Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710–1940

Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710–1940 was the first public exhibition by a major museum to showcase depictions of African Americans in American art.^[1] Facing History took place in 1990 and was held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from January 13 through March 25, and then went to the Brooklyn Museum from April 20 through June 25. The curator of the exhibition, Guy McElroy, died during the Brooklyn portion on May 31.^[2]

History

Facing History examined ways in which American artists "...reinforced a number of largely restrictive stereotypes of black identity."^[3] The exhibition featured eighty works in three media: drawings, paintings, and sculptures ^[4]

Curator Guy McElroy viewed the exhibition as depicting the attitude of society toward African Americans through the works themselves and the response they received in the art market. They made overt political statements, as well as having addressed contemporary issues. Stereotypes, slavery, and violence dominated the images. However, as McElroy stated in the exhibition catalog:

Depictions of black people can no longer rely on gross distortions of physiognomy or character to achieve racially motivated humor, but the symbolic power of visual images remains insidious. Jim Crow, Uncle Tom, Mammy, the Comic Darkey and Zip Coon no longer dominate images of African-Americans in painting and sculpture, but their ghosts live on in a host of popular mediums, most notably in the violence of action serials and the stereotyped behavior of television sitcoms.
— Guy McElroy, "Introduction: Race and Representation", Facing History, 1990