“Represent! Critical Engagements with Race and Ethnicity in the Arts” is a partnership that brings together exhibitions, performances, films, lectures, and other arts and culture events connected by themes of race, ethnicity, and representation, taking place across Washington University during the 2021-2022 academic year. Partners include the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity; the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum; and Washington University Libraries.
The Outwin: American Portraiture Today Exhibition
On view September 10, 2021–January 23, 2022
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Ebsworth and Garen Galleries
The Outwin: American Portraiture Today, a major exhibition organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, features the finalists of the Portrait Gallery’s fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. The participating artists come from fourteen states; Washington, DC; and Puerto Rico and work in a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, time-based media art, and performance. These contemporary portraits respond to our political and social context, offering perspectives on a range of pressing issues, including immigration, the status of American workers, mass incarceration, gun violence, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Kemper Art Museum / Call 314.935.4523 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.
Colonizing the Past: Constructing Race in Ancient Greece and Rome Exhibition
On view August 10–December 27, 2021
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Teaching Gallery
Greek vases, marble sculptures, and other ancient works hint at how artists in antiquity visualized racial identity, often in ways quite different from our own. This Teaching Gallery exhibition presents a selection of ancient objects from the Museum’s collection—including Greek vases from the early fourth century BCE to the third century CE—alongside a range of drawings, paintings, and sculpture, from the Renaissance to today, by such artists as Albrecht Dürer, Peter Paul Rubens, and Romare Bearden. Through these works the exhibition examines the emergence of an interpretation in which the image of Classical Antiquity is inextricably tied to Whiteness, as well as how this construction still pervades contemporary thinking about the ancient world. The exhibition is curated by Kathryn Wilson, senior lecturer in the Department of Classics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, in conjunction with her course “Race and Identity in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” offered in fall 2021.
Kemper Art Museum / Call 314.935.4523 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.
Screening: Art Movement
October 28, 2021 at 7 pm CDT
Online
In this video performance, dancers from the Consuming Kinetics Dance Company respond to artworks in The Outwin exhibition, inviting us to consider the role of art as a catalyst for movement. Tune into the Museum’s Facebook or Instagram channels on October 28 at 7 pm to view the video. After the premiere it will be available on the Museum’s YouTube channel and website.
Kemper Art Museum / Call 314.935.4523 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.
In Conversation: Colonizing the Past: Constructing Race in Ancient Greece and Rome
November 2, 2021 at 6 pm CDT
Steinberg Auditorium
Join faculty curator Kathryn Wilson, senior lecturer in the Department of Classics, and Claudia Swan, Mark Steinberg Weil Professor of Art History in the Department of Art History & Archaeology, both in Arts & Sciences, in conversation with Margo Hendricks, professor emerita in the Department of Literature at University of California, Santa Cruz, as they discuss the works on view in this season’s Teaching Gallery exhibition. Panelists will explore how modern ideas on race have influenced the interpretation of identities across cultures, geographies, and religions in classical antiquity. The Museum will remain open until 6 pm to view the exhibition.
Kemper Art Museum / Call 314.935.4523 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.
Performance: Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down)
November 18–19, 2021 at 11 am–5 pm CDT
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Saligman Family AtriumThe Outwin artist Sheldon Scott performs Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down) in the Museum’s Atrium. The artist will hull and winnow grains of rice from sunrise to sunset for two days, recalling the labor of and cruel conditions experienced by enslaved people in coastal regions of the pre–Civil War South.
Kemper Art Museum / Call 314.935.4523 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.
In Conversation: Artist Talk with Sheldon Scott
November 20, 2021 at 11 am CDT
Online
The Outwin artist Sheldon Scott speaks with Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Bicentennial Term Associate Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, about his performance Portrait, number 1 man (day clean ta sun down), in which Scott uses his own body to create a portrait of his ancestors. This program is free, but registration is required.
Kemper Art Museum / Call 314.935.4523 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.
In Conversation: Artists Deborah Roberts and Adrian Octavius Walker with Adrienne Davis
December 4, 2021 at 11 am CDT
Online
The Outwin artists Deborah Roberts and Adrian Octavius Walker speak with Adrienne Davis, William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law in the School of Law and Professor of Organizational Behavior & Leadership in the Olin Business School. Both artists use portraiture to depict the complexity of Black subjecthood, exploring themes of race, identity, beauty, and gender politics. This program is free, but registration is required.
Kemper Art Museum / Call 314.935.4523 or email kemperartmuseum@wustl.edu.
Counter/Narratives: (Re)presenting Race & Ethnicity
January 18–July 8, 2022
Olin Library- Thomas Gallery
The Counter/Narratives exhibition examines the way in which objects are preserved and collected through archives, museums, and exhibitions and investigates ideas surrounding the (re)presentation of historical narratives through artwork and artifacts. How do we relate to these objects, who uses them, and how? If libraries and archives are our cultural means of convening with the past, whose voice is telling the stories? This exhibition attempts to uncover and celebrate the often-obscured agency within these objects, exploring their counter-narratives related to race, respect, interconnection, and belonging.
Washington University Libraries / Curated by Geoff Ward and Jessi Cerutti / Contact Kimberly Singer