of bananas.
The craze for “primitivism” and black culture in Europe during the 1920s was
called “Negrophilia”. Many Europeans, such as Nancy Cunard and Kiki de
Montparnasse began to adopt fashions and style based on African and African-
American culture.

Discuss photographs and paintings of Nancy Cunard, Kiki de Montparnasse and

Josephine Baker. What image are they projecting of themselves? How do they
control this image? Discuss their clothes, make-up, hair-style, pose etc.

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Design your own outfits inspired by African culture – you could try making these
as collages using real materials and fabrics.

Find out more about the Harlem Renaissance – read poems, listen to music,
look at art by Sargent Johnson, Aaron Douglas, Edward Burra, James Van der
Zee etc.

Write an imaginary interview with one of the figures in the art of the Avant
Gardes section (e.g. the tall man in the Burra painting, one of Hayden’s figures,
a Harlem resident in Van der Zee’s photographs etc) Ask them about their life,
where they live, what they do, their family, friends etc).

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Maya Deren
The second room presents a film by the Ukrainian born American
choreographer and artist Maya Deren. She spent periods in Haiti between 1947
and 1951, filming and participating in Voodoo festivals, rituals and rites. The
result was the posthumously edited film and book, Divine Horsemen: The
Living Gods of Haiti, which became an important documentation of Haitian
voodoo.

This religion merges the beliefs and practices of the West African slaves brought
to Haiti with Roman Catholicism. Deren’s highly personal film reflects on the
hybrid culture of Haiti and its importance as the site of the first slave rebellion, a
key event that contributed to the eventual abolition of slavery.

Watch Deren’s video. Pretend that you are a newspaper reporter and write a
review of this film. What is it about? Where was it filmed? What are your
personal responses to the film? How does it make you feel?

Black Orpheus
The title of room three is taken from an essay by Jean-Paul Sartre from 1948,
which prefaced a selection of poetry by French writers of African descent.
Orpheus was originally a figure from Greek Mythology associated with music,
literature and drama.

This section of the exhibition explores the development of Négritude in its

different manifestations in the visual arts of Cuba, the Caribbean, Brazil and
parts of Africa. The blending of cultures in the Caribbean was known as
creolisation where artists reinterpreted modernism in a unique Creole style.
This room also focuses on movements such as the Nigerian Natural Synthesis
which fused European modernism with local African aesthetic influences.

Négritude was an international artistic, philosophical and political movement,

partly inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. It aimed to reclaim the value of black
culture, history and identity and was developed initially in Paris where artists
demonstrated their rejection of French colonial racism.

Rubem Valentim participated in the First World Festival of Negro Art in Dakar,
Senegal 1966. Having travelled extensively in Europe and Africa in the course of
his studies, he drew on African tradition and combined this with the language of
European geometric abstraction. The double-headed axe shape of
Composition 1961 appears in much of his art. It is the Yoruba sign representing
the thunder deity Shango which was also used extensively as a symbol of
resistance against colonial enslavement.

Creolisation reflects a fluid blending of cultures within the Caribbean. It

represents the appropriation and reinterpretation of non-native elements, such
as European modernism into a unique Creole style.

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Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam spent the early part of his career in Europe. He
became a member of the Surrealist movement and also received
encouragement from his friend Picasso whose work greatly influenced the
development of his own visual vocabulary. On returning to his homeland after
the outbreak of the Second World War, he experienced a renewed awareness
of its culture and topography. Fearing that Cuba was in danger of losing its
African traditions, Lam sought to reaffirm its heritage using a modern form of
expression. Paintings such as Lumiere dans la Foret, La Grande Jungle 1942
were characterised by hybrid figures which combined elements taken from the
tropical surroundings in a style derived from Picasso’s proto-cubist period.

Natural Synthesis was a Nigerian movement which fused the visual language of
European Modernism with influences of local African art. Devised by artist and
theorist Uche Okeke, this movement encouraged a break with the past in order
to produce a progressive art relevant to modern Nigeria. Okeke’s Ana Mmuo
1961 is one of his most ambitious works. It demonstrates the concerns of
Natural Synthesis in combining indigenous elements with a commitment to
being contemporary. In this painting he has saturated the canvas with vibrant
colours to suggest the fluid forms of displaced spirits moving in the land of the
dead. It also points to the artist’s growing interest in the linear Uli art tradition of
the Igbo people inherited from his mother.

