New Book Reimagines Representations of Black Subjects in Western Art History
Peter Brathwaite’s innovative homages explore the evolution of Black identity in art history
Rediscovering Black Portraiture
Author
Peter Brathwaite
Body Content
Since early 2020, Peter Brathwaite has thoughtfully researched and reimagined more than 100 artworks featuring Black sitters.
With these elaborate and inventive interpretations, Brathwaite invites us to consider larger questions concerning the Black presence in Western visual culture, reminding us that Black subjects have been portrayed in art for nearly a millennium.
Rediscovering Black Portraiture (Getty Publications, $40) delves into embodiment, representation, and agency through 55 of Brathwaite’s most intriguing re-creations while presenting personal reflections from Braithwaite, essays by contributors Cheryl Finley and Temi Odumosu, and a conversation between the artist and contributor Mark Sealy. Featured artworks include The Adoration of the Magi by Georges Trubert, Portrait of an Unknown Man by Jan Mostaert, Rice n Peas by Sonia Boyce, Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley, and many more. This volume also takes readers behind the scenes, offering a glimpse of the elegant artifice of Brathwaite’s props, setup, and process.
An extraordinary journey through representations of Black subjects in Western art, from medieval Europe through the present day, Rediscovering Black Portraiture offers a nuanced look at the complexities and challenges of building identity within the African diaspora and explores how such forces have informed Black portraits over time.
Endorsements
“Peter Brathwaite’s oeuvre defies neat categorization: Is it art, performance, autobiography, or art historical essay? He has blended these modes to make work that is joyful, original, and poignant. It is important and timely. To restage Black portraiture, from the Domesday Book to Kehinde Wiley, Brathwaite gets inside the lives and worlds of each sitter and brilliantly rediscovers, reclaims, and re-presents Black (art) history for modern audiences. His empathetic performances give agency to the people portrayed and breathe warmth and life into what was previously frozen; he reminds us that Black historical lives matter too.”
— Lucy Peltz, Head of Collections Displays (Tudor to Regency) and Senior Curator, Eighteenth-Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery, London
“This highly entertaining book is a breathtaking visual explosion in which Brathwaite reimagines a wide variety of portraits of Black people in a stunningly creative way. This brilliant concept is not only an original visual treat but also an important historical work that focuses on Black portraiture across the centuries.”
— Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE, actress, presenter, broadcaster, and parliamentarian
Rediscovering Black Portraiture
$40/£35
