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Black Light by Kehinde Wiley

Grady Harp, November 17, 2009

Celebrating the African American Male: The Portraiture of Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley is an African American artist whose childhood in the notoriously gang and crime ridden South Central Los Angeles served as the stimulus for his investigating the world through art, a journey that has taken him to studies at Yale University and on to his current home base in New York City. With the artistic progress of Kehinde Wiley comes a profound respect for the grand portraiture of the past, the portraits of famous, powerful and wealthy men painted by the likes of Gainsborough, Titian, Reynolds, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Holbein, Eakins and others. Wiley's obsession, so obvious in his majestic paintings, is to bring that same degree of dignity to the neglected African American male, placing his own heritage on the degree of celebration that has been history's realm of the White Man.

Wiley's father returned to his native Africa before the birth of his son, and the need to find his identity resulted in his traveling to Africa at age twenty to finally meet his father, to define his roots. This transforming moment resulted in Wiley's beginning to concentrate on portraiture, not only as a means of understanding his father but also as a process of learning how to reproduce the intimacy that the face and body stance communicates. Once Kehinde Wiley gained recognition and honor for his portraits of the African American male, often responding to the famous portraits of history by substituting Black men in the poses of those portraits, his attention expanded to his current and ongoing project The World Stage in which he travels to Africa, China, and Brazil and other countries where he elevates the pictorial role of men of color to the same level of dignity once the constricting arena of history's White Man. The resultant portraits of black men are grand, richly colorful and decorated images of men in contemporary clothing in the swagger and stance of the proud man posing for an artist who appreciates their rising place in the globalization or unity of mankind.

Wiley's models' eyes engage the viewer, requesting/demanding respect, engendering a sensuous presence of proud masculinity against a background of wildly floral elements: the contrast is poignant. As he grows more confident as an artist, the direct quotations of past historical portraiture appear less often, evidence that the majesty of his chosen subjects is sufficient to relay the Aristotelian 'true reality'. Now he can resurrect references to saints and to the religious realm', while continuing to paint those attributes that simply reinforce the beauty of the Black male.

While Kehinde Wiley is only one of the numerous highly gifted and successful black artists painting today, he is particularly important not only for his enormous gifts as a polished craftsman as a portrait artist, but also for his commitment to address inequalities of the past. Metaphorically, he is beginning to put some chronic misperceptions to rest.

Grady Harp

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Brendan Wolf by Brian Malloy

Grady Harp, November 14, 2009

'Falling Man': Brian Malloy examines the post 9/11 psyche

One of the more terrifying and fascinating images to remain so long after the tragedy of 9/11 is the iconic image of the falling man captured in his jump to escape the devastation of the Twin Towers during the terrorist attack in New York City. As Sean, the love interest in the life of the book's title character tries to explain to Brendan Wolf, 'I meant no matter how much we believe our lives are in order, it's an illusion. Nobody knows for sure who the Falling Man is, but he was in the Tower on that day because it was part of the order of his life. And then, from out of nowhere, a bunch of religious fanatics fly a plane into his building, and finally he's forced to make a choice - what to do when the life you knew is taken from you? .....He didn't want to suffocate or have a ceiling drop on his head. Yeah, he was a victim, but he took control of his last moments, they all did, all the jumpers. They were left with just a few minutes to decide how their lives would end. I admire them, their courage.' Brian Malloy has succeeded in creating a story that despite its at times meandering subplots ultimately results in creating a character, a set of characters, that become indelible in our memory. It is a powerful story, a book filled with moments both hilarious and fantastical, as well as serious examinations of 21st century man.

Brendan Wolf is a 35-year-old lost soul, a lad who with his brothers Ian and Steven was deserted by his criminal parents, placed in foster homes and eventually adopted by people who also turned out to be a much the losers as his parents. 'Brendan Wolf' is not his real name (he was born Victor Hall) but instead is a make-believe name in many ways reflecting his obsession with the character from the Jon Krakauer memoir 'In the Wild' - Alexander Supertramp. Brendan goes from meaningless job to meaningless job in Minneapolis, unconnected to anyone since his breakup with his former lover Jeff. His brother Ian is incarcerated in Rush City, a jail, and during a visit to try to reconnect with his true family, Ian recommends Brendan connect with a old obese man Marv whose 'houseboy' Frankie is Ian's current partner in Rush City. Desperate for money and a roof over his head, Brendan goes to Marv's mansion and there the changes in his life begin. How Brendan copes with Marv, becoming involved in a near tragedy that turns his thinking around to become the caretaker of a man who initially disgusted him, how he tries to align with Ian once released form Rush City and becomes involved with Ian and his wife Cynthia's fraudulent scheme involving an anti-abortion group, and how he meets Sean, a lonely but comfortably out gay man and tastes some moments of normalcy, only to make wrong decisions that lead to his compounded failures is a mere outline of this book's treasures. Malloy's writing style keeps the reader involved with every page, even through episodes that at times seem to threaten the momentum of the story, leading to the somewhat surprisingly bleak ending. It is a work of an author unafraid to tell truths instead of create happy-ever-after endings: the result is an enormously engaging story as well as a fine critique of just where we are today. Highly recommended!

