Reinventing Herself: The Black Female Nude

Author(s): Lisa E. Farrington

Source: Woman's Art Journal , Autumn, 2003 - Winter, 2004, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Autumn,
2003 - Winter, 2004), pp. 15-23
Published by: Woman's Art Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1358782

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 -SUESADISGT

REINVENTING HERSELF
The Black Female Nude

By Lisa E. Farrington

nude for male figures, allowed limited exceptions in female hunter

O 'c " ooking into the mirror, the black woman asked, 'Mirror,
Mirror, on the wall, who's the finest of them all?' Theand warrior characters such as Diana, Athena, and the Amazons.
Mirror answered, 'Snow White, you black bitch, and The ability of these women to "act" (as did male nudes) hinged,
however, upon their status as superhumans or as goddesses, ele-
don't you forget it!' " These telling words, inscribed on a 1987 silver
print by the African-American artist Carrie Mae Weems (b.1953), vated above the realm of ordinary women. In the case of the leg-
encapsulate the debilitating circumstance of being a woman ofendary Amazon, the quintessential hunter/warrior, her identity as
African descent in a society whose standards of beauty have always a woman was all but replaced by masculinity, which was consid-
excluded her. Porcelain skin, long, silken hair, and delicate, ta- ered more compatible with her active nature. Amazons, who surgi-
pered features are characteristics that at once identify the so-cally removed one breast so that they might hold their bows flush
called "ideal" Western beauty and insist upon the unattractiveness against their chests for better aim, were quite literally transformed
of women of color, whose body image has been much maligned into men. Historian Abby Kleinbaum has even suggested an ele-
over the centuries. The paucity of images of the black female nude ment of misogyny in the persistence of Amazon imagery in West-
in the history of Western "high" art attests to this deplorable cir-ern artistic traditions. She argues that the Amazon figure, being
cumstance. Similarly the abundance of these images in 19th- and notoriously masculine, functioned to give men free reign to fan-
20th-century ethnographic and pornographic photography, well- tasies in which they might harm women with impunity, and within
documented in The Black Female Body: A Photographic History a socially accepted context.4
by Deborah Willis and Carla Williams attests, paradoxically, to the Allegorical figures and femmes fatales represent further cate-
intense fascination and attraction that the black female body has gories of nudes that do not conform to the traditional passive mod-
held for the West for much of the Common Era.' el. Allegorical representations of ideas such as Victory, Justice,
Liberty, Virtue, and Revolution, as substitutes for abstract con-
The aesthetic history of the female nude is, in and of itself, fas-
cinating and socially charged. In many ways, the evolution of the cepts rather than as actual women, are allowed both literal and
nude functions as a narrative, revealing the accepted, and thus cul-metaphorical mobility.5 Femme fatale figures, popularized in fin-
turally constructed, roles of women in Western society. The chron- de-siecle art, are evil or predatory and, as such, are portrayed as
icle of the black female nude is even more complex and carriesespecially powerful and definitive in their actions. Femme fatale
with it cultural ramifications that are both sexual and racial. Un- figures use their sexuality as a weapon and thus present a special
derstanding the iconography of the female nude and its relation- danger to men. The unleashed sexuality or power of personae such
ship to social psychology and gender roles is essential to an as the Sphinx, Eve, or Salom6 menaces and engulfs male victims
analysis of contemporary African-American art on the subject, without mercy. Their combination of sexuality and physical
particularly given the imaginative ways in which artists of color prowess makes these women quite literally lethal. Thus, on those
have reconfigured and deconstructed age-old archetypes associ- rare occasions when female nudes are not either reclining in the
ated with the woman's body. landscape or draped over a velvet divan-when they actually ap-
Since antiquity, the nude female has been understood, by and pear to have a will and thoughts of their own-they are portrayed
large, as a passive creature. She reclines or poses placidly in a pas- as either potentially dangerous or conceptually abstract.6
toral setting or in a domestic interior for the benefit of an often Since the 1970s, with the advent of the Women's Art Movement,
unseen but invariably assumed male viewer. Her eyes are either these paradigms have changed. Many women artists now infuse the
modestly averted or shyly welcoming, and she offers herself up as female nude with integrity, wit, and dynamism.7 African-American
a feast for the male gaze. Passive, receptive, and available, she is women artists add, as well, the elusive attribute of beauty. Faith
presented as sexual spectacle-an invitation to voyeurism, lacking Ringgold (b. 1930), for example, began featuring nude women in
individuality, cognition, or the ability to act decisively. Conversely, her work as early as 1972, when she developed a series entitled
the male nude is readily depicted as energetic and active, exempli- Slave Rape. Utilizing a Pop art idiom, which had been a part of
fying vigorous pursuits such as athleticism, heroism, and violence. her vernacular since the early 1960s, Ringgold created cartoonlike
The persistence of male action and female inaction in much of nude women in landscape settings. The humorous facial expres-
Western art reflects the male artist's belief (and the belief of the sions and body configurations are adaptations from popular black
patriarchal society of which he is a product) that the social, eco- stereotypes such as the "Happy Darkie" and the "Mammy"--images
nomic, and political mobility of women should be limited, and cer- that had proliferated in American culture since post-Reconstruction
tainly should not exceed that of men.2 and the age of Jim Crow." Yet, beyond the Pop art caricature and
Although exceptions to the passive female paradigm do occur familiar stereotypes lies an extraordinary combination of elements.
in Western art, they are rare and usually associated with evil or For example, in Help (P1. 9) from the series, Ringgold has juxta-
with allegorical creatures of legend.3 The ancient Greek artists, for posed playful nude figures frolicking in the landscape with the bit-
example, while most often reserving active representations of the ter theme of slave rape. She portrays women of sexual maturity
FALL 2003 / WINTER 2004
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 .~??

-, ~gi~i
''??
??5 ln~
?*

/;~~i~
?I?~ ~?
I;

*"~~ ~ A -:.: i~?l? I I*?

