In the last few days the global news mainly focused on immigration issues: first Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini, from the right-wing League party, closed ports to migrant rescue ships, causing a major odyssey for the Aquarius ship that was left stranded at sea until Spain offered to take it; then followed the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy that has led in the last few months to the separation of thousands of children from their families. As if that wasn't enough, Salvini also added today more fuel to the migration issues announcing that he wants to conduct a census of Roma in Italy (which would obviously be unconstitutional...).
It may be utopian and naive saying that beauty and art can save us from the dishuman mess that narrow-minded political leaders can cause, yet the powerful works of artists who tried to tackle in their pieces themes that are very relevant to our times, can be safe havens from hate and aggression.
"Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963–2017", an exhibition currently on at Baltimore Museum of Art (until 29th July; and moving in September to the Met Breuer) allows for example visitors to stop and ponder a bit more about our cultures and traditions, about barriers and boundaries.
American artist Jack Whitten is known for his mixed media paintings, but this event features beautiful sculptures with an unexpeted power.
Born in Bessemer, Alabama, in 1939 (he passed away in January this year), Whitten studied at Alabama's Tuskegee University as well as Southern University, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the late 1950s.
After moving to New York, he enrolled in The Cooper Union, graduating in 1964. He began studying African art via the collections of The Met and the Brooklyn Museum and started carving wood in the early '60s.
Whitten created his artworks in New York and at his home on Crete where he moved in the '80s: the artist maybe felt that America wasn't ready to explore his connection with African art, but once he moved to the Greek island he found the freedom he needed to create unique pieces.
The cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, especially Minoan and Cycladic cultures, enriched indeed his personal creative vocabulary and he came up with sculptures made of carved and at times charred pieces of wood recombined with masses of found local materials - from bones to nails, from pieces of electrical appliances to glass, fish teeth and spark plugs.
These are not mere assemblages, though, but they also have a ritual function as they represent indeed totems, guardians, reliquaries or swords.
The pieces are inspired by Africa, the ancient Mediterranean, and the Southern United States, and they address themes that are very relevant ot our times, including memory, family, and migration, prompting people to acquire a transnational, cosmopolitan perspective.
The artworks turn therefore into assembled talismans and memorials, while representing altars to ancestors, family and personal heroes, à la Malcolm X.
These powerful objects also attempt to reunite together the American, African and European cultures in future struggles: the eco-friendly assemblages could indeed be intrepreted as fossils discovered by a future civilisation and recounting of our present struggles against pollution and waste (check out "Technological Totem Pole", integrating cellular telephones, chip cards, remote controls and a clock that maybe symbolises time travel).
Whitten's artworks are intriguing not just for the material composing them or for the shapes that some of these pieces create, but also for their meaning: "Afro-American Thunderbolt" (1983–84) is a combination of the weapon of Greek god Zeus and of African cultures; "The Death of Fishing" (2007) with its canoe-like form makes a comment on the end of the fishing industry in the village of Agia Galini; "Pregnant Owl" (1983–84) looks as austere as a grandfather's clock, but the bones integrated in its wood point at African and Christian reliquaries.
The exhibition also includes "Black Monolith" (1988–2017), a series of paitings composed of acrylic tesserae that Whitten painstakingly assembled by hand, honouring African American figures from music, art, literature, and politics, among them W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Jacob Lawrence, Maya Angelou and Chuck Berry. There are also sections of the exhibition dedicated to works and objects that inspired Whitten from Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cyprus and Crete.
In one of his log books Whitten wrote: "I would love to be able to dissolve all time zones and travel purely by light." In a way he did so, but also managed to dissolve barriers and boundaries between different cultures opting for a cosmopolitan humanism that has been missing from the global discourse for quite a while now. Maybe we should all make an effort and book tickets to "Odyssey" for the likes of Donald Trump and Matteo Salvini, culture won't indeed hurt them and may even manage to destroy their semantics of hate and aggression.
Image credits for this post
1. Jack Whitten. The Tomb of Socrates, 2009. Wild cypress, black mulberry, marble, brass, mixed media. Collection of the artist's Estate © The Estate of Jack Whitten. Courtesy The Estate of Jack Whitten and Hauser & Wirth.
2. Jack Whitten, Homage to the Kri-Kri, 1985. Collection of the artist's Estate © The Estate of Jack Whitten. Courtesy The Estate of Jack Whitten and Hauser & Wirth. Photography by Genevieve Hanson, NYC.
3 and 4 Jack Whitten, Lucy, 2011. Black mulberry, mixed media, Phaistos stone, mahogany, metal I-beam. Collection of the artist's Estate © The Estate of Jack Whitten. Courtesy The Estate of Jack Whitten and Hauser & Wirth. Photography by Genevieve Hanson, NYC.
5. Jack Whitten, Anthropos #1, 1972. Black and white mulberry, wild olive wood, linen twine, wire. Collection of the artist's Estate © The Estate of Jack Whitten. Courtesy The Estate of Jack Whitten and Hauser & Wirth. Photography by Genevieve Hanson, NYC.
6. Jack Whitten, Pregnant Owl, 1983-1984. Courtesy of Mirsini Amidon and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
7. Jack Whitten, Technological Totem Pole, 2013. Collection of the artist's Estate © The Estate of Jack Whitten. Courtesy The Estate of Jack Whitten and Hauser & Wirth. Photography by Genevieve Hanson, NYC.
8. Jack Whitten. The Afro-American Thunderbolt, 1983-84. Collection of the artist's Estate © The Estate of Jack Whitten. Courtesy The Estate of Jack Whitten and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Genevieve Hanson, NYC.
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