Touched by the Mother
Black Men, American Art, Feminist Horizons
9780226581392
9780226581255
9780226581422
Touched by the Mother
Black Men, American Art, Feminist Horizons
Writings on black men’s cultural production and black masculinity by one of today’s leading historians of modern and contemporary art.
Collecting twenty years of incisive essays, articles, and interviews—including four published here for the first time—by art historian Huey Copeland, this book affirms the extraordinary depth of black men’s cultural production and the diversity of artistic practices that explore visual black masculinity in the United States. Part history, part memoir, part critical manifesto, Touched by the Mother offers a multi-faceted look at American art and discourse of the past fifty years, a personal meditation on navigating the world as a black gay man, and a feminist perspective on the ways transatlantic slavery continues to mark African and African diasporic men. Focusing on how the black maternal shapes black masculinity, Copeland confronts the dynamics that position African-American men—after their mothers—as sites of violence, creativity, and contestation in the cultural imagination.
Richly illustrated throughout, Touched by the Mother considers an exciting range of assemblage, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video works by more than twenty renowned practitioners, along with interviews featuring Hilton Als, Thelma Golden, Frank B. Wilderson, III, and other influential figures in contemporary art, culture, and criticism. Works by artists including Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Howardena Pindell, Sun Ra, and Lorna Simpson represent modes of making and thinking that are uniquely “touched by the mother,” Copeland argues, moving us toward the promise of black feminist futures.
Collecting twenty years of incisive essays, articles, and interviews—including four published here for the first time—by art historian Huey Copeland, this book affirms the extraordinary depth of black men’s cultural production and the diversity of artistic practices that explore visual black masculinity in the United States. Part history, part memoir, part critical manifesto, Touched by the Mother offers a multi-faceted look at American art and discourse of the past fifty years, a personal meditation on navigating the world as a black gay man, and a feminist perspective on the ways transatlantic slavery continues to mark African and African diasporic men. Focusing on how the black maternal shapes black masculinity, Copeland confronts the dynamics that position African-American men—after their mothers—as sites of violence, creativity, and contestation in the cultural imagination.
Richly illustrated throughout, Touched by the Mother considers an exciting range of assemblage, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, and video works by more than twenty renowned practitioners, along with interviews featuring Hilton Als, Thelma Golden, Frank B. Wilderson, III, and other influential figures in contemporary art, culture, and criticism. Works by artists including Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Howardena Pindell, Sun Ra, and Lorna Simpson represent modes of making and thinking that are uniquely “touched by the mother,” Copeland argues, moving us toward the promise of black feminist futures.
432 pages | 149 color plates, 30 halftones | 7.5 x 10
Art: American Art, Art Criticism
Culture Studies:
Table of Contents
Introduction: Incidents in the Life of a Correcting Mirror
Part I: Black Male Trouble
1. Raw Life (with Jared Sexton) (2003)
2. Untitled (Jackpot!) (2005)
3. A Family Resemblance (2007)
4. Outtakes (2008)
5. The Blackness of Blackness (2008)
Part II: The Signifier’s Work
6. Figures and Grounds: The Art of Barkley L. Hendricks (2009)
7. A Range of Convergences (2011)
8. Northern Soul (2011)
9. Babel Screened: On Race, Narcissism, and the Predication of American Video Art (2011/2013)
10. Mal d’Anthologie: Clifford Owens and the Crises of African American Performance Art (2012)
11. Dark Mirrors: Theaster Gates and Ebony (2013)
12. Photography, the Archive, and the Question of Feminist Form: A Conversation with Zoe Leonard (2013)
Part III: Refracting Memory
13. Unfinished Business as Usual: African American Artists, New York Museums, and the 1990s (2014)
14. “Looking Back at Black Male”: In Conversation with Thelma Golden and Hilton Als (2014; unpublished)
15. Making Black Feminist Art Histories (2017)
16. Painting After All: A Conversation with Mark Bradford (2014)
17. Noah Purifoy: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2015)
18. Solar Ethics (2018; unpublished)
19. Red, Black, and Blue: The National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, with Frank B. Wilderson III (2017)
Part IV: Art History After Intersectionality
20. In the Wake of the Negress (2009/2010)
21. Flow and Arrest (2015)
22. Alreadymade: Black Visual Thought, Duchamp’s Fountain, and the Ends of White Art History, Circa 2020 (2021; unpublished)
23. Necessary Abstractions, Or, How to Look at Art like a Black Feminist (2019/2023)
24. “I AM a Man” and the Writing of Afrotropic Art Histories (2025; unpublished)
25. Taking Care: Huey Copeland and Allison Glenn on “Promise, Witness, Remembrance,” Introduction by Huey Copeland (2021)
Acknowledgments
Index
Part I: Black Male Trouble
1. Raw Life (with Jared Sexton) (2003)
2. Untitled (Jackpot!) (2005)
3. A Family Resemblance (2007)
4. Outtakes (2008)
5. The Blackness of Blackness (2008)
Part II: The Signifier’s Work
6. Figures and Grounds: The Art of Barkley L. Hendricks (2009)
7. A Range of Convergences (2011)
8. Northern Soul (2011)
9. Babel Screened: On Race, Narcissism, and the Predication of American Video Art (2011/2013)
10. Mal d’Anthologie: Clifford Owens and the Crises of African American Performance Art (2012)
11. Dark Mirrors: Theaster Gates and Ebony (2013)
12. Photography, the Archive, and the Question of Feminist Form: A Conversation with Zoe Leonard (2013)
Part III: Refracting Memory
13. Unfinished Business as Usual: African American Artists, New York Museums, and the 1990s (2014)
14. “Looking Back at Black Male”: In Conversation with Thelma Golden and Hilton Als (2014; unpublished)
15. Making Black Feminist Art Histories (2017)
16. Painting After All: A Conversation with Mark Bradford (2014)
17. Noah Purifoy: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2015)
18. Solar Ethics (2018; unpublished)
19. Red, Black, and Blue: The National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, with Frank B. Wilderson III (2017)
Part IV: Art History After Intersectionality
20. In the Wake of the Negress (2009/2010)
21. Flow and Arrest (2015)
22. Alreadymade: Black Visual Thought, Duchamp’s Fountain, and the Ends of White Art History, Circa 2020 (2021; unpublished)
23. Necessary Abstractions, Or, How to Look at Art like a Black Feminist (2019/2023)
24. “I AM a Man” and the Writing of Afrotropic Art Histories (2025; unpublished)
25. Taking Care: Huey Copeland and Allison Glenn on “Promise, Witness, Remembrance,” Introduction by Huey Copeland (2021)
Acknowledgments
Index