Another artist associated with Natural Synthesis was Adebisi Akanji. His large
openwork screens are typical of the Oshogbo school which was established to
create work along with a new social status for Nigerian artists and craftsmen.
Untitled (Four Screens) c.1966 combines elements from local folk art with
architectural features of Afro-Brazilian style Yoruba houses. A former bricklayer,
Adebisi models free-flowing forms in soft cement over a supporting wire
armature thereby reinterpreting a traditional art-form for a modern context.

Look closely at the works in the Black Orpheus room. What materials have been
used? How do you think they were made? Would you describe these works as
traditional African art or modern?

Visit Liverpool’s World Museum or study Walker Evans’ ethnographic

photographs and explore African art. Discuss how you think they could have
been made.

Discuss the influence of traditional African art on the artists featured in the
exhibition. You could give students images of African sculpture to help them
find examples in the gallery.

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Dissident Identities
This section examines art of the period beginning with the early 1960s when
artists became more politically involved in response to events that were taking
place around them, particularly in United States. Through their work and direct
political activity, artists of African descent claimed their rights, freedom, equality
and democracy. This section reflects the expanding boundaries for artistic
practice from this experimental period in history. It encompasses aspects of
political activism, street-based art and installations alongside iconic images by
photographers who documented political movements such as the Civil Rights
and Black Power.

David Hammons is a New York based artist whose art addresses social
exclusion. A powerful statement of inequality, The Door (Admissions Office)
1969 was made during the turbulent era of the Civil Rights movement, Black
Power struggle and the race riots that erupted following the assassination of Dr
Martin Luther King Jr in 1968. Hammons uses an emblematic body print in order
to suggest social as well as racial exclusion. The hands on the glass can be read
as either blocking an entrance or pushing for admission depending on which
side of the door the viewer stands.

The groundbreaking photographs of Gordon Parks are amongst the most

familiar images of the Civil Rights movement and of African-American
experience. Parks was a trainee photographer with a government agency when
he made American Gothic, Washington, DC 1942 and he risked dismissal with
this controversial image. Referencing the iconic work by Grant Wood, Parks
replaces the white Americans of the original painting with a black African
American cleaner. He was incited to create this image of resilience after
encountering racism on his arrival in the capital city of the USA.

In embracing a wide range of media, philosopher and conceptual artist Adrian

Piper’s work exemplifies what Gilroy calls “the polyphonic qualities of black
cultural expression”. Using painting, text, sculptural installations and
performance works, she analyses issues of personal identity and social
boundaries. I Am Everthing You Hate and Fear is part of the Mythic Being
series where she adopts the persona of a young black male. By using the words
“I” and “you” Piper places the work in the immediate present, setting up a direct
relationship between viewer and art object.

In the 1970s Piper began to address issues of xenophobia, racial exclusion and
gender through inter-active and often confrontational performance works
which were documented by photographs. The Catalysis series was carried out
by the artist on the streets and subways of New York where her actions
included stuffing her mouth with a towel and wearing a sweatshirt marked “wet
paint”. The passers-by and commuters were unwittingly involved in the
performance, being made to feel uncomfortable by Piper’s presence and forced
to confront their own prejudices about her appearance.

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SAMO© graffiti appeared on the streets of New York between 1977 and 1980.
This was the name used by Jean-Michel Basquiat who explained:”It was
supposed to be a logo, like Pepsi”. As he became famous, Basquiat abandoned
this anti-establishment form of expression and transferred his art to canvas.
Before the graffiti disappeared it was documented by a few photographers
including Peter Moore whose images are included in this section.

Aware of his position in the fashionable New York art scene, Basquiat exploited
the market for multi-ethnic culture with his “primitive” but politically charged
paintings. Native Carrying some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari 1982
addresses the impact of colonialization in the visual language of the urban
African-American. His direct form of communication incorporates naively drawn
images and linguistic elements developed from the street art and graffiti that
had made his reputation. Blending together a diverse range of influences, his
work has been described as a visual equivalent of hip hop.