Fig. 1. Anonymous, Saartje Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus" (1815),

watercolor on vellum, 12" x 171/4".

.1

Fig. 2. Renee Cox, Yo Mama and the Statue, (ca. 1995), silverprint.
Artist's Collection.

(indeed, several are pregnant) who are active rather than

system" that passive,
required them to become pregnant at an early age
and who, despite their wildly animated gestures, andareproduce
neither as manyalle-
children as possible. In this way, the slave
gorical symbols nor sexual predators. Finally, Ringgold's
system ensuredwomen that the sexuality of African-American women
are warriors, some even armed with axes. Yet, they wouldare not mas-
be devalued and society saw them as deserving of their
culinized Amazons. Indeed, everything about these fate."black nudes
In the Slave Rape series, Ringgold attempts to alter the history
contradicts the conventions of this genre. of "those brave African women who survived the horror of being
Ringgold's highly idiosyncratic conception of the nude
uprooted and in the
carried off to slavery in America.'"12 The artist
Slave Rape series is the outcome of complex motivations. In the
metaphorically travels back in time to alter the future, arming her
artist's own words, "Slave Rape was...like going back andso trying
ancestors to defend themselves against male sexual
that they might
understand some of the roots of black women [who came]
aggression. In Helphere.
Ringgold empowered her women, while si-
What were we doing here?...and what were we like beforedisempowering
multaneously we got the slave catcher, who is symbolical-
here? I wanted to be in touch with that."' Containedlywithin thisleft,
castrated, center in-by the edge of the canvas. His entire body
quiry is the artist's expression of a need to understand
above thethe thighswomen
has been cut off, leaving only a glimpse of re-
who survived their enslavement and sexual abuse. treatingIndeed,
black boots and thewhite pants. In Ringgold's configuration,
stereotype of the sexually promiscuous black "Jezebel" has its
rape becomes rootsand history is rewritten.
impossible
in the history of the sexual abuse of African women by
Integral slave
to an understanding of Ringgold's re-formation of the
traders and slave owners. In particular, Ringgold sought
African womanto explore
as an innocent victim of sexual and physical ag-
gression
this history and to deconstruct the myth of the black is the phenomenon of the Hottentot Venus (Saartje
Jezebel.
Mistaken beliefs that African women were sexually promiscuous
Baartman) (c. 1815; Fig. 1), the 22-year old South African woman
and, like animals, fit only for breeding, formed the foundation
brought to Europe as an ofindentured servant and placed on display
the Jezebel myth. This fiction began the momentinAfrican women
Paris and London over a period of five years, until her death
from small Ringgold
were taken as prisoners by slave traders-the very moment pox in 1815. She caused a medical and popular sensa-
has chosen to capture on canvas. The torment tion of due
rapeto herwas re-
so-called "Hottentot apron" or enlarged clitoris
served primarily for enslaved women who, during the
and her grueling
steatopyga or large buttocks. A satirical depiction of a
voyage across the Atlantic, were brought above decknaked
forBaartman standing upon a pedestal before several well-at-
this ordeal.
Refusal to submit often meant death. This posed a terrible
tired European men moral
and women was accompanied by the follow-
dilemma for the African women: submission to the ingslave
caption traders
in a popular French publication: "La belle Hottentote.
Oh! Goddam,
and sailors, however abhorrent, meant possible survival andwhateven
roast beef;...Ah! How comical is nature; how
some measure of protection from the worst horrorsstrangely
of the voyage.
beautiful."'3
Before even arriving in the New World, African women Baartman's were
full-figured form inspired medical treatises by
labeled promiscuous and lacking in morals by the very
George men
Cuvier and J.who
J. Virey who, by studying the so-called
had raped them.'0 "primitive" sexuality and genitalia of Hottentot women, sought to
Once on American soil, slave women were subjected to further
obtain deeper insights into female sexuality in general.'4 Once the
punishment if they did not submit passively to thesexual excessiveness
sexual advances and deviance of African women had been es-
of their owners. Their victimization was thus indefinitely perpetu-
tablished, however falsely, connections were then made between
ated, and they became part of a "passive yet insidious breeding
African women and European prostitutes, including pseudo-scientific

0 WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

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 physically raped, used to undermine your own household, and to be
am'v

