Stories The Black Woman Body Paradox Natalie Willis · 10 April 2019 There are certain things that should unsettle us,
Stories The Black Woman Body Paradox Natalie Willis · 10 April 2019 There are certain things that should unsettle us,
By Natalie Willis One of the key poses for women in classical painting is the reclining nude. It’s become such a huge part of the canon of European historical paintings, no doubt in part to the patriarchal obsession with the naked female form. Nonetheless, it’s been rich territory for many an earth-shattering painting in art history: Titian’s “Venus of Urbino” (1532-34), Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ “Grande Odalisque” (1814), and Manet’s infamous “Olympia” (1865), all of which changed the art world’s reading of the pose each time. It should come to us as no surprise then that Amos Ferguson, our beloved (and often misunderstood) intuitive painter from Exuma, might want to make his own mark in such territory, though perhaps more conservatively given his very religious background.
The recent honour given to National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) staff in recognition of efforts and achievements, provide a moment of deeper thought on what this success means on a larger scale. Division is, in many ways, the trend for 2016 – the year that has B.I.G. level notoriety for just about everything going wrong.