Can art amend history? | Titus Kaphar

Summary

The speaker shares a personal experience at the Natural History Museum in New York City, where his son's innocent question about the Teddy Roosevelt sculpture sparked a reflection on fairness and representation in public art. He recounts his journey into art history, the disparity in historical representation, and his mission to create art that is both honest and reflective of our diverse present. He advocates for amending, rather than erasing, historical art to include a more inclusive narrative, drawing a parallel to the way amendments work with the American Constitution.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The speaker's love for museums and their educational value is evident, particularly the Natural History Museum in New York City.
• 👨‍👦‍👦 The importance of involving children in cultural experiences is highlighted through the story of the speaker's visit to the museum with his sons, Sabian and Dabith.
• 🗿 The Teddy Roosevelt sculpture at the museum's entrance sparks a conversation about historical representation and fairness, leading to a deeper discussion about public monuments.
• 🤔 The son's innocent question about the sculpture's depiction of power and status leads the speaker to question how we can amend, rather than erase, historical artifacts.
• 👩‍🎨 The speaker's personal journey into art was influenced by a woman who challenged him to think about his future, leading to his discovery of art history.
• 📚 The transformative experience of learning visually in an art history class, which was a stark contrast to the speaker's previous academic struggles.
• 🎓 The significance of the B grade in art history, which represented a personal achievement and a realization of the speaker's visual learning capabilities.
• 📖 The inadequacy of representation of black people in art history textbooks, as experienced by the speaker in a survey class that glossed over the topic.
• 🖌️ The speaker's self-taught journey in painting, inspired by museum visits and a desire to understand and reinterpret historical art.
• 🖼️ The concept of painting as a visual language, where every element in a painting is coded and carries meaning about the subjects' social status and roles.
• 🔍 The speaker's approach to art involves altering historical paintings to shift the viewer's gaze and provoke thought about the fairness and impact of historical representations.
• 📜 The idea of amending, rather than erasing, history is likened to the American Constitution's amendments, suggesting a way to acknowledge past perspectives while reflecting current values.

Q & A

What is the primary setting of the speaker's story?

The primary setting of the speaker's story is the Natural History Museum in New York City.

Who are Sabian and Dabith?

Sabian and Dabith are the speaker's two sons who accompanied him to the museum.

What sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt did the speaker describe?

The sculpture described is of Teddy Roosevelt sitting with one hand on a horse, bold and strong, with a Native American on one side and an African-American on the other.

What question did the speaker's oldest son ask that made the speaker reflect on the sculpture?

The son asked, 'Dad, how come he gets to ride, and they have to walk?', which led to a discussion about fairness and representation.

What is the speaker's profession or passion that led him to museums?

The speaker is passionate about art and its history, which led him to visit museums and learn more about visual intelligence and representation.

How did the speaker's interest in art history begin?

The speaker's interest in art history began when he enrolled in an art history class at a junior college to impress a woman he was interested in.

What was the speaker's academic performance like before taking the art history class?

Before taking the art history class, the speaker was not a great student, with a high school GPA of .65.

Why did the speaker feel the need to learn about the history of black people in art?

The speaker felt the need to learn about the history of black people in art because it was poorly represented and often skipped in his art history classes.

What did the speaker do when his professor skipped the chapter on black people in art history?

The speaker went to the professor's office hours, spoke to the dean, and ultimately decided to self-teach by visiting museums and studying paintings.

How does the speaker view the role of painting in conveying historical and social messages?

The speaker views painting as a visual language where every element is coded and meaningful, conveying messages about economic status, social hierarchy, and more.

What is the speaker's approach to addressing the historical inequities in art representation?

The speaker's approach is not to erase history but to amend it, similar to how the American Constitution works with amendments, to reflect the past and the present.

What did the speaker create to illustrate his point about shifting perspectives in art?