powerless to reverse the syndrome.19

Yet, are African-American women truly powerless? Although

racism and sexism have worked together to create for African-
..............
American women a "hell of a history to live down,", the false para-
digms that portray women of color as both physically unattractive
and sexually promiscuous, passive and aggressive, good care-givers
to white children and bad mothers to their own children, have all
been challenged by African-American artists."
The photographer Renee Cox (b. 1958), for example, has dedi-
cated her career to deconstructing stereotypes and to reconfigur-
ing the black woman's body, using her own nude form as a subject.
In her nude self-portraits of the 1990s, such as Liberty in the
South Bronx and Yo Mama and the Statue (Fig. 2), Cox uses her
body to comment on race and gender issues. In Liberty in the
Fig. 3. St. George Hare, The Victory of Faith (1891
48 /2" x 78 /4". National Bronx,
South she depicts a powerful
Gallery and youthful twist on Melb
of Victoria, the alle-
gorical figure of Liberty. As in Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty,
Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, and numerous similar rep-
comparisons between buttocks
resentations, Cox's Liberty raises her size
arm high aboveandher head int a
labia.'5 African women gesturebecame
designed to uplift thesynonymous
spirit and motivate action. She does
and European woman not, who exercised
however, hold a light or a weapon in her sexual
hand, but rather bro-f
as degenerates, no better ken chains, and she stands amidst
than their the detritus animali
of a deserted Bronx
parts-an evaluation designed
crack yard. The monumentalto nude regulate
figure in this portraitfem
redresses
The stereotype of the Jezebel
the American notion of "libertyis closely
and justice for all" and its lin
applica-
the Hottentot, as are bility other common
to the disenfranchised inhabitants of poorstereot
inner city neigh-
om and masculinized borhoods "Mammy" such as the South Bronx.and the "Sa
ing matriarch (Weems's In Yo Mama and "black bitch").
the Statue, Cox poses nude and pregnant be- E
served to justify white fears
side a life-sized and
cast of her own body.self-loathin
Her luminous dark skin pro-
was loathed or fearedvides
onto
an effectiveothers.'6
counterpoint to the stark In the
whiteness c
of the plas-
ter cast and alludes
the Hottentot, the white male to a period when Cox, while enrolledtha
attribute in the
the black women wasWhitney
uncontrollable
Museum Independent Studies Program, sexual
attempted to d
is little doubt that the sexual
reconcile her persona as a aggressors
pregnant black woman artist within the
women of color and white men
white male conventions were
of museum study andmales,
classical statuary.
less classified as the wanton and
The flesh and blood Cox embraceslicentious
the plaster statue and rests on
her
women as sexual animals,
head upon itswhich first
shoulder. The statue, while not in began
fact larger than
and popular journals in the
Cox, appears 1700s,
more monumental becauseincreased
of the towering African-
War when anti-abolitionist sentiment
inspired headdress was
that it wears. The statue's at
rigidity and its
verticali-
a fever pitch in the United States
ty are juxtaposed during
to the soft, fluid contours of the post-R
artist's body. The
The degrading imagesresulting
of imageAfrican
suggests a "sisterhood"American
in which the totemlike
beginning in the 1890s
form of were intended
an African ancestor (as and
provides physical, psychological, w
Crow" laws) to undermine
spiritual supportthe social
for her contemporary heir. status a
Even the title of the
to people of color after the
piece suggests a duality.Civil
The phrase "yoWar.
mama" referencesSter
the ver-
Americans became partnacular present
of and the the cultural complexities associated
popular cons with
African-American
sons of African descent depictedlife and motherhood,as while the word "statue"
subserv
powerless, often with suggests
grosslyboth a Europeanexaggerated feat
and an African art-historical past.
can men were stereotyped asCoxstupid,
In Hottentot 2000, shiftle
directly addressed the issue of the Hot-
and dangerous. African-American
tentot Venus and the sexual stereotypes women that contemporaryen
stereotypes, but to these were added others,
African-American women have inherited as a result of that image.
in sexual bias. The impact of
To replicate the body these
of Saartje Baartman, stereoty
the artist attached en-
American image and psyche was
larged prosthetic breasts devastating.
and buttocks to her own body and posed,
The African-American in profile,author and
in front of a red, black, activist
and green velvet backdrop,
scribes the crushing which references the
effects of colors
theof black mythology
nationalism. Her silhouette
American women:
provides the viewer with the best possible angle of vision, and her
deliberate stare "invites-almost dares--onlookers to take a closer
Her physical image has been maliciously maligned; she has beenlook."21 COX's direct gaze pays homage to Manet's Olympia, which
sexually molested and abused by the white colonizer; she has suf- shocked visitors to the Paris Salon of 1863 because the nude
fered the worst kind of economic exploitation, having been forced"Olympia,"
to like Cox, dared to look back at those who were looking
serve as the white woman's maid and wet nurse for white offspring at her." What viewers observe upon closer examination of Hotten-
while her own children were more often than not starving and ne- tot 2000 are "the careful application of make-up [and] neatly kept
glected. It is the depth of degradation to be socially manipulated, dreadlocks"-in other words, an icon of African beauty that chal-

FALL 2003 / WINTER 2004

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 ii i"td
:ii"
''

??.,o.,.
,?
ii

Fig. 5
361/4"

Fig. 4.
317/

lenges Western tenets.' To use historian Andrea Barnwell's well- ment

chosen words, Hottentot 2000 "addresses complex issues of ure w
voyeurism, fantasy, memory, disguise, and the gaze," and unlike ing h
her objectified and victimized Hottentot predecessor, Cox is an ac- Afric
tive participant in this examination of the black female form, force
which she has cleverly re-made into a prototype of beauty for the ment
third millennium.24 phys
Another artist who has recontextualized the black female nude which
is Alison Saar (b. 1956). Drawing upon neo-African sources such as Indee
the Vodou religion of Haiti, Saar creates multimedia works in both poiso
two- and three-dimensions. She utilizes "found" or "ready-made" refer
objects conceptually derived from early-20th century Dada art, but courag
unlike the Dadaists, who embraced nihilism, Saar's works are in- The n
fused with logic and meaning. Her women, in particular, are com- writh
plex expressions of the artist's personal experiences and knowledge who a
of art historical traditions, visualized with intellectual depth, wit, Aizan
and emotional intensity. In Mamba Mambo (1985; P1. 10), Saar cre- spaces
ated the secular equivalent to the sequined Vodou drapeau or flag, to th
complete with tassels. Drapeaux are normally made of satin fabric of gr
covered painstakingly by hand with sequins and beads. The flags West
depict anthropomorphic images of the Vodou loas or spirits; or they azan o
depict vev--diagrammatic symbols for the various loas. They are belief
waved by members of the congregation to call the spirits to the Saar's
Vodou ceremony.5 work
In Saar's interpretation of the theme (configured in her signa- the m
ture neovernacular style inspired by the bold, reductive forms of only
African-American folk art), a nude black woman dances in bright shoes
red high heels, sporting equally vivid lipstick and long fingernails. wears
The title of the work suggests a Vodou mamba, or priestess, as well (A qu
as the African-derived Cuban dance, the mambo. In Haitian cul- which
ture, the Vodou priestess is a powerful and revered community whos
leader, and the mambo dance is known for its energetic move- maid

0 WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

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ers.27) For Saar, however, high female body by bl
heels symbolize the female ele- artists are even mor
ment in a universal and more than those faced
positive sense, and can be found women."" This being
"*

as motifs in many of her works.2s .e I the value of the Afr

The artist's personal iconogra- 9. i~l~5;r~s~~~P can woman artist's endeavor to
?i

phy also manifests itself in the

s

represent her own body cannot

two hieroglyphlike symbols at the be overstated.
base of the composition, which Writing in 1973, Judy Chica-
are similar to the linear designs go and Miriam Schapiro assert-
that represent Vodou loa. During
"''
pi

