Sherald bends this arc inward. She shows that the inner life of humans is as deep and profound as anything we encounter in the natural world or try to achieve in society.
Everything around the skin is colorful, or at least naked. For example, the black and white houndstooth print lacked color but had a sharp feel that contrasted with the soft gray she treated her skin to. Hats, objects, backgrounds, everything is brightly colored. However, it is a testament to Sherald’s skill that the prismatic surroundings only draw us to the face and eyes.
The moment we fall into a character’s eyes, we feel like they become a person. Race is a socially engineered experience, a roadmap for life that culture attempts to impose on us and enforce on a massive scale. The figures in Sherald’s paintings are black, but their blackness is not where they begin, where they end, or what defines them. They are boundless and unencumbered. They are real, they wonder, they dream.
The figures in Sherald’s paintings are black, but their blackness is not where they begin, where they end, or what defines them.
In the words of Sherard in the catalogue, her characters are “quiet, but not passive.”
We can learn more about what she meant by listening to the music of her work. She names her works with puns, quotations from poetry and literature, revealing the inseparable qualities behind the painting.
2016’s “Listen, you are a wonder. You are a city of women. You have your own geography,” from a poem by Lucille Clifton.
As far as I know, 2017’s “Try on dreams until you find the one that suits me. They all suit me,” is a Sherald original. But what other language can capture the subject’s stance, gestures, and clear-eyed ferocity?
2017’s “A Midsummer Afternoon Dream” used Shakespeare’s romance novel in its title and then referenced images from “The Wizard of Oz” in its content. Seems to recast Dorothy as a modern person, perhaps closer to middle age, and black. The white picket fence and the big two-story house were there, just around the corner from her. One of the basic guarantees of the American dream was already available to her, or already had it.
From there we can begin to think about the sublime.
From a Western art historical perspective, the sublime is a way of describing the encounter between humans and nature. Or maybe our insignificance is compared to the majesty of nature. We are part of the natural world but essentially separate from it. and promises to tame or weaken human civilization if we do not first tame or weaken it. Maybe it’s awe.