Compare Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting of 1930 with Gordon Parks
photograph of the same name. Discuss differences and similarities. Why do you
think Parks chose to base his photograph on this painting?

Look at examples of graffiti art. Is this art or vandalism? Discuss other examples
of art that you might find in the streets rather than inside an art gallery.
Find examples of street art in your town.
Design your own street art – where would you locate it?

Imagine that you were present when Adrian Piper carried out one of her
performance pieces. Describe how you would have reacted – shocked?
Amused? Scared? Uncomfortable?
Think of a similar performance that you could act out in your classroom to have
the same effect on your classmates.

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Reconstructing the Middle Passage
This section takes Paul Gilroy’s concept of the ship as a central motif of the Black
Atlantic as its starting point. It examines the approaches of contemporary artists
to subjects such as slavery, migration and the retrieval of history and memory
using the image of the slave ship and the Middle Passage.

The Middle Passage refers to the area of the Atlantic defined by the trade routes
between Europe, Africa and the Americas when slaves were forcibly
transported to the New World plantations. They were bartered for with
manufactured goods from Europe and then exchanged in the Americas for the
raw materials produced by the plantations, including cotton, sugar and tobacco
which were then exported to Europe to complete the triangular trade. The
Middle Passage witnessed appalling conditions of confinement, illness, death
and torture and was responsible for destroying families, cultures, religions
resulting in conflicted states of belonging and identity amongst these displaced
communities.

The ship has been used by the artists in this section as a symbol of enforced
migration, violence and global inequality. In Bird in Hand 2006, Ellen Gallagher
explores the idea of a “Black Atlantis”. The mythical undersea landscape of
Drexciya is related to Gallagher’s imaginative exploration of the most
treacherous part of the Atlantic trading route. This underwater world is
populated by the descendents of pregnant slaves thrown overboard and whose
unborn babies developed into a new marine life-form. Gallagher’s own identity
as a black Irish-American is crucial to her interpretation of this myth which
interweaves memories of oppression, migration and forgotten histories. The
artist’s use of the traditional technique of scrimshaw, adds a sense of peeling
back layers to this complex image.

Radcliffe Bailey appropriates found objects in order to endow his sculpture with
a sense of history. Garvey’s Ghost 2008 uses a battered model ship to
symbolise the Black Nationalist leader’s hopes for returning African-Americans
to their continent of origin. In 1919, Garvey purchased two steamships,
Shadyside and Kanawha for this purpose but ran out of money after only a
couple of journeys. He was a poor businessman and along with several of his
movement, was imprisoned and charged with corruption. The sprinkling of
glitter possibly suggests the impracticality of Garvey’s ideals.

Isaac Julien has developed a multi-disciplinary approach towards his art which
draws upon painting, drama and photography in order to construct a potent
visual narrative. Many of his works relate to experiences of class, race and
cultural history. His Western Union Series no. 1 (Cast No Shadow) 2007 forms
part of an installation work which investigates the wider context of diaspora,
taking in latter day migrations from North Africa, Cuba and across the
Caribbean. This meditative image also recalls the “door of no return” through
which Africans once passed to board slave vessels.

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Visit the International Slavery Museum at the Albert Dock, Liverpool, or study
one of the websites about slavery in the resources section of this pack and find
out about life on a slave ship.

Discuss slavery throughout history – when did it take place? Where? Why? Who
were enslaved? When was it abolished? Are people still being enslaved today?

Imagine what it would be like to be taken from your home and transported to
the other side of the world as a slave? After some research (see resources) write
an account of a slave’s journey from Africa to America. This could take the form
of an illustrated diary.

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Exhibiting Bodies
This section focuses on contemporary responses to the explicit objectification of
the black body which was one of the most disturbing and damaging aspects of
colonialism and slavery. Paul Gilroy refers to this as the “insidious side of
modernity”. At the turn of the twentieth century, black people were often
exhibited as fairground attractions and used in pseudo-scientific studies such
as phrenology to demonstrate levels of intelligence and racial inferiority.