.r:
ed that the woman artist, "see-
a ceremony the Vodou priest or ing herself as loathed, takes the
priestess draws a series of sym- C~L I U ~7 very mark of her otherness and
bols or veves on the floor of the ;~14 ~ by asserting it as the hallmark
i:

temple, using flour or cornmeal. yr t-. pi I:iji?:?l?:8~F~

of her iconography, establishes
Each drawing, abstract and dia- i
a vehicle by which to state the
grammatic, calls a particular loa :i:i
truth and beauty of her identi-
to the ceremony, and, once the ..i
:~??:??
ty. "3' This statement, a refer-
loa is present, the drawing is :;r ???:'"' ence to the "otherness" and
?s*ii

erased (often by the dancing feet "loathsomeness" of female gen-

of the ceremonial participants). * :
-..i .

italia (a motif embraced by

Appropriately, Saar places her many feminist artists) under-
veve on the ground," but they are scores the complexities of imag-
?.i;?

not the marks of any spirit; rather, ing the black woman's body,
they are the symbols for the artist's whose "otherness" lies with
own name-Alison Saar-in the both her gender and ethnici-
form of the initials "A" and "S." ty-in her dark skin, her broad
The presence of these emblems features, and her curly hair-
makes Mamba Mambo self-ref- attributes that, for much of
erential and identifies Saar as Western history since the
both the subject and the creator 1700s, undoubtedly have been
....:,

of her image. "loathed." One artist who has

Fig. 6. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Brown Girl After the Bath (1931), oil on canvas,
When a woman paints the fe- 48'/4" x 36". @ Archie Motley. Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery,attempted
New York. to deconstruct the
male nude, whether it be her perception of black female
own body or that of a model, "otherness" is the ceramic
there often exists a self-referential fluency that allows for a more sculptor Winnie Owens-Hart (b. 1949).
expansive and less trivialized "gaze." The artist becomes the object In the autobiographical Trimesters (1990; P1l. 11), Owens-H
of her own self-reflexive desires as well as an active surveyor of her treats the brown skin, curling pubic hair, and swelling abdom
own body (in the case of a self-portrait), or of a cognate body with a woman of color as natural and beautiful. A multiple-part s
which she identifies. This creative act contradicts and counteracts ture, it depicts two hands holding a water jar, two segments of
the presence of the male artist-viewer. Women artists of recent water, and three representations of a woman's abdominal and
decades have mostly refrained from imitating male artists in their nal area. These components are aligned vertically, with incre
representation of the nude. Instead, they record an experience intervals between each. In the last two large segments, the fig
that empowers females with mythic qualities, such as the physical hands hold its own abdomen. The work is life-sized and commem
might and intrepid persona of Saar's Vodou goddess, or the ability orates the birth of the artist's daughter.32
of Ringgold's 17th-century African women to triumph over their The references to water have multiple allusions: to the mom
would-be slave catchers. Depictions such as these enhance self- when a pregnant mother's uterine membrane ruptures (tha
discovery and promote a sense of well being and self-worth. In when her "water breaks") and the birth of her child is immin
fact, the very nature of women artists painting the female nude to the prenatal fluid in which the unborn child "swims" prio
implies a contradiction of terms, since the male gaze is replaced birth; and, finally, to the artist's creative endeavors as a scu
with a female one. Feminist art historian Carol Duncan believes and potter, who uses water as a vehicle to mold clay. Furtherm
that male representations of the female body assert the artist's sex- in Trimesters Owens-Hart relates the artistic creative proc
ual domination over his subject. If this assessment is correct, then "making" sculpture to the biological creative process of "maki
it would follow that when women paint female bodies, they are re- child. The artist achieves this by placing two hands on the w
claiming dominion over them." jar as if to shape it, and by placing the same hands (now da
What then of the black female nude, whose racial "otherness" and illuminated by glaze) on the figure's abdomen.
compounds the issues of gender normally associated with the nude Trimesters bears comparison to a wide range of conventi
form? Despite the abundance of nude figures in Western art, the nudes such as those featured in the recent Tate Gallery/Broo
black body has been virtually invisible within this context. Accord- Museum exhibit Exposed: The Victorian Nude. The idealized fig
ing to the social historian Sander Gilman, "It could be said, there- featured there have flawless skin and no body hair. In contrast,
fore, that the political issues involved in the representation of the skin of Owens-Hart's figure exhibits creases, folds, depress

