I recently attended a curator’s walk-through of an exhibition of African American artists.  Amongst the masterful paintings was a Barkley Hendricks male frontal nude. When I asked the curator to speak about this nude painting her comment was “there’s nothing to say” then she awkwardly added, “he’s not actually nude he’s wearing socks.”

I was stunned and disappointed by such a lack of response.

Apparently, nothing in her academic and professional experience prepared her to discuss this bold confronting image. I thought of what I had read about Barkley Hendricks, turning the white gaze back in on itself, and I thought of Tina M Campt’s brilliant book “A Black Gaze”.

A Black Gaze discusses the nuance of looking versus seeing. Professor Campt questions what it means to look at Black people versus seeing Black people… to look from a distance; versus ‘to see’ with proximity, and investment in knowledge and respectability. 

I realized that I have been looking at images for twenty-five years, thanks to “A Black Gaze” I have gained new skills at seeing. I highly recommend this book!