Saartjie Baartman was a young Khoi-San woman from Cape Town, South Africa
who was brought to Europe in 1810 and exhibited as the Hottentot Venus.. As a
sideshow attraction, she was forced to gyrate her hips for audiences in order to
demonstrate her exaggerated racial characteristics. Tracey Rose plays tribute to
Baartman by posing naked in a bush setting and by adopting a position that
draws attention to her digitally enlarged breasts and buttocks. Rather than
ridiculing or alluding to its “otherness”, Rose reclaims the African body as an
emblem of power.

In a series of satirical performances recorded in their video, The Couple in the

Cage 1993, Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez-Peňa exhibited themselves in
public as “undiscovered Amerindians”. Dressed in outrageous costumes and
carrying out a range of rituals and “native” activities, their performances were
supported by authentic ethnographic display materials such as maps, guides
and museum guards. The artists’ intention was to address the racist practice of
human displays, however, these interactions revealed that many of their
audiences believed the fictitious race to be real and yet, alarmingly had no
objection to this display of human beings as exotic curiosities.

Candice Breitz often appropriates the content of her art from other sources
such as magazines and photographs. Her tactics are intended to challenge the
stereotypical and sometimes tasteless images that are accepted in the media
and popular culture, by making the viewer feel uncomfortable. In Ghost Series
1994-6 she attacks the tourist postcards of semi-naked African women
produced for a predominantly white market under the guise of “traditional
cultures”. In “whiting out” the subjects with correction fluid, Brietz is
metaphorically imitating colonial practice of replacing native culture, religion
and ways of life with their own. The whitened areas also highlight the blatant
exploitation of the black female subjects.

Discuss body art. Why would artists choose to use the body in order to create
art? What impact would Breitz’s art have if she had used photographs of men’s
bodies instead, or if she had “blacked” out white bodies?

Research the World Fairs of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries where
people of other counties were displayed as curiosities. Why do you think this
was considered acceptable at the time? What point do you think Coco Fusco
and Guillermo Gómez-Peňa are making in their video of the Couple in the Cage?
What are your personal responses to this film?

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Post-Modern to Post-Black
The final section features contemporary artists from the continents of the Black
Atlantic. It examines a wide range of materials and methods used by artists
including appropriation, recycling and sampling, along with the use of popular
culture, slang and black humour.

In his textual paintings, Glenn Ligon uses quotes from other people and
presents them through the anonymous method of stencilling them across the
surface of the work. This typography also recalls the documented histories of
slaves which were recorded by a third person as it was illegal for slaves to learn
to read or write. The lines featured in Gold Nobody Knew Me... 2007 were
transcribed from the stand up routine of comedian Richard Pryor. In presenting
an oral delivery as text, Ligon endows the words with permanence and transfers
the voice to the viewer. The joke itself points to the relative accessibility or
inaccessibility of Africa and a black heritage rooted in that continent.

During his residency at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Ligon distributed
photocopies of pages from a 1970s “black-themed” colouring book to local
schoolchildren and then made his own paintings based on their efforts with
crayola. One of the images in this book was a drawing of the black activist
Malcolm X. His face was defined only by outlines and so colour took on a new
meaning as children chose a range of imaginative tones for the skin, indicating
that unlike adults, they do not see race as being defined by colour. Ligon’s copy
of one of these drawings, Malcolm 2000, is featured in the exhibition.

This section also looks at a new generation of artists identified as “post-black”

who resist classification as “black” artists even though their work is steeped in
reference to their race and heritage.

Lorna Simpson accumulated fifty photographs of anonymous African-

Americans for her work Photo Booth 2008, all found in thrift stores near her
home in Harlem. They have been framed and are accompanied by fifty
watercolour and ink drawings by Simpson that off-set the formality of the posed
photographs. When Simpson bought them, the photographs were often already
archived or bundled together into categories of social groups. Simpson became
interested in how history has forgotten the individuals who posed in front of a
mirror in the intimate space of the booth in order to present themselves for a
particular purpose. Some were taken for a passport or identity card, some as a
memento of a day out or to send to a loved one. Simpson invites the viewer to
draw closer to the seemingly anonymous display in order to examine the
individuals and speculate about their forgotten lives.