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and uneven coloring; and the pubic hair is not only evident but painted a sensitive and masterful portrayal of an African woman ti-
emphasized by the use of glazing techniques. In his History of the tled Portrait of a Negress (1800; Fig. 4). Despite her grace and
Black in Western Art, Hugh Honour examines the reason why tra- loveliness, the seated figure, here gazing out at the viewer, can
ditional nude figures were "deprived of pubic hair, which men rec- hardly be considered empowered. Rather, she sits swathed in white
ognize as the first symptom of their own sexuality." The intention drapery (designed to contrast with her mahogany complexion), ap-
was to deny women active sexual prowess and empowerment, thus pearing both sad and submissive. Her hands are folded across her
making them as passive as prepubescent girls. "This denial of fe- lap and the cloth that covers her body has been pulled aside to re-
male sexuality," states Honour, "is paralleled by the denial of virility veal her right breast, as if for the viewer's inspection and enjoy-
in images of black [slave men], eunuchs, or literally dead men," ment. Her dark skin, seminudity, and the bandana she wears on her
and it allowed viewers to construct an image of women and blacks stately head define this African woman as Moorish erotica-a pop-
as powerless.33 In light of this, Owens-Hart's insistence on a thick ular genre in colonial European painting that depicted Africans in
cropping of pubic hair can be construed as an insistence on the Arabic costume and embodied both the erotic and the exotic ele-
power of her own maternal sexuality. ments common to academic French painting of the period.36
Even on those rare occasions when black women have been This attitude continued well into the 20th century. For exam-
ple, the Canadian portrait and figure painter Prudence Heward's
portrayed as objects of beauty, femininity, and veneration, they in-
variably fall prey to stereotypes of gender. For example, in St. (1896-1947) Dark Girl (1935; Fig. 5) identifies the sitter only by
George Hare's The Victory of Faith (1891; Fig. 3) and in Fernand her race and presents her, arms folded, shoulders slouched, amidst
Le Quesne's Les deux perles (1889), white and black women area thick tropical garden, recalling "colonial perceptions of Africa as
paired to emphasize their respective charms. Despite their racial the 'dark continent,' a mysterious and impenetrable place teeming
differences, the African and European women in these paintings with moral and sexual vice.""37 Although more than a century sepa-
are presented as ideals of beauty-soft, shapely, and feminine. In-rates the Benoist and Heward portrayals, the women's expressions
are similar; both appear helpless, vulnerable, and submissive. As
cluded in the Hare composition is a deliberately titillating hint of
lesbianism, observed in the way the women's hands touch and in Nelson rightly observes, "within Heward's [and Benoit's] colonial
the manner in which the black woman's hand rests upon her com- fantas[ies], the utter servility and uncomfortable surrender of the
panion's thigh. Both women recline passively (indeed, they areblack subject activates the power and sexual potency of the white
artist/viewer."38
asleep and therefore incapable of returning the viewer's gaze), and
are frontally exposed. They embody both the erotic, in their de- Images of the black female nude made by 20th-century
fenseless nudity and proximity to one another, and the exotic, African-American
in men echo many of the same stereotypes ob-
that they portray Christian slaves from antiquity (note that they served in the works of white artists, for example, the languid Sea
sleep on a stone floor atop a makeshift straw palette and are Island-inspired nudes of Eldzier Cortor, the sexualized fantasy im-
chained to a wall, upon which a Christian cross has been etched).mages of Romare Bearden, and the sculptural reclining nudes of
By situating the nude figures in the far removed past, Hare allowsWilliam H. Johnson. Archibald Motley Jr.'s Brown Girl After the
his viewers (again, quintessentially 19th-century male Salon visi-Bath (1931; Fig. 6) offers a captivating variation on the theme.39 A
tors) to observe the nude bodies without experiencing any of the nude woman whose brown skin seems to glow in the soft interior
light sits before a mirrored vanity. She holds a container of powder
social discomfort inspired by the directness and perceived im-
morality of Manet's Olympia, exhibited some 30 years earlier. and a puff and she wears only shoes, suggesting that the subject of
Le Quesne's Les deux perles is quite literally that-two women, the work is the proverbial "harlot performing her toilet."40 Indeed,
one African and one European, emerging like pearls from an over- Motley's known interest in this 17th-century Dutch theme sug-
sized oyster shell on a rocky seashore. The women are presented gests precisely that (articulated in two Jan Steen paintings entitled
Morning Toilet-one from 1663 in the Royal Collection, London,
without historical pretext, as pure erotica. One reclines in the con-
cave form of the shell, as if waking from a deep sleep. She is ex- the other, c. 1665, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, both of which
resemble Motley's composition).41
posed frontally to reveal a flawless expanse of milky white skin de-
nuded of all body hair. Furthermore, both women turn away from However, Motley's figure is neither conspicuously idealized,
the viewer. In fact, the African woman's entire body faces into theoverly eroticized, nor tractable. On the contrary, the woman's
picture space, completely obscuring her pubic area as an emblem fleshy torso and rounded buttocks are portrayed with apparent fi-
delity, and Motley directs her reflected gaze toward the viewer.
of her sexuality and her face as the mark of her personality. Despite
her unusually active, though not especially aggressive pose (the This nude woman is relaxed, at ease with the implied presence of
African woman stands and is gesturing to something, perhapsthe a male viewer and with her own body despite that presence. She
boat, on the distant horizon), she and her companion are ultimatelyhas much more in common with the historian John Berger's defin-
passive creatures who are not even allowed to "look" at the viewer.ition of "nakedness" than with more traditional conceptions of nu-
Denied individuality and personality in favor of what Honour de- dity. Whereas the conventional nude is perhaps best described as
scribes as "soft-core" erotic personae, the women's sole functionan unclothed body that is "clothed in art," Berger's "naked" body
was to delight and arouse a white male viewer without threateningrefers to a "real" woman whose prosaic form has been exalted by
his sense of social control or status. Canadian historian Charmaine
the artist's depiction." Thus, while Motley replicates certain classic
Nelson explains that "the power of the gaze [denied the women stereotypes
in of gender-the woman as passive sexual spectacle-he
both the Hare and Le Quesne paintings] has historically been adeconstructs others, allowing his model personality, beauty, and
white male heterosexual prerogative." Nevertheless, an examina- some small measure of authority.
tion of images painted by white women artists reveals, in Nelson's Motley's painting bears comparison to Ringgold's French Col-
lection Series (1991-97) of painted "story quilts" in which the artist
words, "white women's participation within, and collusion with, the
colonial and patriarchal precepts of Western culture."35 introduces black characters into traditionally and specifically
For instance, in 1800 Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist (1768-1826)French settings, such as the Louvre or Matisse's chapel in Vence.

