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Over a century after the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, American society is still rife with racial injustice in flagrant defiance of the nations founding ideals. The Great Migration, Civil Rights Movement, and a large body of antiracism literature are some forms of activism pushing for aggressive policy changes to make liberty and equal human rights a reality for all. This paper examines an artwork resonating with the general fight against racism. Titus Kaphars Another Fight for Remembrance confronts historical visual accounts to determine what aspects of systemized discrimination they reveal or obliterate from the record.
Titus Kaphar is an American painter whose artwork visually stirs the discomforting history of the African-American subject. The 45-year old painter was born in Michigan and received his BFA from San Jose State University in 2001 before graduating from Yale University with an MFA five years later. Kaphars work has amassed him accolades such as MacArthur Fellowship and Creative Capitol Grant in 2018 and 2015, respectively. Kaphars paintings and sculptures have featured in The Jerome Project, Chrysler Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, and numerous other exhibitions and public collections ( Titus Kaphar par. 2). A particularly intriguing work by Kaphar is featured on the Yale University Art Gallery, and it forms the basis of this analysis.
Kaphars work, shown below as Figure 1, is a 2014 painting done in the artists studio in New Haven, Connecticut. The 4ft by 5ft oil on canvas portrait shows colored protestors, two of which are visible in the foreground, with their arms raised in the conventional hands up, dont shoot position. The subjects appear drowned in massive aggressive strokes of white paint, save for the duo on the forefront, who are equally doomed to the same fate as their predecessors. The whitewashing technique that Kaphar employs renders the painting mysterious and compelling enough to demand a nuanced understanding of its historical background to appreciate it fully.
The portrait exemplifies a delicate application of specific design and compositional elements. Prominent design features in this work include shapes, color, line, and value. The artist employs organic forms and a mixture of high-keyed and low-keyed values to lend the subjects human features, such as face and hands. Moreover, white color in bold strokes covers the subjects as black lines outline their features, reinforcing their presence in a highly altered life. Kaphar also uses brown color to capture the Black people who actively participated in the protests. The upper background section is predominantly black with dotted red spots, representing the streetlights that illuminate the city. Concurrently, Kaphars design elements overlap with compositional components to define a strong focal point. The crosshatch lines of white paint give the painting additional texture and focus the viewers eyes on the two black men with raised hands in the foreground. The painting generally shows a creative use of lines and color to communicate a powerful visual message.
Another Fight for Remembrance was inspired by the Ferguson Riots. On August 9, 2014, Darren Wilson shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. As it has been the norm in most historical racial injustices, a white law enforcement officer killed an African American, but justice did not prevail again. Consequently, violent riots and protests erupted as activists chanted, Hands up, dont shoot (Hedges 2). A vigorous debate regarding the relationship between the police and African Americans stirred throughout the country, triggering the idea of this compelling portrait. Times Magazine commissioned Kaphar to create a cover painting for the Person of the Year issue in response to the Fergusson protests.
Kaphars painting stands out because of its fascinating ability to rupture the minorities representation within the art historical canon. In Another Fight for Remembrance, the artist boasts his usual signature style of whitewashing, erasing, obscuring, and deleting subjects to sustain his theme. Kaphar used this technique to capture what was visible and predict an outcome in tandem with a historical pattern (Hedges 2). The visible part of the protests was the numerous photos spread throughout social media and traditional news outlets. Conversely, what remained hidden to the lay observer was the ultimate erasure of these images from the market-oriented mainstream media.
Another Fight for Remembrance fits into a general pattern whereby Kaphar reconstructs and critiques the past to lend a voice to the historically oppressed minority. In this painting, only two black males faces are visible, decorating the sketch with a seductive grace persisting through the fray. The heartwarming humanity of the mens gaze screams against the widespread prejudiced propaganda used to justify the shooting of unarmed men of color, such as he appeared threatening. According to Kaphar, this painting reflects an acute awareness of the news cycles fast-paced nature, which subjects critical issues to a perpetual state of simultaneous existence and absence (Martinez par. 6). In other words, the media paradoxically erases a news item by reducing it to a brief moment, a mere flash across the screen.
Kaphars work can also be seen as a form of activism against racial prejudice against minorities and the dominant groups tendency to trivialize this vice. Precisely, the strokes of white paint obscuring the brown faces imply that Whites, a dominant race in the U.S., treats brown faces as inferior and disguises them as unimportant or mostly inexistent. This pattern reflects how the voices of African Americans are muffled through systemized racism. For instance, Blacks are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and are stifled through policies that render it difficult to acquire education and, ultimately, a well-paying job. Meanwhile, their presence in tribunals and other positions of power merely creates a façade of inclusion but, in reality, serves only a formality purpose.
Another Fight for Remembrance strikes a personal chord with me. Its theme of cultural injustice and the subjects lifted hands reminds me of painful accounts of black friends who have been arrested with extreme force despite surrendering already. As a child, I witnessed the police drag a black suspect out of his car while the other corked his gun and pointed it at the already restrained man. Moments later, they reigned on him with kicks and blows. The handcuffed victim bled and growled in pain while the police shoved him in the rear seat before taking him to custody. Such memories haunt me to date, leaving me deeply concerned about the black race. Reviewing this work enabled me to explore an area of interest share my thoughts on racism in this otherwise great nation.
Another Fight for Remembrance is a visual probe of the art historical canon to reveal a selective relay of historical events revolving around racism. Kaphar uses the portrait to show the societys general complacence and connivance in the enduring wave of racial injustice meted on the minority race. Precisely, it examines the Ferguson protests impact, forecasting how the protests essence will soon be trivialized and forgotten. Racism is a moral malady that has afflicted the U.S. culture for too long, and it demands unwavering attention in the national discourse.
Works Cited
Hedges, Emily. Yet Another Fight for Remembrance: Titus Kaphars Representation of Race in the Past and the Present. 2019. University of Kentucky, Deans Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Scholarship. Web.
Martinez, Alanna. Titus Kaphar Talks Criminal Justice, His TIME Painting, and First Show at Jack Shainman. Titus Kaphar, 2021.
Titus Kaphar. Creative Capital.
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