Date: Februay 6 to February 26, 2004
Venue: Anno Domini// the second coming of Art & Design
366 So. First Street
San Jose
CA 95113
United States
Tel: 408.271.5155
Web: www.galleryAD.com

Artist's Statement

Much of black history recorded in Western art is summarized visually by three roles: enslaved, in servitude, or impoverished. But beyond this limited social order lies a people of dignity and strength, whose survival is nothing less than miraculous. "Visual Quotations" investigates that survival.

Titus Kaphar's work explores a painted adaptation of the portrayal of black people in nineteenth-century Western painting. Though picaninnies and minstrels dominated much of popular imagery in this era, these kinds of overtly brash characterizations were deliberately excluded from this survey in order to observe the more subtle effects of race in painting. A fundamental theme explored in this survey is the implication of hierarchy through compositional positioning (that is, the implication of one's social stature through his or her placement relative to other figures in the composition.)

Within the context of 19th Century paintings most black characters play, at best, secondary roles in the composition. The prototypical image of a black person was as a slave or servant, just outside of illuminated areas of importance. Artists used the dichotomies of the physical world: dark vs. light and up vs. down, to visually reinforce institutionalized views of race and hierarchy.

Throughout the nineteenth- century the representation of hierarchical roles changed very little in painting, but a new context referred to as "the Orient" placed black women in "erotic" and "mysterious" environments. During the late 1800s, the West developed a peculiar preoccupation with the "Orient," and whether consciously or unconsciously, the so-called "Orientalist" painters began to visually address a mythology of black sexuality. This change in the representation of black women creates a sub-text for many of the paintings in this series.

This series is ongoing and at present includes 20 paintings. The original paintings were selected for their relevance within the "canon" of Western art history, and the compositional theme of black and white people portrayed in close proximity. Each piece in this series is painted in oil on dry-erase whiteboards. White figures and all remnants of the original environment are removed from the composition. What remains is the black figure on a white ground in compositional isolation. Through the process of painting, this survey attempts to deconstruct these environmental contexts in order to allow the viewer the visual space to consider the individual represented.

Titus Kaphar, 2004

Images and text courtesy of Titus Kaphar and Anno Domini (San Jose, CA, United States).

TITUS KAPHAR

Born 1976, Kalamazoo, MI, United States
Resides New York City, NY, United States

Education

2006 MFA, Painting, Yale University
2001 BFA, Painting, San Jose State University, Minor African-American Studies

Solo Exhibitions

2009
Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA

2008
“Painting Undone” Red Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design

2005
Yale Art Gallery, Trumbull Gallery, New Haven, CT

2004
Provisions Library, Washington, D.C.
“Visual Quotations” Anno Domini Gallery, San Jose, CA

2000
“The House That Crack Built” San Jose State University Gallery 2, San Jose, CA

Group Exhibitions

2008
“Macrocosm” Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA
“Cancelled, Erased & Removed” Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY and Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Museum, Kalamazoo, MI

2007
“Blur” Arndt Partner Gallery, Berlin, Germany
“Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY
“Midnight’s Daydream” The Studio Museum In Harlem, New York, NY
“My Love Is a 187” The Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Salon Nouveau” Galerie Engholm Engelhorn, Vienna, Austria

2006
“Lag-Time Line-up” Mumbo Jumbo Gallery, New York, NY
“Materiality” Kravets Wheby Gallery, New York, NY
“School Days” Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY

2004
“Edges” Euphrat Museum of Art, Cupertino, CA

2003
Stop Art Gallery, San Jose, CA

2002
“Studio 110, Re-Presenting Ourselves” San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, Mountain View City Hall, Mountain View, CA

2001
“The African-American Spirit in Contemporary Art” Mexican Heritage Plaza, San Jose, CA,
San Jose State University, Africana Center, San Jose, CA

2000
“Black Artists: Creations” San Francisco African American Historical & Cultural Society, Fort, Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale, CA
“…of Subversion and Dominance” San Jose Art League, San Jose, CA

Awards

2006 Artist in Residence, The Studio Museum In Harlem, October 4, 2006
2004 Belle Arts Foundation Grantee, January 2004
2001 California Arts Council Grantee, December 2001

Bibliography

2008 Titus Kaphar: Painting Undone. Savannah: SCAD Exhibitions, 2008.
2007 “Three Contemporaries, Each With a Different Way to View the Past.” The New York Times, August 11, 2007
2005 “The Art of Cut-and-Paste.” The Yale Bulletin & Calendar, December 16, 2005
2004 “From the Margins of Art History, a Painter’s Minority Report.” Washington Post, April 11, 2004
KPFA Radio Interview. Berkeley and Washington, D.C., February/April 2004
2003 “Artist Repaints History’s Blackout.” San Jose Mercury News, December 7, 2003

Location on Map