Q WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

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In several of the paintings, Ringgold also replaces the white fe- doing it...if they throw your art back at you...don't worry." Ring-
male nude with a black one. Picasso's Studio (1991; P1. 12), for ex- gold's words, spoken in the voice of Willia Marie and indicative of
ample, situates a slim, youthful black woman (the artist's alter-ego, the very anxiety Natterson describes, express the artist's fear (de-
Willia Marie Simone*) on a chaise longue in the Spanish painter's spite her professional success) that the art world might reject her
studio. As is typical of Ringgold's story quilts, she has bordered the and her depictions of empowered and beautiful black nude
acrylic painting with quilted fabric, printed with a fictional story. women. Yet, despite her concerns, Ringgold advises Willia Marie
Novel in its conceptualization is the introduction of a black nude (and thus herself) to remain true to her creative vision.
into Picasso's inner sanctum, whose figure upstages Les Desmoi- Skeptical attitudes toward assertive women are particularly
selles d'Avignon (1907), depicted on the rear studio wall. Ring- problematic for African-American women, who have historically
gold's Willia Marie usurps the crown of the ideal Western beauty, been linked with contentiousness and masculinity. Embodied in
traditionally reserved for women with fair skin and flowing hair, such stereotypes as the "Sapphire" and the "Matriarch," images of
displaying with confidence her own short, curly hair and dark skin the domineering black woman manifested themselves in popular
for the artist to paint. However, one would be wrong to suggest thinking as early as the late-19th century, and continued to take
that Willia Marie's pose, echoing that of the nudes in Les Desmoi- shape as the 20th century progressed. Implicit in these stereotypes
selles, merely presents a black woman, instead of a white one, as was the notion that women "wore the pants" in African-American
passive and disempowered. For instance, note that Ringgold has families and that African-American men were demeaned by the
reproduced several African masks into the painting. Picasso, a secondary status to which they had been relegated in their own
known collector of African masks, incorporated their forms into homes. The character of "Sapphire" in the popular postwar radio
Les Desmoiselles. The masks take on new meaning within the con- and television series "Amos 'n' Andy" provided the definitive in-
text of Ringgold's imagery and her carefully constructed narrative. carnation of the black shrew. Sapphire was a "bossy black bitch"
In fact, they speak to Willia Marie as she poses for Picasso, en- who, while remaining a faithful "mammy" or servant to a white
couraging her empowerment: "Don't be disturbed by the power of family, ruled her own home with an iron hand and simultaneously
the artist....The power he has is available to you," reads Ringgold's made a fool of her husband."
narrative. Willia Marie also receives whispered encouragement By the 1960s, widespread patriarchal disapproval was being di-
from the women in Les Desmoiselles, who remind her of her sexual
power, and from her Aunt Melissa, who advises her to follow her
dream to become an artist and to paint art that is important to her.
To pass the time while posing, Willia Marie muses about her
African ancestry, the beauty of black women, and the importance
of artistic freedom. Ringgold's scripted narrative provides the nor-
mally mindless female nude with rare cognitive powers. This insis-
tence on personality and individuation sets Ringgold's nude figures
apart from virtually all conventional nude imagery and, despite the
seeming passivity of Willia Marie's pose, she does not recline lan-
guidly but rather sits upright with her back straight and her lower Fl

legs criss-crossed, in a walking position, strikingly similar to the

pose of the woman in Motley's painting. Furthermore, Willia Marie
is smiling warmly and confidently (though not seductively), and she
looks directly at the artist whose large eyes engage her own.
Active, thinking women such as Willia Marie are rarely repre-
sented in art because they have been perceived as both a physical
and an emotional threat.44 In a late-1980s study of career women,
the psychiatrist Joseph Natterson discussed the persistence of this
thinking in contemporary society:

The current ideal of an aggressive and competitive woman repre-

sents a constructive variation from the traditional [passive] norm,
but since such women are still regarded (and therefore regard
themselves) as deviant, they continue to experience excessive guilt,
anxiety, and depression for their deviation from the [passive]
stereotype."

As Natterson suggests, society continues to respond negatively to

women who are as socially, professionally, or politically empow-
ered as men. In turn, women who choose career paths traditional-
ly reserved for men (such as an artist) must cope with a certain
amount of social rejection and censorship.
Ringgold's awareness of the dangers of being a woman in a
man's profession is revealed in the narrative of Picasso's Studio:
Fig. 7. Renbe Stout, Fetish No. 2 (1988), mixed media, 64" high.
"My art is my freedom to say what I please....They may not like it
Dallas Museum of Art. Courtesy of the Artist.
or buy it or even let you show it, but they can't stop you from

FALL 2003 / WINTER 2004

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rected against women of color. Signs of authority, acumen, or au- No. 2 and Ringgold's Picasso's Studio provide their respective
tonomy on the part of African-American women were perceived as artists with, in Stout's words, "the strength to deal with the things
subversive and detrimental to the healthy socialization of the black you have to deal with every day."51
male. This perspective found official voice in the government- The works of Weems, Cox, Saar, Owens-Hart, Stout, and Ring-
sponsored Moynihan Report, released in 1967. In brief, the au- gold examined herein are the results of women artists reclaiming
thors of the report inferred a baseless causal relationship between what was always theirs but had been usurped from them--control
the perceived high educational and professional achievements of over their own bodies and a voice with which to speak about it.52
African-American women and opposing phenomena, including Historian Gill Saunders explains that "women artists who wish to
criminal behavior, in African-American men. The philosophical challenge the existing stereotypes of the female nude as erotic
basis of the report manifested itself in what has since become spectacle are using a variety of techniques: the reworking of
known as "the Myth of Black Matriarchy," which categorizes myths, the deconstruction of dominant visual codes, parody, [and]
African-American women as "Sapphires" or "castrators" who con- role reversal."53 Stout and her contemporaries take advantage of
trol and dominate their men. The widely publicized report essen- virtually all of these strategies and depict for us new women who
tially blamed African-American women for the ills of their men have eluded the limiting framework of the conventional (mostly
and families, ignoring the true culprits of centuries of slavery, male-produced) Western nude.
racism, and economic and social discrimination.47 Carrie Mae Weems's words bear repeating, as they describe the
Stereotypes of the domineering African-American woman af- intensity with which the black woman's image has been maligned:
fected not only the way these women were perceived by others "Looking into the mirror, the black woman asked, 'Mirror, Mirror,
but also the way they viewed themselves. In light of this, it is not on the wall, who's the finest of them all?' The Mirror answered,
surprising to find an element of consternation in Ringgold's narra- 'Snow White, you black bitch, and don't you forget it!"' Indeed,
tive for Picasso's Studio, which voices a concern that society will African-American women artists have not forgotten. They relent-
reject or disapprove of her strong female character. Nor is it espe- lessly battle the imagery and the attitudes that have refused to let
cially remarkable that Ringgold has camouflaged Willia Marie's them forget. As weapons, they use new visual archetypes designed
provocative, feminist thinking behind an equally provocative nude to dispel society's resolute insistence upon their ugliness, their ac-
body and within two narrow bands of written text, discernable only quiescence, and their silence. African-American women artists
upon close and labored examination. As the art historian Moira have retrieved the nude and infused it with personal and universal
Roth notes, despite the introduction of text, viewers see rather meanings. They have discovered ways to remake and re-present
than read Ringgold's works, which function much like the Trojan their own naked images free from patriarchal and imperial associa-
Horse of Greek mythology.48 Ringgold's audiences are initially en- tions and, as makers of their own bodies, they have created com-
chanted by the seeming naivet6 of her imagery, her vibrant manding exemplars, not of the "other" but of the "self."5~A
palette, varied textures, and lively visual narrative. Once the view-
er digests Ringgold's written messages (often words of social cri- NOTES

