Chase Walker

Professor Bush

November 15, 2011

Survey to Visual Arts

Americans

30 Americans is a beautiful display of the progression of black art, as well as a display of creativity amongst the American art culture. There were a wide variety of artist displayed including Kehinde Wiley, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hammons and many other black artist. Although many of the pieces at the exhibit were not cohesive, the viewer is still able to notice the trend that the featured artist were innovative, and their pieces will truly speak to people. One image that caught my attention immediately was Basketball and Chain by Hank Willis Thomas. The image spoke volumes as there is a leg that seems to belong to a basketball player and attached to the ankle is a chain with a basketball on the end. From what I interpreted of the image, it seemed that the athlete was a slave to the game, which many people in society today say that sports is slavery for the black man. Although the image was created in 2003, it is still relevant to today’s society, as the NBA is in a lockout, and their will not be a season. Many fans are upset about this, but the players are thinking about what is in their best interest, just as slaves had to escape their non-paying master.It is amazing how relevant past artwork can continuously remain relative in today’s society. Sleep, by Kehinde Wiley was another piece that received my attention. It is a large (132”x300”) painting of a beautiful black man, sleeping, with silk covering his private parts. The artist was able to catch a soft side of a man that is stereotypically proclaimed to be masculine and hard acting. This relates to current day society as many African American males are portrayed to be violent, non emotional creatures, when in reality, they are just as human as the next person. Whether the creator wanted to make a statement or not is decided by the viewer, but either way, it is not arguable that this piece was the statement the exhibit. Many of the artist at