"... Will be Black" | Bringing Back Bowery
Creator
Izhar Patkin
Title
"... Will be Black" | Bringing Back Bowery
Coverage
2 Cooper Sq New York, NY, 10003
Description
The remnants of previous graffiti peek out underneath splotches of black paint added to the plywood. Each of the three black areas of the panels features careful white outlines of different fragments of a scene described by a quote in the upper left corner, carefully and clearly written out to read:
"To you black was the color of priests and undertakers and orphans. But everything is changing. Whatever is gentle and kind and good and tender will be black. Milk will be black, sugar, rice, the sky, doves, hope, will be black. SO will the opera to which we shall go, blacks that we are, in black Rolls Royces to hail blacks kings, to hear brass bands beneath chandeliers of blacks crystal..." - Jean Genet, '58
The plywood mural depicts figures from the play "Les Nègres" ("The Blacks"), a work by playwright Jean Genet that was published in 1958 and performed for the first time in 1959. The play is reliant upon the structure of a production within the production itself, exploring Black identity while exposing racial prejudice and stereotypes by shocking and implicating the audience.
"To you black was the color of priests and undertakers and orphans. But everything is changing. Whatever is gentle and kind and good and tender will be black. Milk will be black, sugar, rice, the sky, doves, hope, will be black. SO will the opera to which we shall go, blacks that we are, in black Rolls Royces to hail blacks kings, to hear brass bands beneath chandeliers of blacks crystal..." - Jean Genet, '58
The plywood mural depicts figures from the play "Les Nègres" ("The Blacks"), a work by playwright Jean Genet that was published in 1958 and performed for the first time in 1959. The play is reliant upon the structure of a production within the production itself, exploring Black identity while exposing racial prejudice and stereotypes by shocking and implicating the audience.
Source
Posted by @Bringing_Back_Bowery on Instagram. Caption: "Mural by @izharpatkin at @2coopersquare for @bringing_back_bowery"
Rights
Artists: Izhar Patkin
Image: @Bringing_Back_Bowery on Instagram
Image: @Bringing_Back_Bowery on Instagram
Publisher
Urban Art Mapping Research Project
Date
Contributor
F.S.
Original Format
Painting on plywood
Files
Collection
Citation
Izhar Patkin, “"... Will be Black" | Bringing Back Bowery,” George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art , accessed January 15, 2021, https://georgefloydstreetart.omeka.net/items/show/1692.
Comments