How Should We Understand the Shocking Use of Stereotypes in the Work of Historical Black Artists? It’s About the Satirical Tradition of ‘Going There’

Painting of a woman with hands clasped in front of a hous
Archibald Motley Jr., Lawd, Mah Man's Leavin', 1940. Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri, USA; Gift of the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration; American, in copyright.

An excerpt of Going There: Black Visual Satire, the new book by Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History and African & African American Studies, was recently published by Artnet News.