The speaker created an altered version of a painting by Frans Hals, where he made changes to emphasize the importance of shifting one's gaze to consider different perspectives.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 The Impact of Museums and Public Art

The speaker expresses his love for museums, particularly the Natural History Museum in New York City, and recounts a visit with his sons. His son's innocent question about the museum's Teddy Roosevelt sculpture, which depicts him riding a horse with a Native American and an African-American walking beside, prompts a deeper reflection on the representation of history in public art. The speaker ponders the possibility of amending, rather than erasing, such monuments to reflect a more inclusive and fair historical narrative. He also shares his personal journey into art, sparked by a romantic interest, which led to his discovery of visual learning and a newfound appreciation for art history.

05:01

📚 The Overlooked History in Art Education

The speaker describes his experience in an art history class where he felt the representation of black people in art was inadequate and hastily dismissed by his professor. Despite his efforts to engage with the professor and the dean, he was unable to secure a discussion on the topic within the class. This led him to self-educate on the subject, using museum visits and close examination of paintings to understand the visual language of art. He demonstrates this understanding by showing an altered version of a Frans Hals painting, emphasizing the coded messages about social status and wealth within the artwork.

10:04

🔍 Shifting Perspectives on Historical Art

The speaker advocates for a nuanced approach to historical art that acknowledges its context while also challenging its biases. He uses the metaphor of an old-school camera to illustrate the idea of shifting focus to bring different elements of a painting into view. The speaker's goal is to create art that is honest about the past but also reflects the diversity and progress of the present. He suggests that, like constitutional amendments, we should add to our historical narratives rather than erasing them, to better understand our past and guide our future.

Keywords

💡Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is a renowned institution in New York City that houses exhibits on natural history, including the evolution of the planet and its life forms. In the video's narrative, it serves as the backdrop for the speaker's encounter with a sculpture that sparks a discussion about historical representation and fairness with his children.

💡Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, is mentioned in the context of a sculpture at the museum. The sculpture depicts him in a powerful stance, which the speaker's son questions in terms of fairness, as it contrasts with the depiction of others in the sculpture who are walking.

💡Representation

Representation in this video refers to how individuals or groups are portrayed, particularly in art and historical monuments. The speaker's son's question about the Teddy Roosevelt sculpture highlights the issue of unequal representation and prompts a broader discussion about amending public art to reflect a more inclusive history.

💡Art History

Art History is the study of the development and representation of visual arts over time. The speaker's personal journey into art history class changed his perspective and allowed him to understand the visual language of paintings, which is central to the video's theme of interpreting and challenging historical narratives through art.

💡Visual Intelligence

Visual Intelligence refers to the ability to understand and interpret visual information. The speaker discovered his own visual intelligence in an art history class, which was a pivotal moment in his academic life and led him to a deeper understanding of art as a means of communication and expression.

💡Cultural Amnesia

Cultural Amnesia is the loss of collective cultural memory, often due to the omission or erasure of certain histories. The video touches on this concept when discussing the lack of representation of black people in art history and the speaker's efforts to learn about these overlooked narratives.

💡Artistic Alteration

Artistic Alteration involves changing or modifying existing art to convey a new message or perspective. The speaker demonstrates this by altering a painting to bring attention to the underrepresented characters, illustrating a method of amending historical narratives in art.

💡Compositional Hierarchy

Compositional Hierarchy in art refers to the arrangement of elements within a work to create a visual order or emphasis. The speaker uses this concept to discuss how traditional paintings often prioritize certain figures over others, reflecting societal hierarchies and biases.

💡Linseed Oil

Linseed Oil is a type of oil used in painting that becomes transparent over time. The speaker uses it in his artistic alteration to symbolize the gradual emergence of overlooked histories, suggesting a non-erasure approach to addressing historical imbalances in art.

💡Constitutional Amendment

A Constitutional Amendment is a formal change to a constitution, such as the American Constitution. The speaker draws a parallel between amending the constitution and amending art, advocating for a similar approach to updating historical narratives without erasing the past.

💡Diversity

Diversity refers to the inclusion of a variety of different types of people or ideas. The speaker emphasizes the importance of creating art that reflects the diversity of our present society, suggesting that a more inclusive approach to art can help us better understand our history and future.

Highlights

The speaker's love for museums and the educational experiences they provide for his children.

A visit to the Natural History Museum in New York City sparks a discussion about historical representation.

The impactful sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt and its accompanying figures provokes a question from the speaker's son about fairness.

