{"id":1505,"date":"2015-06-15T16:04:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T16:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2017-11-16T00:56:40","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T00:56:40","slug":"who-is-criticizing-whom-a-response-to-blake-gopnik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=1505","title":{"rendered":"Who is Criticizing Whom: A Response to Blake Gopnik"},"content":{"rendered":"
White Male Art Critic Blake Gopnik<\/span> criticizes<\/span><\/strong> Alma Thomas’s<\/strong>\u00a0painting<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Oriental Sunset.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

According\u00a0<\/span>to Gopnik the painting, Oriental Sunset<\/em> was “casually made\u2014 just a bunch of haphazard red brush-strokes sitting on a yellow ground”<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is Blake Gopnik?<\/strong><\/span> critic-at-large\u00a0for ArtNews<\/em>, he spent a decade as Art Critic for the Washington Post and works for assorted publications critically reviewing ART. Despite his vast experience in art reviewing …\u00a0<\/span>Blake Gopnik<\/strong> can not effectively review ART outside of the white contemporary world because he lacks<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>tabula rasa<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

ta\u00b7bu\u00b7la ra\u00b7sa\u00a0<\/span>\u02c8t\u00e4byo\u035dol\u0259 \u02c8r\u00e4s\u0259,\u02c8r\u00e4z\u0259\/<\/span>noun<\/i><\/span><\/strong>
\n1. \u00a0an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate.\u00a0<\/span>the human mind, especially at birth, viewed as having no innate ideas<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Tabula rasa<\/strong><\/span> is greatly diminished in every human being by the time they reach maturity. \u00a0<\/span>Your clean slate will be almost exhausted of free space if you lived in a closed society and were educated in a system that is unchallenged and promises rich rewards for completing courses from prescribed schools of thought\u00a0<\/span><\/span>(resulting in the issuance of MFAs, BFAs and PHDs)<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span>After you have finished your schooling, there is just no room left in your brain for experiencing anything outside of what you\u00a0perceive\u00a0to be the absolute truth about the world. \u00a0In addition, you will face economic loss and lose respect in your tight knit community if you try to venture beyond your training.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
What was Blake Gopnik’s, a 53 year old white male of privilege, reaction to the work of an 82 year old black woman who studied at the same school of thought as his ART heroes.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0ORIENTAL SUNRISE<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0by ALMA THOMAS<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0Apr 8, 2015<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n
\n

THE DAILY PIC:<\/b>\u00a0 Alma Thomas, an African American artist from Washington, painted \u201cOriental Sunset\u201d in 1973. It\u2019s now in\u00a0her solo show at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery<\/a>\u00a0in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

