Artillery Reviews Mark Steven Greenfield: Black Madonna
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ARTILLERY MAGAZINE Reviews MarK Steven Greenfield’s exhibition Black Madonna
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Fowler Museum at UCLA - A Global Destination for Art: Mark Steven Greenfield
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Join us on Zoom as we visit with artists creating in our City of Angels
About this Event
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Mark Steven Greenfield, a native of LA, uses his art to explore the African-American experience, critiquing and offering unique perspectives on a society still grappling with the consequences of slavery and racial injustice. His newest body of work consists of 17 “Black Madonna” paintings that re-imagine Medieval religious icons rendered in the Byzantine style of their art historical predecessors. Greenfield places Black bodies in a place of exaltation, offering an imagined time that is hard to pinpoint, but during which white supremacy suffers the same vicious deaths that have historically been forced upon Black bodies.
Join Mark and Naima J. Keith for an exhibition walk-through at William Turner Gallery, followed by a conversation and Q&A
Mark Steven Greenfield studied with Charles White at Otis Art Institute; received his Bachelor’s degree in Art Education in 1973 from California State University, Long Beach; and an M.F.A. in painting and drawing from California State University, Los Angeles in 1987. Greenfield’s work has been exhibited extensively in the United States, including in a comprehensive survey exhibition at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles in 2014. From 1993-2011, Greenfield worked for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs as Director of the Watts Towers Arts Center; later, he served as Director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Park. He currently teaches drawing and design at Los Angeles City College, and serves on the board of Side Street Projects.
Naima J. Keith is Vice President of Education and Public Programs at LACMA. Previously, she was the Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the California African American Museum, where she guided the curatorial and education departments as well as marketing and communications; she was an Associate Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2011–16); and held a curatorial position at the Hammer Museum. Keith has lectured extensively and her essays have appeared in numerous publications. She holds degrees from Spelman College and UCLA, and is a proud native of Los Angeles.
This program is generously supported by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
A Global Destination for Art: Artists from all over the world flock to work in Los Angeles, drawn by the energy of ingenuity and the space for experimental expression. Join us on Zoom as we visit with artists creating in our City of Angels.
INCONVERSATION - Mark Steven Greenfield: BLACK MADONNA
/William Turner speaks with Mark Steven Greenfield about his groundbreaking exhibit, Black Madonna
OPENING NEXT SATURDAY - BLACK MADONNA - MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD
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Collateral, 2020, Gold Leaf and Acrylic on Wood Panel, 30" X 56”
"For the faithful, the Black Madonnas represent the basis of theological mystery from which all possibility emanates. For the clergy, they provide cover for some unexplained religious dogma. For me, they held all the intrigue of confronting a blank canvas.” — Mark Steven Greenfield
BLACK MADONNA
MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD
OPENING NEXT SATURDAY
We will be open from 11-7 next Saturday for an all day opening reception in full compliance with CDC-recommendations and social distancing protocol.
We look forward to welcoming you to view the exhibition virtually and by appointment from September 19 - November 28, abiding by all of the CDC-recommended precautions.
BOOK AN APPOINTMENT
William Turner Gallery is pleased to present, Black Madonna, an exhibition of new and recent work by Mark Steven Greenfield. The exhibition explores aspects of the African American experience in American culture, often critiquing and offering unique perspectives on a society still grappling with the consequences of slavery and racial injustice. As Greenfield has stated, “My work incorporates irony, humor, tragedy, pathos, history, and a myriad of other tools, to challenge long-held notions of race in a different way."
The exhibition highlights a striking new series of 17 Black Madonna paintings, which re-imagine these unique religious icons, that began appearing in the 13th and 14th centuries in churches throughout Medieval Europe. The origin and purpose of the Black Madonnas in religious iconography are somewhat of a mystery and the subject of much scholarly debate, which inspired Greenfield to infuse them with his own contemporary meaning and perspective.
Mississippi Cookout, 2018, Gold Leaf & Acrylic on Wood Panel, 24”x18”
Greenfield's versions are rendered in the Byzantine style of their art historical predecessors, with the black Virgin Mother and Baby Jesus as the central focus within circular compositions, or tondos. These tondos float amongst abstract discs, set within fields of lustrous, gold leaf. The Madonnas predominate before a variety of backgrounds, which were traditionally innocuous. Greenfield, however, presents these backdrops as various revenge fantasies, where white supremacists are cast in the role of victims, suffering the fates they often inflicted.
The effect is striking, the meaning unexpected. For Greenfield, a dedicated meditator, the discs symbolize the mantras one repeats during meditation, and often appear in his work. The Black Madonnas, seated innocently before the violence playing out behind, are the thoughts which come unbidden during meditation between mantras - to be acknowledged, then released. The Madonnas play their traditional role, conveying notions of maternal love, seemingly oblivious to these various scenes of retribution, where the rope is decidedly on the other neck. Yet these role reversals are less about revenge fantasies and more about creating contexts for shifts in perspective - for empathy. Tinged with humor, titles like, Mississippi Cookout, and Burnin’ Down the House, invite us to imagine an alternate reality, so that we might better understand the brutal realities of the past as we navigate our way forward. As Greenfield states, “Fear of the “other” often devolves into mindless hatred. Yet, sometimes the path to empathy lies in the visualization of one’s physical victimization—particularly when paired with a symbol that has come to be associated with universal love.” He adds, “The revenge fantasy exists in the darker regions of the subconscious in response to centuries of injustice. It is subdued by the higher aspiration that leads toward a more saintly life. As during the Renaissance, when Black Madonnas first gained prominence, they serve as metaphors for a spectrum of new beginnings.”
Throughout his career, Greenfield's work has dealt with elucidating the African American experience - examining stereotypes and other acts of oppression, often by illuminating the most oppressive of acts - those of omission. Pieces like Escrava Anastacia , and Zong , are among a number of new works in the exhibition that present us with powerful images of figures and events neglected by history. Greenfield's images of a muzzled Anastacia, a legendary South American slave, known for her exceptional beauty and miraculous powers of healing, and the ill-fated souls cast to oblivion from the slave ship Zong, compel us to learn their stories.
This exhibition was a year and a half in the planning, yet feels uncannily destined for this moment. It opens at a time of unprecedented upheaval, where a global pandemic and outrage over continuing racial inequality, have challenged our institutions, and our perceptions of them, to the core. With Black Madonna , Mark Steven Greenfield brings an important and timely perspective to the discussion.
We look forward to welcoming you to view the exhibition virtually and by appointment, abiding by all of the CDC-recommended precautions.