The speaker's personal journey into art history began with a romantic interest and led to a deeper understanding of visual intelligence.

The speaker's initial foray into art history was marked by a surprising success in an art history class.

The speaker's high school academic performance was significantly below average, making his B in art history a personal triumph.

The speaker's experience of being overlooked in art history classes led him to self-educate about the roles and representation of black people in art.

The speaker's realization that painting is a visual language with coded meanings and economic indicators.

The speaker's critique of art history's focus on material details over the lives and stories of the subjects in paintings.

The speaker's artistic process of altering a painting by Frans Hals to bring attention to the overlooked subject.

The use of linseed oil in the speaker's artwork to symbolize the potential for historical figures to re-emerge and be reconsidered.

The speaker's advocacy for amending rather than erasing historical art to reflect a more inclusive and accurate narrative.

The analogy of old-school cameras to explain the concept of shifting focus in order to see different perspectives in art.

The speaker's goal to create art that is honest about the past while celebrating the diversity and progress of the present.

The comparison of artistic amendments to constitutional amendments as a way to acknowledge history while moving forward.

Transcripts

I love museums.

Have you guys ever been to the Natural History Museum?

In New York City?

(Applause)

So one of the things that I do is I take my kids to the museum.

Recently I took them to the Natural History Museum.

I had my two sons with me, Sabian and Dabith.

And we go into the front entrance of the museum,

and there's that amazing sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt out there.

You guys know which one I'm talking about.

Teddy Roosevelt is sitting there with one hand on the horse,

bold, strong, sleeves rolled up.

I don't know if he's bare-chested, but it kind of feels like it.

(Laughter)

And on the left-hand side of him is a Native American walking.

And on the right-hand side of him is an African-American walking.

And as we're moving up the stairs,

getting closer to the sculpture,

my oldest son, who's nine, says,

"Dad, how come he gets to ride,

and they have to walk?"

It stopped me in my tracks.

It stopped me in my tracks.

There was so much history

that we would have to go through to try to explain that,

and that's something I try to do with them anyways.

It's a question that I probably would have never really asked.

But fundamentally what he was saying was,

"That doesn't look fair.

Dad, that doesn't look fair.

And why is this thing that's so not fair

sitting outside of such an amazing institution."

And his question got me wondering,

is there a way for us to amend our public sculptures,

our national monuments?

Not erase them,

but is there a way to amend them?

Now, I didn't grow up going to museums.

That's not my history.

My mother was 15 years old when I was born.

She is amazing.

My father was struggling with his own things

for most of my life.

If you really want to know the truth,

the only reason I got into art is because of a woman.

There was this amazing, amazing, fantastic, beautiful, smart woman,

four years older than me,

and I wanted to go out with her.

But she said, "You're too young

and you're not thinking about your future."

So I ran on down to the junior college,

registered for some classes,

ran on back,

and basically was like, "I'm thinking about my future now."

(Laughter)

"Can we go out?"

For the record, she's even more amazing.

I married her.

(Applause)

So when I randomly ran down to the junior college

and registered for classes,

I really wasn't paying attention to what I was registering to.

(Laughter)

So I ended up with an art history class,

and I didn't know a thing about art history.

But something amazing happened when I went into that class.

For the first time in my academic career,

my visual intelligence was required of me.

For the first time.

The professor would put up an image,

bold strokes of blues and yellows, and say, "Who's that?"

And I'd go, "That's Van Gogh. Clearly that is Van Gogh.

I got this."

(Laughter)

I got a B in that class.

For me, that was amazing.

In high school, let's just say I wasn't a great student. OK?

In high school, my GPA was .65.

(Laughter)

Decimal point first, six five.

So me getting a B was huge, huge,

absolutely huge.

And because of the fact that I realized that I was able to learn things visually

that I couldn't learn in other ways,

this became my strategy, this became my tactic

for understanding everything else.

I wanted to stay in this relationship. Things were going well.

I decided, let me keep taking these art history classes.

One of the last art history classes, I will not forget, I will never forget.

It was one of those survey art history classes.

