Time Travel with La Négresse

It is no coincidence that I experienced “La Négresse” by Jean Baptiste Carpeaux while at the Berkeley Art Museum last week.  At the time I was reading “Kindred” by Octavia Butler, a pseudo science fiction novel (for lack of a better genre) set simultaneously in slavery and 1976.  In the book a woman is transported back in time armed only with her knowledge of the present but she is rendered powerless as she attempts to navigate her role as an enslaved black woman in the antebellum south.  She toggles between two worlds with the sole purpose of saving an individual who has caused her undue harm, unaware of how to navigate her new reality as a fish out of water.

In many ways the bronze sculpture feels exposed, like a fish out of water in the main gallery at BAMPFA.  La Négresse sits in proximity to a neon Dan Flavin, a collection of brightly colored, large scale Hans Hoffman paintings and a Philip Guston. The gallery placement of the bust reveals a dramatic contrast between time and medium.

Carpeaux’s bronze cast is a study that was part of “Fontain de l’Observatoire” in the Luxembourg Garden in Paris.  The fountain consists of 4 women representing 4 different continents, whose bodies subtly twist toward a global sphere placed in the middle of the fountain. The women are flanked by horses that appear to be charging out of the water.

 

At BAMFA “La Négresse” is a bust of a bare chested woman twisting both her torso and gaze to the left. The loose ropes draping over her body suggest bondage, while the engraving at the bottom of the bust confirms it:

“Pourquoi naître esclave” (Why born a slave?)

It is unclear if Carpeaux was challenging the institution of slavery, Africa and Europe’s role in slavery, or America’s resistence to abolish it. I do find it interesting that in Carpeaux’s bronze study, the ropes are loosely bound, but her arm placement suggests that her hands could be bound.  The final fountain (which was completed while the artist’s health was failing) features a full standing figure in ankle shackles.  This not only distills Africa’s existence to the institution slavery, but it is also a monolithic portrayal that ignores the limitless, innovative contributions of Africans across the diaspora and the world.  In other words, do we see beyond slavery? Ultimately, Carpeaux’s question engraved on the bust challenges that monolithic view while also reinforcing it.

This is why Kehinde Wiley’s “After La Négresse”, 2006 is so interesting to me.  In this marble and resin bust (not on view at BAMPFA), a young man wears a basketball jersey and casts a similar forlorn look over his left shoulder. In this piece Wiley transports the same visual clues from 1872 to 2006 and asks similar questions regarding the subject’s circumstance. Both subjects have shoulders that angle downward as if their hands are tied (or handcuffed) behind their back. Here it is unclear if the Lakers jersey is a liberator or an enslaver.  Are sports a ticket out of a particular circumstance or a salve that keep us dreaming unattainable dreams? Is it even fair to heap a one size fits all ideal onto a sculpture like that?

Both works explore the idea of people being enslaved by imagery.  In both “La Négresse” and “After la Négresse” we are left wondering if the subjects are being liberated from their plight or held captive to it.  As a representation of Africa, does slavery encapsulate an entire race?  Similarly, when we look at the state of black men today, are they trapped by imagery perpetuated by the media? Neither views are comprehensive but both demand exploration.