Grady Harp

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Grady Harp, November 11, 2009

Fantasy Frosting for a Bitter Cake of Possibilities

Ron Costello comes on to the scene of literature at a difficult time, a time when most books from new authors struggle for publication by the faltering publishing houses and find the light of day with print on demand or with smaller, courageous publishers. THE JUNTO, RACING TO THE BELL is a very readable, absorbing, entertaining and socially significant story that comes to us at a propitious time, a time when our focus is once again on Terrorism and the seeming neglect of signs and warnings of tragedies such as just happened at Fort Hood. Costello has created a story that addresses a new thought-provoking tale about the mysterious occult possibilities for discovering such incidents but instead of stopping with a clever idea (a receptive little boy named Jamil Jamil who is from Philadelphia's poverty pockets, a child cramped by familial crumbling, but blessed with a wise grandmother and with the ability to communicate with animals), he wisely takes the opportunity of using a richly detailed and credible fantasy tale and presents significant views about social conditions,about education, and about the ability for children deprived of the usual comforts of education and living situations to rise above their lot and become heroes.

Costello states in his Foreword 'Some say animals don't think. Oh, but don't you dare listen to that......In this story...you will read about a boy named Jamil Jamil who can exchange mind messages with animals. He does not speak to animals, but when he thinks, they can listen and vice versa; listening on a wave not available to you and me......Who among us can truly say that the sixth dimension doesn't exist?' Costello then unravels his tale about Jamil Jamil who with the help from the zoo animals protects the city of Philadelphia from a Terrorist attack. His story is original, endearing, and he creates characters who are well formed and about whom we care. Gifted with a fluid writing technique that flows from chapter to chapter in a manner that makes pausing to read later next to impossible, Ron Costello has hit upon a technique of communication that seems to promise a viable future for his planned future installments based on the little character Jamil Jamil: he has also demonstrated writing skills that will likely lead to fine novels outside of this successful series. Recommended.

Grady Harp

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Race Results: Hollywood Vs the Supreme Court Ten Decades of Racial Decisions and Film by Eileen C. Moore

Grady Harp, November 9, 2009

Racism in America: An Examination of Two Disparate Views

Eileen Comerford Moore has expanded her Master's Thesis into an immensely readable book that examines racism in America in a unique slant - the surprisingly biased and negative view of the 'platform of American opinion' AKA the Hollywood movies versus the equally surprising intelligent consistency of the often maligned views and rulings of the Supreme Court - and in doing so she has maintained a straightforward style of writing that allows the reader to join her journey from the Civil War to the present in a thoughtful analysis of the plight of the African American struggle for equality.

Moore comes to her subject well prepared: as a combat nurse in Vietnam she had direct daily exposure to the rarely discussed racism present in the armed forces, even in battle; as a trial judge on the California Superior Court and now as a Justice on the California Courts of Appeal she sits before arguments on both sides of racial issues, and has direct studies of Supreme Court history and rulings. Couple this experience with her fascination of the manner in which Hollywood, once thought the liberal platform for potent issues, has dealt with racial issues and the result is a fascinating, well documented (and illustrated!) study of racism from the Supreme Court rulings at the time of the Civil War, through the subsequent discrimination she witnessed as a child, and especially through a decade by decade study of movies from 'The Birth of a Nation' in 1915 to present day films. The results are surprising and at times shocking!

At times controversial, at times illuminating, Moore's book provides a fine survey of the fight for racial equality in America. What makes this book's release even more cogent is the present status in this country, now with an African American President. Her presentation is revealing, wise, and readable, and should find its way into classrooms as well as libraries of all who care about racial equality.

Grady Harp

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Men in Motion: The Art and Passion of the Male Dancer by Francois Rousseau

Grady Harp, November 7, 2009

'People walk, run jump, bounce, collide, and float.'

François Rousseau has created a large following, from those who own his books to those celebrities he has photographed to the aficionados of sport and of fashion. This major scale book is devoted not to the game athletes as was his other popular volume but to dance athletes and as such it is one of the more informed and sophisticated books of the many possibilities of muscular function published. MEN IN MOTION: THE ART AND PASSION OF THE MALE DANCER is an appropriate title as Rousseau is as fascinated with capturing the state of art to which these many dancers have achieved as he is to focusing on the uncanny feats displayed by the human body in response to choreography and music.

As Rousseau states in his introduction, 'The mission of a dancer is not to exhibit his body as an object, but rather to use his body to interpret and express art; to use the body he has, in the space he has, to put forth the felling and the meaning within his dance.' What Rousseau offers in this beautifully designed and produced volume by Universe are pages of photographs of individual dancers - some at rest but most in motion - executing powerful leaps and lifts as well as photographs of groups of dancers in concert and at rest. Almost all are in dance costume; nudity is present but is clearly not the focus of this book. Rousseau elects to combine black and white with color and sepia toned images to provide stunning contrasts. One double page spread is of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater with some 26 male dancers in motion under the lead of premier dancer William Credell and is a dramatic, physically challenging study of men in motion.

This elegant book is a must for lovers of dance, whether classical ballet or contemporary interpretation, but it is also a study in anatomy for the students of sculpture, so finely captured is the power and tension of the male body in motion. This is an Art Book of the first order. Highly recommended.

Grady Harp

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