Anybody ever have one of those survey art history classes,

where they try to teach you the entire history of art

in a single semester?

I'm talking about cave paintings and Jackson Pollock

just crunched together all in the same --

It doesn't really work, but they try anyway.

Well, at the beginning of the semester,

I looked at the book,

and in this 400-page book was about a 14-page section

that was on black people in painting.

Now, this was a crammed in section

that had representations of black people in painting

and black people who painted.

It was poorly curated, let's just put it that way.

(Laughter)

Nonetheless I was really excited about it,

because in all the other classes that I had,

we didn't even have that conversation.

We didn't talk about it at all.

So imagine my surprise

when I get to class

and on the day that we're supposed to go over that particular chapter,

my professor announces,

"We're going to skip this chapter today

because we do not have time to go through it."

"Whoa, I'm sorry, hold on, professor, professor.

I'm sorry. This is a really important chapter to me.

Are we going to go over it at any point?"

"Titus, we don't have time for this."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

please, I really need to understand.

Clearly the author thinks that this is significant.

Why are we skipping over this?"

"Titus, I do not have time for this."

"OK, last question, I'm really sorry here.

When can we talk, because we need to talk."

(Laughter)

I went to her office hours.

I ended up getting kicked out of her office.

I went to the dean.

The dean finally told me, "I can't force her to teach anything."

And I knew in that moment if I wanted to understand this history,

if I wanted to understand the roles of those folks who had to walk,

I was probably going to have to figure that out myself.

So ...

above you right here on the slide

is a painting by Frans Hals.

This is one of the kinds of images

that was in that chapter.

I taught myself how to paint

by going to museums and looking at images like this.

I want to show you something.

I made this.

I --

(Applause)

I made some alterations.

You'll see there are some slight differences in the painting.

All this art history that I had been absorbing

helped me to realize that painting is a language.

There is a reason

why he is the highest in the composition here.

There is a reason

why the painter is showing us this gold necklace here.

He's trying to tell us something about the economic status

of these people in these paintings.

Painting is a visual language

where everything in the painting

is meaningful, is important.

It's coded.

But sometimes, because of the compositional structure,

because of compositional hierarchy,

it's hard to see other things.

This silk is supposed to tell us also that they have quite a bit of money.

There's more written

about dogs in art history

than there are about this other character here.

Historically speaking, in research on these kinds of paintings,

I can find out more about the lace

that the woman is wearing in this painting --

the manufacturer of the lace -- than I can about this character here,

about his dreams, about his hopes,

about what he wanted out of life.

I want to show you something.

I don't want you to think

that this is about eradication.

It's not.

The oil that you saw me just put inside of this paint

is linseed oil.

It becomes transparent over time,

so eventually what's going to happen

is these faces

will emerge a little bit.

What I'm trying to do,

what I'm trying to show you,

is how to shift your gaze just slightly,

just momentarily,

just momentarily,

to ask yourself the question,

why do some have to walk?

What is the impact of these kinds of sculptures at museums?

What is the impact of these kinds of paintings

on some of our most vulnerable in society,

seeing these kinds of depictions of themselves all the time?

I'm not saying erase it.

We can't erase this history.

It's real. We have to know it.

I think of it in the same way

we think of --

Let me step back a second.

You remember old-school cameras,

where when you took a picture, you actually had to focus. Right?

You'd put the camera up,

and if I wanted you in focus,

I would move the lens a little to the left

and you would come forward.

I could move the lens a little to the right,

and you would go back and the folks in the background would come out.

I'm just trying to do that here.

I'm trying to give you that opportunity.

I'm trying to answer that question

that my son had.

I want to make paintings,

I want to make sculptures

that are honest,

that wrestle with the struggles of our past

but speak to the diversity and the advances of our present.

And we can't do that by taking an eraser and getting rid of stuff.

That's just not going to work.

I think that we should do it in the same way

the American Constitution works.

When we have a situation

where we want to change a law in the American Constitution,

we don't erase the other one.

Alongside that is an amendment,

something that says,

"This is where we were, but this is where we are right now."

I figure if we can do that,

then that will help us understand a little bit

about where we're going.

Thank you.

(Applause)