Addison Gallery of American Art M U S E U M L E A R N I N G C E N T E R Portfolio Guide: Race and Otherness 1

What can we learn from images about the power of dominant culture on societal values?

How does the production and presentation of portraits participate in the shaping of racial, class, sexual, and gender identity?

In 1849, Frederick Douglas argued that until African Americans began to represent themselves, they would not find artists to portray them with the sensitivity that the serious representation of individuals required.1 In order to broaden an exploration of these relationships across race, class, sexual orientation, and gender, this Portfolio Guide of illustrations, paintings, and photographs features a sampling of works from the Addison’s collection offering varied perspectives and discussion points on visual culture. Educators are encouraged to use this Guide and the expanded Portfolio Image List as a starting point, a place from which to dig deeper, ask questions, and make new connections for class plans and projects.

For online use, click the images in this guide to access digital images in the Addison’s online database.

S E L E C T E D T H E M A T I C A P P R O A C H E SDocumenting History — How do societal values impact the ways in which history is documented?Contemporary Perspectives — How and why do the interpretations of historical images change over time? Portraiture and Hierarchy — How can images speak to hierarchies across racial and socioeconomic groups?Photography and Othering — How does portraiture relate to the marginalization of individuals or groups?Countering Type and Stereotype — How can images call attention to and counteract beliefs about race, class, sexuality, and gender?Identity Construction — How can individual voices and perspectives be heard through portraiture?

Race and Otherness

This Portfolio Guide contains selected artworks and ideas to connect the Addison’s collection with classroom themes, disciplines, and curricula.

Digital images of works from this Guide can be downloaded from the Addison’s website for use in classrooms. Visits to explore works in the Addison’s Museum Learning Center can be arranged as a complement to the viewing of current exhibitions.

www.addisongallery.org 1. DuBois Shaw, Gwendolyn. Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century. (Andover, MA: Addison Gallery of American Art, 2006), 13

Addison Gallery of American Art M U S E U M L E A R N I N G C E N T E R Portfolio Guide: Race and Otherness 2

Documenting HistoryHow do society’s values and beliefs about race and equality impact the ways in which history is documented?

How can images disrupt society’s perceived notions about race relations?

Winslow Homer’s Civil War-era print, Our Jolly Cook, utilizes period stereotypes, emblematic of the beliefs of the audience to whom he hoped to market this portfolio of prints. Using photography as his medium, Charles Paxson depicts three emancipated slave children shrouded by the American flag in his Civil War-era carte-de-visite, selected possibly for their fair-skin in order to better elicit sympathy from a white audience. Composing his images to satiate the curiosity of his majority audience in the 1870s, field photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey William Henry Jackson documented both the land and peoples of the American west, focusing on Native Americans as ethnographic subjects.

In his photographic series The Americans, Robert Frank revealed a nation not living the assumed American dream of the 1950s. Similarly, Stanley Forman’s documentation of a riot exploding during a protest against desegregation by busing in Boston in 1976 confronted the public with the contrast between perceived notions and realities about race relations in the North.

A Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Campaign Sketches. Our Jolly Cook., 1863, lithograph on wove paper, 11 in. x 8 15/16 in., museum purchase, 1936.50

B Charles Paxson (unknown-1880), Rosa, Charley, Rebecca. Slave Children from New Orleans, 1864, albumen print, 4 in. x 2 7/16 in., museum purchase, 2006.29

C Robert Frank(b.1924), Charleson, South Carolina, from series The Americans, neg. 1955-56, print c. 1981, gelatin silver print, 9 15/16 in. x 14 13/16 in., museum purchase, 1989.77.13

D William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), Ascension Rios - (Papago), c. 1877, albumen print, 7 1/4 in. x 5 1/4 in., museum purchase, 1977.114

E William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), True Eagle (Missouri), c. 1877, albumen print, 14 in. x 11 in., museum purchase, 1977.141

F Stanley Forman (b. 1945), Soiling of Old Glory, Boston City Hall, 1976, gelatin silver print, 7 1/2 in. x 9 1/2 in., museum purchase, 1987.347

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Contemporary PerspectivesHow and why do the interpretations of historical images change over time?

