Traits to Remember : the aesthetics and politics of black portraits

The 193 Gallery opened its second space in Venice last April and continues its cycle of shows under “Colore e Materia” concept with its second exhibition “Traits to remember: the aesthetics and politics of black portraits”. Across the portrait practice, the artists Sesse Enlangwe, Idris Habib and Bara Sketchbook carry out a work of memory by celebrating the black body.

"For me, this exhibition is a new opportunity to educate more about the importance of representation while fighting selective memory. Documenting an existence in painting goes beyond a subject's complexion and nuances of colors used, it is also a question of creating works which restore dignity, encapsulate an essence, depict a fragility, ingenuity, and a fighting spirit. So many elements that Elangwe, Habib and Sketchbook manage to express through their portraits" explains Brice Arsène Yonkeu, curator of the exhibition.

Portraits of black people are rare and often marginalized in the history of art. Yet very present in society, this interculturality is not faithfully reflected in the visual arts prior to the 1950s. As a matter of fact, the portrait genre has evolved a lot in painting with the remarkable and valuable contributions of European masters in particular, but its development took place in detriment of black bodies.

All three from West Africa and working between Africa and the United States, Sesse Elangwe, Idris Habib and Bara Sketchbook really capture humanity in a contemporary way, with emotion, truth and meaning. With this set of works, the exhibition creates a new iconography of African community and its diaspora.