Exhibition at Tisch explores race, beauty, and art

Few people would deny that the representation of African and African American women in art has a controversial history.   Jean-Paul Goude is a photographer whose book, Jungle Fever, featured on its cover a nude Grace Jones posing in a cage.  That image was published in 1982, however Goude recently photographed model Amber Rose for a layout in Complex magazine that includes a re-enactment of the shot.  Whether the images are demeaning or not is a question that lack a definitive answer.  After all, each of the women agreed to be involved and the new photo shoot is published in a reputable magazine.  Is it respectable art that pushes social boundaries, or is it merely fetishizing black women by portraying them as animals?

Amber Rose, shot by Jean-Paul Goude

Posing Beauty, an exhibition sponsored by the Tisch School of the Arts Department of Photography and Imaging, explores this and other questions of race, beauty, art and the complex relationships among them.  The exhibition explores the portrayals of African and African American beauty in art and media.  Seen through both a historical and modern perspective, it allows one to examine the relationship between attitudes toward women of color and how they are portrayed in art.  In an age where one is bombarded by images, it is exceedingly important to examine how far society has yet to go in both its treatment and depiction of black women. 

Ifetayo Adbus-Salam; Self Portrait as Pam Grier