The section ends with a black and white film by Kara Walker, 8 Possible
Beginnings or; the Creation of African America, A Moving Picture by Kara E.
Walker 2005. The distinctive silhouettes of Walker’s art link her with the
shadowy figures of Aaron Douglas at the beginning of the exhibition. Often
crude and violent, Walker’s figures subvert the genteel eighteenth-century

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English cameos as they are used to narrative tales of physical and psychological
abuse experienced by slaves. Her image of enslavement is a far cry from
Douglas’s utopias and iconic modern black heroes.

Activities

In the classroom: Take a map of the world and mark the nationalities of artists
featured in the exhibition. Draw the routes taken by the artists who travelled
and who worked or studied in other countries. Discuss the artistic, musical,
political social influences absorbed by these artists and the ideas they helped
disseminate.

In the classroom: collect images from magazines or the internet connected with
Africa. Find poems, films, books set in Africa. What does Africa mean to you?
Use your ideas to make a collage incorporating images, maps, textiles and
words. You could follow up this project with a survey of African-American or
Afro-Caribbean culture.

In the gallery: put your students into small groups and assign each group a
different section of the exhibition. With a structured question sheet ask them to
find out the theme of their section, what subjects does it explore, choose one
work to study in depth which they feel is representative of the section and then
put together a five minute presentation of the room and its art for the rest of the
class.

In the gallery: find out how different materials have been used in the exhibition;
different processes for making art; how everyday objects have been
incorporated in works; examples of performance art and different approaches
to representing the figure.

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Work in Focus: Ronald
Moody
Johanaan 1934
An image of this work can be found at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?&workid=20449&tabview=image

Ronald Moody was born in Jamaica in 1900 to a prominent, professional family.

He moved to Britain in 1923 to pursue his chosen career of dentistry and by the
end of the decade he had set up his own practice. However, visit to the British
Museum in 1928 was to have a profound influence on his life. He later recalled
the impact of coming across the Egyptian Art collection:

“To my utter amazement I saw…I felt, and I think,

understood the tremendous inner force, the living
inner silence, the irrepressible movement in
stillness, which some of the pieces possessed,
which also seemed to spread through my body.
When I eventually left, people and things
appeared to have changed. My relationship with
them was clearer, closer and more distant.”

From that moment on, he became determined to sculpt, whatever hardships

and obstacles lay before him. He taught himself through studying the
sculptures in the British Museum, first of all copying them in clay and Plasticine
and then moving on to wood, mastering the art of direct carving. In his own
work, he hoped to evoke a sense of contemplation in the viewer; at the same
time encouraging empathy as well as objectivity and distance. In other words,
he aimed to recreate the effect that the Egyptian art had evoked in him.

In the 1930s, many artists from the African diaspora found a receptive European
audience concerned with representing more authentic traditions in both
content and process. Moody received critical acclaim for exhibitions in London
and Paris where his work was displayed alongside Raoul Dufy and Henri
Matisse. He was given a one man show at Gallerie Billet-Vorms in Paris where
Johanaan was first exhibited. His European success led to his move to Paris
where he lived and worked until forced to flee during the Second World War.

Johanaan was made just before his move to Paris. Carved from a single piece of
elm, weighing approximately half a ton, it was a challenge for the artist. He said
of the process:

“Wood is a very difficult material. You can’t

dispose of it as easily as plaster cast or clay
model. Any mistakes stare accusingly at you
forever, and it requires a great deal of physical

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 energy and concentration to give it form”.

As with all of Moody’s works in wood, Johanaan displays sensitivity in his

handling of the material, sympathetically working with the grain and allowing
the contours of the figure to follow the natural patterns in the elm. He has
exploited the characteristics and faults in the material, such as the iris and pupil
of the left eye which uses the woodgrain, and the navel which is emphasised by
a natural crack in the material. In other places, the artist has used filler to
disguise irregularities and the whole surface has been polished to achieve a
smooth, subtly modulated finish. Despite this harmony, Moody has retained a
tension between form and material, implying the presence of an inner force
striving to be released.

