Katia Aguilar Suarez
Oliver Berghof
Humanities Core H1BS
February 10, 2023
Overlooked Art
Titus Kaphar is an artist that has completely changed art in many ways and more specifically a positive way. Through Titus Kaphar’s artwork, we have been given the chance to take a look at the lives of African Americans. His art ranges from sharing the perspective of African Americans during the 19th Century and now also creates art about the lives of African Americans in the 21st century. His art is filled with power, and significance and influences others today to acknowledge the struggles of the past and the struggles of today. Titus Kaphar is an African American artist from Michigan with a lot of education in art history. He has displayed his artwork in multiple universities and museums. He has various styles of art that include, collage painting, whitewashing, crumpled, shredded, and more. His artwork is recreating, rejuvenating, and giving a new meaning to his work. Kapahr’s artwork is like all art, open to interpretation but many of his pieces of art have real stories and history that should be acknowledged and not ignored because these stories are powerful and have been shut down for generations. The purpose of Titus Kaphar’s artwork is for African Americans who did not have a voice or was diminished to finally have power and to be heard. In “Twisted Tropes”, Kaphar reconfigured an art piece that would completely change the perspective and the meaning behind the painting. He did so by making African Americans in “historical” paintings the main focus of the overall paintings.
When looking at many of Titus Kaphar’s artworks, some stood out more for me than others. For the purposes of this essay, I looked at and analyzed “Twisted Tropes." The painting consists of two white women and an African American woman. First off, I noticed how the two white women in the painting are now crumpled up. You can barely decipher their faces, meanwhile, the African American woman is framed in a gold picture frame. This makes the African American woman the main focus of the painting. Her face seems retouched and refreshed; her facial expression seems to be asserting dominance. The crumbling of the white women is to divert their importance and richness at the time of the original painting, by framing the African American woman and making her face the only clear part of the painting giving her importance and making a statement. In The Curator’s Pick, written by Oladumni Oladipo, she states, “..in America and Europe that elevated off-white portrait subjects through not only the inclusion of various symbols of wealth, such as fresh fruits and silks that can be seen here but the intentional backgrounding of Black figures as well.” The original portrait was used for the two white women to demonstrate or show off their wealth, by framing the woman we give her importance and she now shows affluence. In an article in Gagosian that writes about their artists, Titus Kaphar said, “If we don’t amend history by making new images and new representations, we are always going to be excluding ourselves.” With this specific painting, Kaphar gives this painting a whole new meaning and representation by changing the main focus of the painting. By focusing on the Black woman we can recognize who she was and what she struggled with.
Also, another artwork from Kaphar that stood out to me was “Behind the Myth of Benevolence.” The painting shows an African American woman hiding behind a curtain that is a painting of Thomas Jefferson. The woman in the painting is said to be Sally Hemings. She was an enslaved woman by Thomas Jefferson. Her facial expression shows, confusion and scared. Sally Hemings had multiple children with Thomas Jefferson. The woman seems to be in a vulnerable state in this painting. The purpose of the woman in this painting is to represent Sally Hemmings and many of the black women who were silenced and shut down. Kaphar actually paints the woman in a darker skin tone so she could represent more enslaved African American women. In the article, Gagosian, said, “Kaphar instrumentalizes the visual strategies and methods of key European classicists… to rewrite the narratives of cultural empowerment with Black subjects. And just as historical conditions and contexts prompted artists of the twentieth century to generate radical aesthetic concepts and modes—consider the traumatic inspiration of the Second World War for artists globally…so is Kaphar’s subject matter responsive to the self-evident anxieties of present-day America.” Kaphar was using other methods that artists used to demonstrate the struggles, anxieties, and traumas in the subject of their artwork. Both “Behind the Myth of Benevolence” and “Twisted Tropes” have a similar style of art. In both paintings, the white people who were of importance were crumpled up like trash. As well as our focus has shifted from seeing the historical figures in these paintings we are now focusing on these women because they have captivated our interest. Kaphar has done this on purpose, these women have our attention and now as viewers, we want to know who they are and what they do. Kaphar did so to as well demonstrate the struggles and traumas of African Americans during enslavement and make those feelings and people recognized.
Lastly, one of Kapahr’s paintings that have captived many around the world is “Shifting the Gaze.” This work of art by Kaphar uses an original family portrait. The portrait of a Dutch family with an African American little boy hidden behind them. For this art piece, he used a technique called “whitewashing” where he uses white paint to wash away the whiteness in the painting and focus on the blackness. This particular art piece has had more attention due to Kaphar creating this live in front of an audience. In a journal, A Fight for Remembrance, it said, “...Kaphar applies bold strokes of white over them —a technique he calls “whitewashing” —and then outlines their bodies in black, reinforcing their presence in a way that acknowledges their altered lives and memorializes various facets of their trials.” In this painting, he uses white paint to wash away the Dutch family and emphasizes the African American boy. Again, Kaphar refreshes the boy's face and makes him the main focus of the painting; the boy's facial expression shows he is annoyed and or bothered. Kaphar is on a mission to make this boy’s story be heard and that he is acknowledged as a human being. “Shifting the Gaze” and “Twisted Tropes” has a different style of art being used but the message and how Kaphar readjusts our focus is similar. In both paintings, he either uses “whitewashing” or crumpling to completely ignore the white people in both paintings. He also makes the main focus of the painting the African American boy and the African American woman, as viewers we now have a completely new perspective, and like the title “Shifting the Gaze” our gaze has shifted to the now more important people of the art piece. Along with getting these stories heard and recognized, Kaphar has taken on the task to give attention to those who have gone unnoticed.
Kaphar is an amazing artist that has brought a change in the art world. Looking at many of the original paintings that Kaphar has either remade or use as inspiration I noticed that he makes his subjects look refreshed. The original artists of many of the paintings do not truly paint or try to truly depict the beauty and the true African American facial features. Kaphar also does a great job of accentuating the true beauty of his subjects. When painting the painting discussed he makes sure to get rid of anything in the paintings that will indicate in any sort of way enslavement. The overall goal of Kaphar is to reimagine and give those who had no voice a voice. He wants to make sure that they are recognized as humans and that they are valued. Art has a huge impact on the world and those who view it. Kaphar was able to recognize the lived experiences of African Americans and was able to get his artwork with a lot of history into prestigious universities and museums where more people can recognize the African American experience. As you can see many art pieces have untold stories and history that should be recognized by today's society.
Works Cited
Graham, Pearl M. “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 46, no. 2, 1961, pp. 89–103. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2716715.
Kaphar, Titus. “A Fight for Remembrance.” The Georgia Review, vol. 69, no. 2, 2015, pp. 199–208. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44077632.
Kaphar, Titus. “Art Work.” Titus Kaphar, 30 Dec. 2022, https://www.kapharstudio.com/.
Oladipo, Oladunni. “Displacing Power: Images of Black Figure.” The Curator's Pick, 2020, https://www.thecuratorspick.com/displacing-power-images-of-black-fi.
“Titus Kaphar.” Gagosian, 8 Mar. 2020, https://gagosian.com/artists/titus-kaphar/.
“Titus Kaphar.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Jan. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Kaphar.