How does revisiting historical narratives impact contemporary perceptions and understandings?

In his 1993 series Runaways, Glenn Ligon appropriates the style and format of 19th century broadsheets that advertised for the return of escaped slaves and inserts himself into the descriptions and into history to explore a connection between past and present. Just as contemporary viewing of Charles Paxson’s carte-de-visite (on facing page) asks viewers to question the implications of being selected, qualified, and defined by another, Ligon’s series of ten prints invites exploration of ownership and identity.

Nearly 150 years after the Civil War, Kara Walker’s portfolio of fifteen prints entitled Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) confront and disrupt existing perceptions of race as Walker’s stylized silhouetted figures move through reproductions of illustrations that appeared in Harper’s Weekly during the war. Similarly, Walker’s 2009 film takes its title and narrative from documents in the archive of the Freedman’s Bureau and uses her trademark silhouettes as shadow puppets, exploring contemporary perspectives on historical oppression and the powerlessness of the oppressed.

G-H Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Runaways, 1993, series of 10 lithographs, 16 in. x 22 in., museum purchase, 2011.34.1-10

I Kara Walker (b. 1969), Exodus of Confederates from Atlanta, from portfolio of 15 prints Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), 2005, lithographs with screenprint, 39 in. x 53 in., gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), 2006.70.4

J Kara Walker (b. 1969), National Archives Microfilm Publication M999 Roll 34: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands: Six Miles from Springfield on the Franklin Road, 2009, video, on DVD and digital beta master, gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), 2010.1

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Portraiture and HierarchyHow can images reinforce or challenge hierarchies across racial and socioeconomic groups?

What can we learn from images about the power of dominant culture on societal values?

While a c. 1828 portrait of Abraham Hanson, a popular barber patroned by white clientele, by painter Jeremiah Pearson Hardy counters period caricatured portrayals of African Americans by white artists, the image speaks to the ways in which documentation of peoples has been controlled by racial majorities. In an 1850s daguerreotype documenting two young girls, one white and one African American, only the name of the African American child has been lost to time, leaving her to be identified as an “unnamed companion.” This relationship is reflected 100 years later in a publicity still from the television show Our Gang in which toddlers roleplay and uphold a racial hierarchy.

A 1928 publicity still of Al Jolson from the film The Jazz Singer addresses the history of minstrelsy as a tool for the white mainstream to appropriate and tame representations of African Americans. This power of dominant culture can be seen in Bill Owens‘s 1970s series Suburbia, where the image Because we live in the suburbs we don’t eat too much Chinese food. It’s not available in the supermarkets so on Saturday we eat hot dogs reveals the conformity to dominant social norms in the newly-minted middle class.

K Jeremiah Pearson Hardy (1800-1887), Abraham Hanson, c. 1828, oil on canvas, 24 1/2 in. x 21 9/16 in., museum purchase, 1943.14

L anonymous, Spanky and Buckwheat Shining Shoes, c. 1930, gelatin silver print, 9 15/16 in. x 7 15/16 in., museum purchase, 1987.496

M anonymous, Al Jolson, publicity photo from the film The Jazz Singer, 1928, gelatin silver print, 10 in. x 8 in., museum purchase, 1987.497

N Whitehurst Studios (active 1850s), Mary Zulette Waterhouse, Richmond, Va., Age About Two, and her Unnamed Companion, 1850s, sixth plate daguerreotype in case, 3 1/2 in. x 3 in., museum purchase, 2012.21

O Bill Owens (b. 1938), Because we live in the suburbs we don’t eat too much Chinese food. It’s not available in the supermarkets so on Saturday we eat hot dogs., from series Suburbia, neg. 1972, print 1998, gelatin silver print, 8 in. x 10 in., gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), 2006.77.18

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Photography and OtheringHow does portraiture impact the marginalization of individuals or groups?

How do photographers reinforce foreignness or emphasize equality in documenting their subjects?

