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Painting of Emmett Till Stirs Controversy

MissK

I was Not here
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The open-coffin photographs of the mutilated body of Emmett Till, the teenager who was lynched by two white men in Mississippi in 1955, served as a catalyst for the civil rights movement and have remained an open wound in American society since they were first published in Jet magazine and The Chicago Defender at the urging of Till’s mother.

The images’ continuing power, more than 60 years later, to speak about race and violence is being demonstrated once again in protests that have arisen online and at the newly opened Whitney Biennial over the decision of a white artist, Dana Schutz, to make a painting based on the photographs.

An African-American artist, Parker Bright, has conducted peaceful protests in front of the painting since Friday, positioning himself, sometimes with a few other protesters, in front of the work to partly block its view. He has engaged museum visitors in discussions about the painting while wearing a T-shirt with the words “Black Death Spectacle” on the back. Another protester, Hannah Black, a British-born black artist and writer working in Berlin, has written a letter to the biennial’s curators, Mia Locks and Christopher Y. Lew, urging that the painting be not only removed from the show but also destroyed.

“The subject matter is not Schutz’s,” Ms. Black wrote in a Facebook message that has been signed by more than 30 other artists she identifies as nonwhite. “White free speech and white creative freedom have been founded on the constraint of others, and are not natural rights. The painting must go.” She added that “contemporary art is a fundamentally white supremacist institution despite all our nice friends.”


The protest has found traction on Twitter, where some commenters have called for destruction of the painting and others have focused on what they view as an ill-conceived attempt by Ms. Schutz to aestheticize an atrocity.
*article from NY Times

What say the ABW.....
 
Im sorry but Dana schultz has no right in creating "Open Casket". As someone who frequents art museums all over the east coast, I can tell you these spaces are often filled with rich, white capitalist. Dana in my eyes is attempting to profit off a dead Black body and that is a disgrace to the Till family. Its exploitative af

I think the question this raises: is should white people be allowed to create Black images?
should they be allowed to interpret our pain and struggle through art?
...a pain they will never experience?

I say fuck no.
 
oh my b Race, i was speed reading again...didnt realize Dana was white

im with you now
 
Im sorry but Dana schultz has no right in creating "Open Casket". As someone who frequents art museums all over the east coast, I can tell you these spaces are often filled with rich, white capitalist. Dana in my eyes is attempting to profit off a dead Black body and that is a disgrace to the Till family. Its exploitative af

I think the question this raises: is should white people be allowed to create Black images?
should they be allowed to interpret our pain and struggle through art?
...a pain they will never experience?

I say fuck no.

I agree 100%.

Furthermore white people always only allow themselves be the ones who tell the stories. Like in this case, a white woman was given the chance, and trust, that was not because no black artists did similar topics. One way or another they always paint themselves the savior or the hero. They may pretend to be sympathetic sometimes but make no mistakes they don't want to see progress.

Brainwash is powerful and stealth because they have the control of the media.
 
Im sorry but Dana schultz has no right in creating "Open Casket". As someone who frequents art museums all over the east coast, I can tell you these spaces are often filled with rich, white capitalist. Dana in my eyes is attempting to profit off a dead Black body and that is a disgrace to the Till family. Its exploitative af

I think the question this raises: is should white people be allowed to create Black images?
should they be allowed to interpret our pain and struggle through art?
...a pain they will never experience?

I say fuck no.


Yes it is and I agree 100%
Then for her to justify it because she is a mother. Please exit stage left
 
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