For all its eye-appeal, what especially interests me is how casually the picture seems to be made \u2013 just a bunch of haphazard\u00a0red brushstrokes sitting on a yellow ground. That distinguishes it from any number of precedents: from the extreme care and discipline of tidy formalists such as Barnett Newman and Kenneth Noland; from the expressionist gestures of Pollock and his crew, for whom every pictorial gesture was (over-)ripe with meaning; and even from the completely arbitrary gestures of conceptual painting, where there doesn\u2019t seem to be any volition, of any kind, behind what happens on the canvas.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Thomas seems to occupy a lovely middle-ground of just-good-enough painting\u2013the painterly equivalent of a floor well-enough swept, a letter well-enough written, a soup well-enough cooked. That is, it\u2019s painting that reflects the lives of all the millions of people (including many women) who haven\u2019t had the luxury to perseverate over perfection. It echoes\u2013and provides\u2013the special middle-ground pleasures of domestic life.<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Gopnik<\/span><\/strong>, without considering how he is thinking, does what comes natural to his thinking – he compares Alma Thomas to\u00a0Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland and Jackson Pollack \u2014\u00a0people whose work he greatly respects. \u00a0Then he negates the experience of Alma Thomas by using words to\u00a0describe\u00a0the context in which he sees the artist \u2014\u00a0not the work. \u00a0Gopnik says, “a floor well swept, a soup well-enough cooked”, “painting that reflects the lives of all the millions (including women) of those who haven’t had the\u00a0luxury to\u00a0perseverate over perfection”.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
WOW!<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>– it’s not an objective review but an implied insult. He says de facto,
\nI don’t have to look at your work\u00a0objectively,\u00a0you are not suppose to be in my world so go back to your domestic life and take those women and all the masses with you – enough of this.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Gopnik<\/strong> justifies his implications by deriding the artist brush strokes he says, “what especially interests me is\u00a0how casually the picture seems to be made<\/strong> \u2013 just a bunch of haphazard<\/strong>\u00a0red brushstrokes sitting on a yellow ground. \u00a0below is a photograph of the sun – Alma Thomas’s composition is called, Oriental Sunset.<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
Look into the photo of the SUN – squint your eyes and stare for a minute. You will see the two colors\u00a0<\/span>with\u00a0<\/span>which<\/span> Alma Thomas recreated\u00a0<\/span>the individual shapes of each speck\u00a0<\/span>with a<\/span>\u00a0deliberateness of intent –<\/span>\u00a0nothing haphazard\u00a0here.\u00a0<\/span>The casualness<\/span>\u00a0of execution that\u00a0<\/span>Gopnik sensed and tried to dismiss as a negative, is the\u00a0ease\u00a0of Alma’s mind\/eye\/hand\u00a0<\/span>control, she makes it look easy<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Gopnik\u00a0<\/strong>goes on to compare Alma Thomas, a black woman born in 1891, to White male painters, Barnett\u00a0Newman, Kenneth Noland and Jackson Pollack. Lets look at their art and the attributes Gopnik attaches to them.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Gopnik<\/strong><\/span> asserts ALMA’S work does not distinguish itself from any of the above precedents. OK, let’s look at some of Alma’s work and what history has said about her legacy …<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ALMA THOMAS,<\/strong> a woman for all ages – growing and changing with time, a master of her ART.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Snoopy Sees a Daybreak on Earth<\/em>, 1970<\/span><\/strong>
\nacrylic on canvas\u00a040″ x 35″<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thomas\u2019s systematic investigation of color and stunning modern canvases began to attract national attention beginning in the late 1960s.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In 1972, the Whitney Museum of American Art mounted a solo exhibition of her work, making Thomas the first African American to receive a one-woman show at the institution and earning four separate critical reviews from the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Title: Unknown 1<\/em>, 1977<\/b><\/p>\n

watercolor and pencil on paper
\n31 x 40 inches<\/p>\n

Acclaim for her work and person rose steadily through that decade, until her death in 1978.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Whitney and Corcoran shows, Thomas\u2019s work was exhibited nationally and internationally during her lifetime, including the35th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

atmospheric-effects-i<\/em>-1970<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the Whitney and Corcoran shows, Thomas\u2019s work was exhibited nationally and internationally during her lifetime, including the<\/span>35th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting<\/em>\u00a0and at the White House.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

red-abstraction<\/em>-alma-thomas-1960<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alma Thomas is represented in the holdings of such major museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Howard University Gallery of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, and\u00a0Museum of Art (Georgia).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>ALMA THOMAS …<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0Alma Thomas<\/span><\/strong> worked for more than twenty-five years in a relatively representational mode, incorporating elements from the styles of C\u00e9zanne and Matisse. She altered her approach late in her career to one that showed her assimilation of abstract expressionism and the focus on color that dominated the work of the Washington Color School painters.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thomas incorporated aspects of their styles\u2014strong design, large-scale format, and pure colors\u2014into her abstractions. However, she favored a more gestural style, drawing pencil lines, which are usually visible in the finished work, and retaining active brushstrokes.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
SO in the end the ‘push back’ …<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Blake Gopniik<\/strong> is not the enemy, he is a person who is caught up in changing times. Despite his qualifications he does not have the education or experience to review ART by those outside his peer group. \u00a0I do know, that Institutions do not want push back as they try to even the playing field. \u00a0So I suspect that there will be openings for a few OTHERS to review\u00a0<\/span>Black Art In America.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
UPDATE\u00a0JUNE 17<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
BLAKE GOPNIK responded to BAIA’s twitter and addressed what he really meant in his review. \u00a0In all fairness to our readers and to Mr. Gopnick, please read his response for yourself. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

OK for the moment,\u00a0this<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>is going to be laid to rest. We thank our members for their comments. \u00a0Your responses brought to the table some very insightful points of view that need to be further explored and discussed. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 RM Crews, NRM \/ Do You Basel? for Black Art in America.\u00a0\u00a0(BAIA Archives: originally posted June 15\/2015)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Share this:<\/h3>