From 1890 to 1891, American painter John La Farge traveled the islands of the South Pacific, documenting the cultures he encountered through a pointedly Euro-American lens. Similarly, Aaron Siskind utilized photography to create his portfolio of fifty-two photographs of Harlem and its residents in the 1930s, and while the series began as part of a larger project designed to examine ethnic, working-class, urban neighborhoods, the images call attention to the uneasiness of the cross-class and interracial looking inherent in their creation.

Photography’s long history of othering, documenting the unusual as opposed to the everyday and mainstream, is evident in the work of photographers including Leon Levinstein, known for photographing those on the margins of society. In her iconic 1962 photograph of a boy in Central Park, Diane Arbus captures the singular moment that reveals an awkward tension between social class, childhood, and primal violence.

P John La Farge (1835-1910), Sketch of Maua, Apia. One of Our Boat Crew, 1891, oil on canvas, 52 in. x 38 1/8 in., gift of anonymous donor, 1931.8

Q Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), Church Interior, from series Harlem Document Portfolio, 1938, printed 1976, gelatin silver print, 11 in. x 14 in., purchased as the gift of Thomas C. Foley (PA 1971) and Leslie A. Fahrenkopf, 2008.24.15

R Leon Levinstein (1910-1988), New York, c.1955, gelatin silver print, gift of Stuart Karu, 1998.61

S Diane Arbus (1923-1971), Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C., neg. 1962, print later, gelatin silver print, 14 7/8 in. x 14 11/16 in., museum purchase, 1981.13

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Countering Type and StereotypeHow can images reinforce or challenge evolving perceptions of type and stereotype?

How can images call attention to and counteract beliefs about race, class, sexuality, and gender?

The emphasis on strength of expression in portraits made in 1898 by Frank Albert Rinehart, documenting participants in the Indian Congress held in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, stand in contrast to William Henry Jackson’s detached, ethnographic records twenty years earlier (see page 2). Similarly, Edward Steichen’s 1933 portrait of Paul Robeson as Emperor Jones portrays the strength of this talented actor in the first Broadway play to feature an African American actor in its leading role with a racially integrated cast, countering a past of minstrelsy (see Al Jolson, page 4).

In the 1980s Sage Sohier spent two years photographing gay and lesbian couples across the United States, and through her sensitive portraits an awareness emerges of social and sexual issues of the time period. Through her portraiture, Nan Goldin explores the struggle of gender codes and definitions as well as the liberation of crossing these gender boundaries. Lalla Essaydi revisits her own past through portraiture, employing calligraphy to empower her subjects as well as liberate them from traditional restrictions.

T Frank Albert Rinehart (1861-1928), Pete Mitchell (DustMaker) -Ponca-, 1898, platinum palladium print, 9 1/16 in. x 7 1/16 in, museum purchase, 1978.101

U Edward Steichen (1879-1973), Paul Robeson as “The Emperor Jones” New York, from series Edward Steichen: Twenty-Five Photographs, 1933, printed 1982, gelatin silver print, 20 in. x 16 in., gift of Thomas Israel, 2007.65.23

V Nan Goldin (b.1953), Jimmy Paulette and Tabboo! Undressing, NYC, 1991 cibachrome, 20 in. x 24 in., museum purchase, 2012.9

W Sage Sohier (b.1954), Keith and John, New Haven, 1986, gelatin silver print, Sybil and Kelly Wise Photo Collection, gift of Sybil and Kelly Wise, 1992.19.81

X Lalla Essaydi (b.1956), Les Femmes du Maroc #45, from The PRC Portfolio, 2006, printed 2008, c-print, 16 in. x 20 in., museum purchase, 2008.118.3

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Identity ConstructionHow can individual voices, perspectives, and languages be heard through portraiture?

How does the production and presentation of portraits participate in the shaping of racial, class, sexual and gender identity?

Countering the outsider perspective of photographers including Aaron Siskind (see page 5), Roy DeCarava’s poetic images of his native Harlem gave direct voice to a community and his photographs were later married with text by Langston Hughes in The Sweet Flypaper of Life. Similarly unwilling to let familiar stereotypes stand, contemporary photographer and Harlem native Dawoud Bey photographed “types” of Harlem’s residents — the barber, the church ladies, the hip youth — in his series Harlem, U.S.A., creating a sensitively composed portrait of this community without courting stereotypes.

