Dedicated to sharing visual representations of the African American experience, Willis authored the groundbreaking and highly praised book Reflections in Black, a collection of photographs of African American life from 1840 to the present, as well as The Black Female Body and VanDerZee: The Portraits of James VanDerZee. Look for “Posing Beauty” as it travels to a gallery, museum or cultural center near you.A graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art, Deborah Willis-a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2000 MacArthur Fellow-chairs the Photography Department at New York University. In celebration of women’s history month, here are ten images of Black feminine beauty currently on display at the University of Maryland’s Driskell Center. And “Posing Beauty in African American Culture” explores the contested ways in which African and African American beauty has been represented in historical and contemporary contexts through a diverse range of media including photography, video, fashion, advertising, and other forms of popular culture. Throughout the Western history of art and image-making, the relationship between beauty and art has become increasingly complex. Mirroring the evolution of these notions, the images on view also change as the exhibit moves from location to location. The exhibition, originally curated by Deborah Willis, professor, academic director and department chairperson at New York University’s Department of Photography & Imaging, challenges contemporary understandings of beauty by framing notions of aesthetics, race, class and gender within art, popular culture and politics.
Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park until April 27th. This is among the underlying principles of the traveling exhibit, “Posing Beauty in African American Culture,” which has been on the road since 2010. Just as some ideas and images never grow old, there are also concepts and tastes whose social meanings evolve with time.
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