tique), it is too late-the impact of her discourse hits home even 1. The continued invisibility of the black female bo
as the imagery continues to delight. veys of the nude is evident in the recent exhibition
Female empowerment masquerading as apparent passivity can posed: The Victorian Nude (London: Tate Gallery, 2
also be found in the works of Rene Stout (b. 1958), particularly in London, Munich, New York, and Japan between 20
her 1988 mixed media sculpture Fetish No. 2 (Fig. 7). Inspired by nearly 200 catalogue illustrations, only two feature w
nkisi nkondi or "power figures" from the Kongo, Stout created a so Hugh Honour and Jean Devisse, The Image of the B
body cast of herself and "empowered" it, as might a Kongo 4 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 197
shaman, with medicinal sacks or bilongo that protect the wearer, son, "Getting Down to Get Over: Romare Bearden's
cowrie-shell eyes that thwart the male (or any) gaze, and monkey and the Problem of the Black Female Body in Afro-U
hair and beaded braid extensions that allude to both the artist's ed., Black Popular Culture: A Project by Michele W
African and Western cultural realities.49 Mounted on the stomach Press, 1992), 112-22; and Deborah Willis and Carl
of the figure is a glass-covered box reminiscent of the raised con- Female Body: A Photographic History (Philadelphia: T
tainers found on the bellies of Kongo figures. Like its African 2002). For my review of the latter see WA1 (S/S 03
counterparts, the container on Stout's figure holds symbolic mate- 2. Valerie M. Bentz and Philip E. F. Mayes, eds.,
rials-a weathered photograph of a baby, representative of inno- Roles as Portrayed in Visual Images in the Arts and M
cence and of the future, dried flowers that allude to the ephemeral N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1993); John Berger, Ways of S
nature of life and to memories, and a postage stamp from Niger, guin, 1972); Kenneth Clark, The Nude: A Study in I
emblematic of the artist's long-distant African past. York: Pantheon, 1956); Gill Saunders, The Nude: A N
The life-size plaster cast of the artist's body has been painted don: Harper & Row, 1989), 23; and Laura Mulvey, "
with several layers of rich, dark paint and stands immobile and Narrative Cinema," Screen (Autumn 1975), 6-18.
silent like an ancient sentinel. The figure is nude except for the 3. Carol Duncan, "The Aesthetics of Power in Moder

beaded and metal jewelry that adorns its ears, neck, wrists, and lene Raven, Cassandra L. Langer, and Joanna Frueuh,
hips, and its mesh mantle of medicine packets. Yet, despite its nu- Criticism: An Anthology (New York: HarperCollins,
dity and passivity, Stout's nude form bears only a vague and super- 4. Abby Wetten Kleinbaum, The War Against the
ficial resemblance to the inactive nudes that decorate the walls of McGraw Hill, 1983), 1-3; Duncan, "The Aesthetics o
so many museums. "This is ritual nudity, not the available female 5. Examples of female figures who portray allegor
nude of Western art," the historian Michael Harris assures us, and throughout the history of Western art. Two especially w
its function is neither to titillate nor to reinforce any racial or gen- separated by two millennia, are the 2nd century B.C.
or Winged Victory, and the French Romantic paintin
der status quo.? Rather, through visual affirmation, Stout's Fetish
WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

