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| Sasha Huber & Petri Saarikko Black Lives Matter, 2017 7:19 min Black Contemporary Art |
This is What I know About Art by Kimberly Drew is a memoir that covers Drew’s journey through the art world and the grandeur conflicts of race relations inside and outside the galleries. Throughout the book, Drew brings attention to the racial disparity in the art world and the many injustices of police brutality. Drew’s experience in Art History revealed the lack of black representation within the study of art and curation. Drew began her blog, Black Contemporary Art, to expose black artists to a greater audience to satisfy the lack of representation on social media. This was the beginning of her activism by diversifying the internet with black art she sourced on her own. After all, representation can influence young artists to find inspiration in the works she curates. In Susan Sontag’s essay “On Photography,” She describes the impact of photographs, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge -- and, therefore, like power” (Sontag). By collecting photographs of black art, she aims to bring power and knowledge to younger audiences through social media. Through her experiences as a curator and social media manager, Drew is a prominent activist who uplifts the voices and works of other black artists via her position in the art world.
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| From Bonnie Siegler's Signs of Resistance |
Kimberly Drew discusses her relationship with art and how her journey as a curator was met with both success and conflict. During her Art History class examining Coco Fusco’s The couple in A Cage, she was upset by the white student’s guilt as they failed to discuss the true message behind the work. In response, Drew posted that lamenting white guilt takes away from racial discussions. Instead of debating, the professor proceeded to undermine her credibility and gatekeep his white patriarchal view of Art History, “ If you wanted to be in a classroom with other students of color, then you shouldn’t have enrolled in art history classes.” (Drew, pg.27). The professor is part of a significant problem in the art world, by excluding black students, there is no diverse discussion about black art which leads to exclusion in galleries and museums. Bell Hooks’ essay, “Understanding Patriarchy,” cites John Bradshaw, who discusses the subjugation of individual thinking, “Blind obedience…The destruction of the individual, willpower, and the repression of thinking whenever it departs from the authority figure’s way of thinking”(Hooks, 23). The professor blatantly upholds an oppressive worldview by disregarding Drew’s points about the lecture, attempting to repress her thinking and crushing her willpower. Through this interaction, Drew refused to be silenced by him and continued her work to go against the exclusionary system and diversify the art world for future generations.
Throughout the memoir, Drew discusses the impact of the BLM movement on her work as a curator, such as The killing of Eric Garnder, Michael Brown, John Crawford III, Akai Gurley, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, and more. From those tragedies, the black community created artworks and poetry to process the injustice of police brutality. In support, Drew opened art submissions for #BlackLivesMatter and created a page on the Black Contemporary Art Blog dedicated to displaying the work created by the movement. She states, “It was developed as a space for collective healing and mourning…in that moment, I began to understand how intimately art and activism could work together to produce a collective voice and shared community” (Drew, Pg. 50). Therefore by creating the call for art she is a facilitating a space to open dialogue about injustice and the work BLM accomplishes. The Black Contemporary Art Blog relates to Bonnie Siegler’s Signs of Resistance. This book catalogs the various signs that protestors used during the Civil Rights Movement, juxtaposed to modern BLM signs. The blog functions as a catalog for black activism that is immortalized on the internet for future activists and viewers to witness.
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| William PopeL. from Skin Set Drawings, 2008 From Black Contemporary Art |
The gallery work that Kimberly Drew accomplished is crucial because she is reaching out to the black community by using her platforms to display art and activism. She is an influencer that creates work to inspire young readers. In her Teen Vogue article, she states, “I offer this book as an invitation to every young person whose inner voice tries to stop them from speaking up or joining in a dialogue about art.”(Drew). Drew aims to provide younger artists with the resources they did not have access to by creating a digital museum that invites open dialogues and encourages viewers to think critically about culture, race, and power. She is shifting the art world's perspective by bringing a new generation of young black artists.
I am an illustrator creating narratives centered around characters; the best way I can introduce activism in my professional aspirations is to bring up real-world issues in my stories through commentary. In addition, I can create multimedia work supporting causes using my full artistic skills. The Art of Activism states, “Art is highly effective at translating events, facts, and ideologies into stories, images, and performances, making objective things into subjective forms”(Ducombe, Lambert, pg. 25). By reflecting on my approaches to illustration, I can apply this knowledge to my work in the future. This quote also applies to Kimberly Drew’s approach to art curating. Therefore I am inspired by Kimberly Drew’s approach to sourcing activist artwork and how it can be applied to my future works.
Drew, K. (2020, June 2). Kimberly Drew’s Book “This Is What I Know About Art” Drop Gems. Teen
Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/kimberly-drew-this-is-what-i-know-about-art-book
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