The title links the work with John the Baptist whose biblical Hebrew name was
Yochanan or Johanan. His spiritual gospel informed many of the philosophical
religious discourses in which Moody was interested. His study of philosophy led
him to the arts of India and China and he became preoccupied with themes of
solitude and contemplation. At a time of increasing conflict in the world, his
work embodied the tension between man’s drive towards self-destruction and
a search for spiritual enlightenment. In Johanaan, he attempted to convey an
image of power and the resistance of mankind against persecution. Curator
Paul Moorhouse described it as seeing to “fuse racial types into a monumental
image of man”.

Though influenced by African carving, Johanaan is very much a modern

sculpture and a work of powerful originality. On his return to Britain, large
pieces of timber were scarce and the scale of Moody’s work was compromised
but he retained a sense of monumentality even in his reduced work. He stated
“However small, sculpture should be massive”. Though he experimented with
other materials later in his career, his relationship with wood remained strong.

“My first love was and still is wood. The harder

the better. I love its warmth and the fact that
it is living. I have always felt that it has a
close connection with the thoughts and feelings
that have informed my work”.

Show your students some examples of Egyptian, Eastern and African Art and
encourage them to make connections with Moody’s work.

Talk about different processes of making sculpture: modelling, casting, carving

etc. What tools would you need to carve a sculpture? Draw a cartoon sequence
of the process involved from tree to finished work of art.

Make some rubbings of wood and other textures and use the patterns as the
basis of a portrait.

Think about scale in sculpture. Where would you expect to see sculptures as big
as Johanaan? Think about materials for sculptures. Why do artists use different
materials? What properties does wood have that makes it ideal for works of this
scale? What other materials could Moody have used? Make some drawings of
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Johanaan made from other materials...e.g. bronze, clay, glass, stone, ice,
plastic, paper, video.

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Work in Focus: Sonia
Boyce
From Tarzan to Rambo: English
Born ‘Native’ Considers her
Relationship to the
Constructed/Self Image and her
Roots in Reconstruction 1987
An image of this work can be found at:

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?&workid=1386&tabview=image

Born in England in 1962, Sonia Boyce has explored her heritage through her
work, often taking her family and friends as subject matter and depicting her
own experiences as a black woman growing up in Britain. The media she
employs ranges from simple chalk and pastel to digitally manipulated images.
She has used brightly coloured textiles and patterns associated with the
Caribbean alongside photographs, drawings and pictures from book illustration
and comics.

From Tarzan to Rambo 1987 represents an attempt by the artist to establish her
own sense of identity in response to images of black people offered to her since
childhood by a predominantly white controlled media.

The work takes the form of a huge black and white photograph echoing the
movie screen that showed the original Tarzan films. The format also invites
comparisons with advertising hoardings. Boyce is particularly interested in how
media images infiltrate our lives and their effect on our construction of self-
image.

The photograph reproduces and enlarges a collage which Boyce constructed

specifically for this work. It consists of rows of self-portraits taken in a photo
booth, photocopies of traditional African textiles, cut-out, so-called “gollywog”
figures and a drawing of Tarzan in a jungle setting with other figures.

As a child, Boyce recalls watching the Tarzan movies and being confused by his
presence in Africa. The hero of Edgar Rice Burrough’s novels and the popular
Hollywood screen adaptations was a white male presiding over his adopted
environment. The natural inhabitants of the jungle were portrayed as savage,
primitive and without intelligence.

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Growing up in the 1970s, Boyce remembered news reports of the Vietnam War
and the series of films it inspired, including the Rambo movies. Though African-
Americans have made up a great part of the US forces, their important role has
often been neglected in these films as were the racial aspects of the war.
Rambo, like Tarzan, was portrayed as a “noble savage” dominating a jungle
setting – another powerful self image for the white male. In From Tarzan to
Rambo, Boyce highlights the lack of positive role models that existed for a black
person in the media during her childhood.

The scene featuring Tarzan is a stencil drawing that has been traced from an
illustration in the comic, Terrifying Tales, no 14, Sept 1953. Boyce draws attention
to the pale skinned hero by colouring him in with pink and white acrylic paint to
contrast with the dark faces of “natives” peering from the jungle vegetation. The
primitive and savage nature of these people is reinforced by the caption “THE
BUZZING BIRD SENDS US A VICTIM” which refers to an aircraft with its
passengers. Boyce has stated that “buzzing bird” also refers loosely to the
poultry used for sacrifice in voodoo rituals.

