African American Art | Expanding the Landscape

Providing History Paintings an African American Voice

Reimaging Traditions

Expanding the Landscape

Who else can we include in history?

In addition to rethinking how history is told, African American artists have expanded who is pictured in traditional history paintings. They have inserted people of color into leading roles in historical images, portraits, and monuments. While many people of color remained overlooked by scholars throughout history, these artists have empathically developed a more compete look into our past.

Billy Lee: Portrait in Tar and Ona Judge: Portrait in Tar by Titus Kaphar

African Americans were often left out of historical images. These portraits present two enslaved people owned by the Washington family: Billy Lee and Ona Judge. Historians know many details about the high-class silk outfits they are clothed in, but the obstruction of their faces display how little is known about what they looked like.

George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook by Robert Colescott

How are people of color perceived by white individuals? This rendition of Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware paints a caricature of African Americans to both honor their achievements and display how racist stereotypes prevent further progress. In a boat filled with cooks, farmers, and manual laborers, the painting displays the limited representation of African Americans.

In More Depth

Kehinde Wiley

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