Assignment: Respond to the Dana Schutz painting controversy and support it by incorporating at least one direct quotation from Zadie Smith’s “Getting In and Out.”
Dana Shutz’s Open Casket, displayed the brutal wounds of Emmet Till, a black fourteen year old who was beaten to death after supposedly flirting with a white woman. What she had not realized was that the wounds of this event that occurred fifty+ years ago had not completely healed in today’s society. There was an immediate outrage from the public once this large painting was displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In the midst of current social tension, this seemingly ignorant and insulting piece added fire to the already burning flame of the anger that came from the Black Lives Matter movement. Coming from a white artist, opposers to this piece have claimed it to be insensitive because she could not possibly understand and empathize with black suffering. While I do agree that in no level could a white woman go through and understand the same experiences and stereotypes that a black woman or man go through, it does not mean that they cannot express their concern through art. In Zadie Smith’s article, “Who Owns Black Pain,” she questions what would qualify someone to take on this subject. Does white involvement in the issue of race only take form in “civil rights law, public school teaching”?1. Though it is not wrong, but rather encouraged, for white artists to take on the subject of race in order to work for the dismantling of systemic racism, this was not Shutz’s intention. She has defended herself by claiming she was not trying to confront race but rather motherhood and loss of a child. If this is indeed true, I believe that her choices in creating this piece were ignorant and uneducated.
- Zadie Smith, “Getting In and Out.” In Harper’s, (New York, 2017), 88.
Reflection:
After reading so many different responses to this artwork, it took me some time to gather my thoughts and opinions on it without having any influence from other sources. However, I think that reading the different commentaries and opinions was great because everything has multiple and opposing viewpoints, but having this discussion and connection between them is important for further understanding and reaching empathy.
- This is a footnote. ↩