Voodoo is also referenced in some of the photo booth portraits where Boyce
adopts a trance-like state. She also assumes the wide-eyed expression of the
stereotypical “Hollywood negro”. The portraits consist of a set of six shots which
have been duplicated. One set has been underexposed, the other overexposed
to give a variation in tones which the artist has exploited. She has drawn over
the prints to accentuate her racial characteristics and to make herself look more
like a comic strip figure. She also exaggerates the whiteness of her eyes and
teeth to stand out against the dark colour of her skin, which she has tinted in
places with ink.

Boyce’s repetition of her face alludes to the accusation often made by white
people that non- Europeans “look the same”. The artist adopts a similar tactic
with her duplication of the gollywog image taken from a 1920s Rupert the Bear
comic. Each figure has been made slightly different by Boyce in order to
establish its individuality.

The original collage used for this work incorporated real leaves that were sewn
on to the work to offer a contrast to the drawn vegetation of the jungle scene.
These leaves represent the role of nature in the construction of the “authentic”
African identity. As a whole, From Tarzan to Rambo questions the way image
can be created through myth, fiction and the media from a corruption of reality.

Exercises

Draw your self portrait or use a photo if you prefer. Photocopy it many times
and draw over these in order to alter your image. Change hairstyle, skin colour,
clothes etc. Discuss your results!

Use these images to create a larger collage inspired by Sonia Boyce.

Incorporate photocopies of personal belongings which you feel contribute to
your identity and individuality.

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Discuss Boyce’s work alongside other portraits in the exhibition (e.g. James Van
Der Zee, Glenn Ligon, Man Ray, Brancusi, Cecil Beaton, Lorna Simpson etc). You
could give groups a portrait each to look at. Then ask them to describe the
subject’s projected image, lifestyle and personality for the rest of the class. (This
could take the form of an imaginary interview between subject, artist and a
news reporter)

Further Resources
Barson Tanya and Gorschluter, Peter, Afro Modern: Journeys in the Black Atlantic, Tate
Barson,
Publishing, 2010

Baker, Houston A, Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, Chicago University Press,
1989

Baucomb, Ian and Boyce, Sonia (et al),Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s
Britain (A John Hope Franklin Center Book) Duke University Press, 2005

Earle S, Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist, Yale University Press, 2007
Earle,

Ellison, Ralph, The Invisible Man, (Penguin Modern

Classics)Penguin New Edition,2001

Jules-Rosette Bennetta, Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and the Image,
Jules-Rosette,
University of Illinois Press, 2007

Gilroy Paul and Hall, Stuart, Black Britain: a Photographic History,Saqi Books, 2007
Gilroy,

Gordon L, Nancy Cunard Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist, Columbia University Press,
Gordon,
2007

Hatt, Christine, Slavery from Africa to the Americas, Evans, 1997

Littlefield Kasfir, Sidney, Contemporary African Art, (World of Art), Thames and Hudson,
2000

Lucie-Smith, Edward, Latin Ammerican Art of the 20th Century, (World of Art), Thames
Lucie-
and Hudson, 2007

Parks, Gordon, Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks, Skira Editore, 2007

Mercer Kobena, James Van Der Zee, Phaidon, 2003

Mercer,

Rubin William, “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art, Museum of Modern Art, 1988
Rubin,

Webb, V L, Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1937, Metropolitan
Museum of Art,Yale University Press, 2000

Willet Frank, African Art (World of Art), Thames and Hudson,2002

Willet,

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Online Resources:
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/brancusi/Brancusi_tkit.pdf

http://www.tate.org.uk/tarzantorambo/

http://channel.tate.org.uk/#media:/media/28700235001&context:/channel/search?
searchQuery=lorna+simpson

http://channel.tate.org.uk/#media:/media/27966439001&context:/channel/search?
searchQuery=glenn+ligon

http://www.africanaonline.com/

http://www.blackhistory4schools.com/slavetrade/

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/

http://www.recoveredhistories.org/

http://www.understandingslavery.com/teachingslavetrade/

Julie Robson 2010

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