Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

T he first comprehensive retrospective of one of America’s most compelling and controversial artists has opened at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott will for the first time reveal the full range of the 50-year career of an artist whose work surfaces and challenges diversity and racial stereotypes in post-war America.

Artist

Robert Colescott

“Given the crises of race relations, political propaganda and image manipulation in the current American landscape, Colescott’s career has never been more relevant," says the exhibition’s curator Lowery Stokes Sims. “His perspectives on race, life, social mores, historical heritage and cultural hybridity allow us to forthrightly confront what the state of global culture will be in the immediate future.”

Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott was commended in 2018 by the Sotheby's Prize, which encourages museums to break new ground and challenge our understanding of art today.

The Sotheby’s Prize jury was impressed by the depth of research into the subject matter, which they felt reflects the complex issues of race, identity, and of what it means to be American that are present in Colescott’s work. They were encouraged that an artist who at one time was much celebrated – he was the first artist of colour to have a solo exhibition at the American Pavilion of the Venice Biennale – but who has since fallen from view will receive this important and timely attention. “This major retrospective will likely have great impact on our understanding of the history of post-war African American art, and of American art in general,” says jury chair Allan Schwartzman.

In acknowledging this exhibition, the jurors are highlighting “the work of an artist who has not yet been brought into contemporary discussions about the voice of African American artists in the post-war period, even though the work of such artists as Kerry James Marshall and Glenn Ligon rises on the shoulders of Colescott’s pioneering work,” says Schwartzman.

The exhibition will approach Colescott’s work both in terms of chronology and the themes he dealt with over the course of his career. It will explore his oeuvre through issues such as the American Dream and assimilation aspirations, mass media imagery, notions of beauty, sexual and gender transgressions to name a few.

Fellow Sotheby’s Prize juror Donna De Salvo adds, “this exhibition is looking at the full sweep of his career. It's important work to see. It's tough work, because it takes on a lot of issues about race.”

“Robert Colescott is an artist I have been interested in for a long time as a painter and astute purveyor of American society,” says CAC Alice & Harris Weston Director, Raphaela Platow. “I feel strongly that Colescott’s exploration of race, identity and politics in the US are as pertinent as ever. This major survey outlining Colescott’s overall contribution is a timely undertaking that will also re-evaluate the artists place within the art discourse.”

Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott is on view at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati until January 12 2020, and will be touring several museums around the United States all facilitated by the CAC.

The Sotheby's Prize

Launched in May 2017, The Sotheby’s Prize offers an annual sum of $250,000 to recognise curatorial excellence and help facilitate exhibitions that explore overlooked or under-represented areas of art history. In addition to the main prize, a sum of $10,000 is also awarded to a number of institutions whose exhibitions and initiatives are judged by the jury panel to be inspiring and transformative. Between them, last year’s commended list embraces both established and underrepresented artists, as well as the relatively unexplored aspects of sexuality and race in art, while at the same time supporting inspiring new plans for community-based mobile exhibitions. The results of the Sotheby’s Prize 2019 will be announced on November 1.