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4/2/2002

David Levinthal

Conner Contemporary Art, Washington

Unmasking Racism: David Levinthal’s Blackface

In his first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C., New York artist David Levinthal presents photographs from his controversial Blackface series.
Levinthal, the internationally acclaimed pioneer of the Fabrication movement in fine art photography, makes a bold debut with large Polaroid images that examine racial stereotypes engendered in ‘black memorabilia’ objects. These photographs arrive in Washington, a city with a predominantly African-American demographic, at a momentous time when a new presidential administration faces the challenge of uniting a politically, and to some extent, racially divided country. The issue of racial stereotyping is an ongoing social concern that gains even more currency in the present circumstances.
Gallery owner Leigh Conner explains her philosophy for showing Blackface: "This is a timely exhibition and I’m very pleased to provide a forum for such an extraordinary body of work." She elaborates, "It’s important that David will be here to discuss the photographs in person... we’ve also made an effort to contextualize the series in the gallery by presenting educational materials as an integral part of the exhibition."

The photographs curated for the current exhibition were selected from Levinthal’s series of two hundred and twenty-one images according to several themes, each of which demonstrates a different kind of stereotype found in ‘black memorabilia.’
The first category centers on the stereotype of the minstrels in blackface makeup who performed music and comedy routines for white audiences in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Whereas white performers who portrayed blacks in stereotypical and derogatory roles largely propagated minstrelsy, there were also African-American minstrels who earned a livelihood performing in blackface. This circumstance adds an ironic and tragic dimension to the photographs of ceramic figurines, which portray caricatures of Blackface minstrels with menacing expressions, big red lips and bulging white eyes.
These distorted features are not limited to minstrel figures, but are evident in most black memorabilia objects, regardless of whether they are connected with any type of theatrical performance.
The jazz motif is a variation on the entertainment theme and consists of figures dancing or playing musical instruments. These figures correspond to the assimilation by whites of African-American music and dance into urban music halls and theaters in the first half of the twentieth century. Jazz performance was arguably less demeaning than minstrelsy, but for many, it represented the only chance of escaping domestic servitude and the sole means of upward social mobility.

Another thematic category in the Blackface series is formed by images of domestic servants, such as Mammies, cooks, and butlers and figures in other service jobs, like porters and bartenders. These personae reflect both the historical actuality of limited social opportunities for African-Americans and the racial objectification of African-Americans in these roles. Among these objects commonplace physical stereotypes are evident such as obese Mammies and cooks, elderly butlers, and muscular porters.
The family motif comprises the third category in which maternal figures and children are depicted.
The picturesque character of some of these figures is rooted in a nostalgic view of the ‘Old South’ and in racial stereotypes centering on white conceptions of the nurturing social role of African-American women. These images are, to a certain degree, consistent with the idea of the motherly Mammy, but contrast with the Afro-centric images that comprise another thematic category, which includes the sub-themes of cannibalism and nudity. These stereotypes are rooted in conceptions of European colonialism and the polar white cultural constructs of ‘civilization’ and ‘primitivism.’ In this group of images the erotic female figure stands out as the hypersexual antithesis of the nurturing and sexually neutral Mammy (although one could argue that the underlying theme of fertility is perhaps common to both). These figures demonstrate the feelings of fascination and fear that attached to white fantasies of African ‘savagery’ in the first half of the twentieth century.

In the Blackface series Levinthal demonstrates the important role of pictorial imagery in the discourse on racial stereotypes. The objects that he photographed embody prejudices, which are based, at least in part, on the premises that inherent racial differences exist and that these differences are manifest in visual distinctions such as skin color and anatomical features.
Because derogatory racial images have been propagated in visual forms, through the manufacture of ceramic figurines and other decorative objects, it is instructive to examine this aspect of racial marginalization within the pictorial mode.
Levinthal manipulates the visual parameters of his subjects and medium to effect the transformation of relatively small household items into menacing monuments to a bitter racist polemic. By presenting large, close-up views of his subjects the artist underscores the visual hyperbole of their grotesquely exaggerated features.
Isolating the figures against a dark background, Levinthal exposes the strong formal characteristics of each figure, thereby instilling it with a speaking presence that is equally engaging and confrontational. While these images engender confrontation, they are also catalysts for discussion because they evoke comment and demand explanation.
- Jamie L. Smith

HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday: 11:00AM - 6:00PM Sunday: 12:00PM - 5:00P

Conner Contemporary Art
1730 Connecticut Avenue, NW - 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20009 USA
+ 202 + 588 + 8750
+ 202 + 588 + 8150

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