The projects of artist-educator Wendy Ewald address individual, community, cultural, gender, religious, and racial identity, including her collaboration with women in Saudi Arabia which resulted in portraits in which the subjects’ own marks and words express individuality. Performance and visual artist Hunter Reynolds utilizes himself as canvas, model, and medium, as can be seen in his 1990 photograph Shhh... as his publicly assumed persona Patina du Prey, a character of questionable and questioning gender.

Y Roy DeCarava (1919-2009), Graduation Day, 1898, gelatin silver print, 9 9/16 in. x 13 5/8 in., museum purchase, 1951.29

Z Dawoud Bey (b.1953), Mr. Moore’s Bar-b-que, 125th Street, from series Harlem, U.S.A., 1976, print 2005, carbon pigment print on Hanhemühle rag paper, 20 1/8 in. x 16 in., museum purchase, African American Art Acquisition Fund, 2007.1.5

AA Wendy Ewald (b.1951), Shadia, 1997, gelatin silver print, 55 3/4 in. x 42 5/8 in. x 2 in., gift of the artist in honor of Adam Weinberg, 2006.52

BB Hunter Reynolds(b.1959), Shhh..., from Patina du Prey Drag Pose Series, 1990/2012, digital c-print mounted on sintra, 30 in. x 22 3/4 in., purchased as the gift of Louis Wiley, Jr. (PA 1963), 2012.83

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Addison Gallery of American Art Phillips Academy, Andover, MA Education Department

Rebecca HayesCurator of Education

Jamie KaplowitzEducation Associate and Museum Learning Specialist

Christine JeeEducation Associate for School and Community Collaborations

www.addisongallery.org

Curriculum Connections and ResourcesS U G G E S T E D C L A S S R O O M C O N N E C T I O N S

Arranging a Visit to the Museum Learning CenterAt least two weeks in advance or preferably more, contact:

Jamie Kaplowitz (978) 749-4037 jkaplowitz@andover.edu

to schedule your visit and discuss possible themes, applicable portfolios of works, and related activities.

History/Social Studies • The Civil War• The Civil Rights Movement• propoganda• colonial America• slavery and abolitionism• the immigrant experience• race relations• Native American history• history of gender equality• history of LGBTQ issues• AIDS epidemic

English• the immigrant experience• gender identity• LGBTQ identity• books by Junot Diaz• books by Julia Alvarez• Uncle Tom’s Cabin• Sula• Oxherding Tale• Invisible Man• Native Son• To Kill a Mockingbird• Quicksand

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Art• portraiture• identity• cultural identity• portraits and types• social documentation

Science• biology and race• gender and sexuality• social conditioning

C O N N E C T I O N S T O A D D I T I O N A L T H E M A T I C P O R T F O L I O SAmerican IdentityAfrican American IdentityGenderThe Immigrant ExperiencePortraits/Self-portraitsIdentity ConstructionImages and the MediaThe American Civil WarThe Civil Rights Movement

T E A C H E R A N D S T U D E N T R E S O U R C E S

DuBois Shaw, Gwendolyn. Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century. Andover, MA: Addison Gallery of American Art, 2006. Explores the ways in which historic portraits of African Americans demonstrate a search for identity as well as cultural stereotypes and practices.

Faigley, Lester, et al. Picturing Texts. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004. Both reader and rhetoric, this text explores how to think critically about words and images as visual texts. See chapter 4: Representing Others.

O’Barr, William M. Culture and the Ad: Exploring Otherness in the World of Advertising. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994. An analysis of the connections between race, class, gender, and advertising throughout history.

PBS. Race: The Power of an Illusion. http://www.pbs.org/race. The interactive online companion to the documentary series about race in society, science, and history.

Smith, Shawn Michelle. American Archives: Gender, Race, and Class in Visual Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Connects evolving constructions of class, gender, and race to developments in photography in the nineteenth century.