Who Can Represent Black Pain? Hannah Black’s Letter to the Whitney Biennial
Moisey presents this article as not just a debate on whether or not Dana Schutz, artist of Open Casket, should have removed her work from the Whitney, he also presents the question if white artists should make money and sell work based on the suffering of black people. Moisey relates back to historically famous works based on sufferings. He cites another abstract, J.M.W. Turner’s Slave Ship of 1840. Moisey relates the two works based on their positions. Open Casket was created with the vision of Emmett Till’s mother in mind, trying to capture her emotional pain of not recognizing her son in his casket, vs Slave Ship, which captures the historical event of when a captain ordered 133 slaves to be thrown overboard so that insurance payments could be collected. This historical event was captured in a different light with bright abstract colors, capturing the horrendous event.
Moisey states, “Slave Ship doesn’t tell us what it is like to be black, it tells us what it looks like to be black. White empathy can be extremely valuable when it takes art just that far, for when it’s done right, it can make white viewers wonder what looking like that would be like.”. Using this as his argument he states that Black’s letter of the prohibition on white artists showing the public what black suffering looks like isn’t proper, but a prohibition on white artists trying to show what pain is like is more appropriate. Moisey argues that white artists should not profit off of black people’s sufferings. They do not know the trauma and pain they have dealt with, and it shouldn’t be used as a benefit for themselves. The ability to make money off of someone else’s pain has been a deeply historic problem, and Open Casket continues to play a part of it.
I found it interesting how this article and the one by Coco Fusco both include the painting done by Henry Taylor (The Times They Ain’t a Changing Fast Enough), however they go about this particular painting differently. Moisey addresses the differences in the two works of art, how Taylor’s painting represents what it is like to be black in the U.S. How he truly shows the suffering of a black person, whereas Fusco addresses the painting only to show that this piece, which was also included in the biennial received little to no attention or discussion, whereas Dana Schutz’s painting did. It really fascinating to read these different takes on Dana Schutz’s painting and white artists painting black suffering.