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Liberty Leading the People (1830), both at the Louvre. 31. Miriam Schapiro and Judy Chicago, "Female Imagery," Woman-
6. Clark, The Nude, 71, 173, 182, 317-19. space Journal (Summer 1973), 14.
7. See Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds., The Power of 32. Robert L. Hall, Gathered Visions: Selected Works by African Ameri-
Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact can Women Artists (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1992), 14.
(New York: Abrams, 1994). 33. Hugh Honour, The Image of the Black in Western Art, IV, 184.
8. For an examination of the history of popular stereotypes of Africans 34. Ibid., 183-84.
and African Americans, see Kenneth W. Goings, Mammy and Uncle 35. Ibid.; and Charmaine Nelson, Le regard de l'autre: artistes canadi-
Mose: Black Collectibles and American Stereotyping (Bloomington: Indiana ens blancs-sujets f6minins noirs (Through Another's Eyes: White Canadi-
University, 1994); Jan Neederveen Pieterse, White on Black: Images of an Artists-Black Female Subjects) (Oshawa, Can.: Robert McLaughlin
Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture (New Haven: Yale University, Gallery, 1998), 7.
1992); and Steven C. Dubin, "Symbolic Slavery: Black Representations in 36. Pieterse, Black on White, chs. 8, 12, 13.
Popular Culture," Social Problems (April 1987), 122-40. 37. Nelson, Le regard de l'autre, 19.
9. Faith Ringgold, We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith 38. Ibid.
Ringgold (Boston: Little, Brown, 1995), 138-39. 39. Wilson, "Getting Down to Get Over," 112-22.
10. Martin Ros, Night of Fire: The Black Napoleon and the Battle for 40. Ibid., citing Jontyl Theresa Robinson, "Archibald Motley, Jr.: A No-
Haiti, Karin Ford-Treep, trans. (New York: Sarpedon, 1994), 18. table Anniversary for a Pioneer," in Three Masters: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie
11. Angela Davis, Women, Race & Class (New York: Vintage, 1983), Lee Smith, Archibald John Motley, Jr. (New York: Kenkeleba Gallery,
50-51. 1988), 45.
12. Ringgold, We Flew Over the Bridge, 197. 41. Steen's paintings are cited in Wilson, "Getting Down to Get Over,"
13. Illustrated and cited in Pieterse, White on Black, 181. 121, n. 17. Both feature a woman seated alone (one on a draped bed,
14. Ibid., citing J. J. Virey, Histoire naturelle du genre humain (Paris: the other on a chair) in a small enclosed bedroom space, removing her
Crochard, 1924), and George Cuvier (1769-1832), the Swiss anatomist stockings. See also discussions of Motley's interest in Dutch art and repro-
regarded as the founder of paleontology and who made pseudoscientific ductions of his other Dutch-inspired paintings, Mulatress with Figurine and
comparisons between blacks and apes. Dutch Landscape (1920) and Reception: Afternoon Tea (1926), in Michael
15. Sander L. Gilman, "The Hottentot and the Prostitute: Toward an Iconogra-D. Harris, Race and Visual Representation (Chapel Hill: University of North
phy of Female Sexuality," in Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Carolina, 2003), 152, 157, 164.
Race, and Madness (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1985), 76-130. 42. John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 54, 57.
16. Patricia Morton, Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro- 43. Ann Gibson, "Faith Ringgold's Picasso's Studio," in Dan Cameron,
American Women (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1991), xv, 10-11; Davis, et al., Dancing at the Louvre: Faith Ringgold's French Collection and Other
Women, Race & Class, 182. Story Quilts (New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1998), 28.
17. Pieterse, White on Black, chs. 2, 4, 5, 12; Gilman, "The Hottentot 44. See Duncan, "The Aesthetics of Power," 20, 50; Kleinbaum, The
and the Prostitute," 76-130. War Against the Amazons, 1-3; Clark, The Nude, 71, 173, 182, 317-19.
18. Dubin, "Symbolic Slavery," 122-23, 131, 139; Davis, Women, 45. Joseph M. Natterson, "Women's Dreams: A Nocturnal Odyssey," in
Race & Class, 172-201; Morton, Disfigured Images, 27-53. Toni Bernay and Dorothy W. Cantor, eds., The Psychology of Today's
19. Frances Beale, "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," in ToniWoman: New Psychoanalytical Visions (Cambridge: Harvard University,
Cade Bambara, ed., The Black Woman: An Anthology (New York: Pen- 1989), 320.
guin, 1970), 92. 46. Morton, Disfigured Images, 7, 1-15, 27-53, 67-85, 113-24.
20. Michele Wallace, Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman 47. Ibid., xii, 1-15; Michele Wallace, Invisibility Blues: From Pop to The-
(New York: Dial, 1979; rpt. New York: Verso, 1991), 133. ory (New York: Verso, 1990), 20; Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick
21. Andrea D. Barnwell, "Personal Reflections and the Fact of Black- Moynihan, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," in Beyond
ness," International Review of African-American Art, 14, no. 1 (1997), 59.
the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, and Italians of New
22. Gilman, Difference and Pathology, 76-130. York City (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1967).
23. Barnwell, "Personal Reflections and the Fact of Blackness," 59. 48. Moira Roth, "A Trojan Horse," in Eleanor Flomenhaft, ed., Faith
24. Ibid. Ringgold: A 25 Year Survey (Hempstead, N.Y.: Fine Arts Museum of Long
25. Donald Cosentino, ed., Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou (Los Angeles: Island, 1990), 49.
UCLA Fowler Museum, 1995), 325-81. 49. Michael Harris, "Resonance, Transformation, and Rhyme: The Art of
26. Ibid., 362. Renbe Stout," in Astonishment and Power (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian,
27. Gilman, Difference and Pathology, 76-130. 1993), 107-55.
28. See the videocassette Betye & Alison Saar, Conjure Women of the 50. Ibid., 131.
Arts (1994), produced by Linda Freeman, written and directed by David 51.Quoted in ibid., 131.
Irving. 52. Ibid., 129, extrapolating from his discussion of the works of Roberta
29. Danielle Knafo, "In Her Own Image: Women's Self-Representation in Graham; Susan Rubin Suleiman, ed. "(Re)writing the Body," in The Female
Art" (paper presented at the New School for Social Research, New York, Body in Western Culture: Contemporary Perspectives (Cambridge, Mass:
March 12 and 26, 1996); Maryse Holder, "Another Cuntree: At Last a Harvard University, 1985), 7.
Mainstream Female Art Movement," in Feminist Art Criticism, 20; Linda 53. Saunders, The Nude, 117.
Nochlin, "Some Women Realists," in Women, Art, Power and Other Es- 54. Suleiman, "(Re)writing the Body," 7.
says (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 103; Carol Duncan, "Virility and
Domination in Early Twentieth Century Art" in Norma Broude and Mary D. Lisa E. Farrington, senior faculty at Parsons School of Design in
Garrard, eds., Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany (New New York City, is author of Art on Fire: the Politics of Race & Sex in
York: Harper & Row, 1982), 293-314. the Paintings of Faith Ringgold (1999) and the forthcoming Creating
30. Gilman, Difference and Pathology, 76-130. Their Own Image: A History of African-American Women Artists.

0
FALL 2003 / WINTER 2004

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 RINGOLD SAR / WENSHAR

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PI. 10. Alison Saar, Mambo Mambo (1985), mixed media, 20" x 18".
Artist's Collection.
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63" x 18" x 24". Artist's Collection. tie-dyed
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