WASHINGTON — Works by leading Black artists in the contemporary art realm go on view Saturday at Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art to tackle issues of racial, sexual and historical identity.
The exhibit, “30 Americans,” will be on view through February. It features 31 artists, including Jean-Michel Basquait, Hank Willis Thomas, Kehinde Wiley and others. The 76 works come from Miami-based collectors Don and Mera Rubell.
Corcoran Director Fred Bollerer said it marks an effort to undertake more daring exhibitions that examine serious issues and provoke debate. The Corcoran created two companion exhibits featuring 12 new, provocative works by Thomas called
“Strange Fruit” that includes images harkening back to slavery and 25 photographs by Gordon Parks.
“It’s a challenging show,” Bollerer said. “It’s meant to be a challenging show.”
The images from Thomas are particularly striking. They include photographs of athletes playing basketball through a noose, instead of a hoop, and familiar logos like the Nike “swoosh” branded on the side of a Black man’s head.
The Nike image comes from Thomas’ extensive “Branded” series of works. Thomas, who is based in New York and Paris, said he wanted to explore the word “branding” as it relates to advertising and focused in part on Nike because its logo is so often promoted by Black men, such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
