By: sandra lazzar

sandra lazzar — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:27:37 +0000

I found Glenn Ligon’s work to be incredibly profound when I first saw it during the late 1980s. His work was grounded in the pulse of Americas subconscious racial riff. Ligon’s work spoke from a generation of artists, not exclusively of Color, to a generation of America that had either struggled to maintain or topple a status quo of segregation. Today, I found myself experiencing Glenn Ligon’s show at LACMA. A survey of at least 25 years of work. What I found was the evolution of intellectual clarity in the late 1980s to complacency in the late 1990s. Ligon’s direction in the 90s exemplifies the elitism and rise of a class system within people of color. This intellectual perversion can be found in his portrait series of coloring book images that include an emasculated rendering of Malcolm X. Maybe Tyler Perry or any other cross dressing person of color can manipulate the image of Black men in order to gain access to a broader American audience but at the end of the day it is still an image of emasculation or better yet castration. One may find similar “cursory of observations” and other phenomenon in Fruits of Sorrow: Framing Our Attention to Suffering by Elizabeth V. Spelman. It has been stated that a wall flower has to dance to be seen. But being seen is not the same thing as being acknowledged critically. Glenn Ligon has been seen and has been acknowledged but he’s still “dancing” for an elite class because his work is now part of that class. “Negro Sunshine” is neither darkness or brightness. It is the in between, it is the straddling on the fence for whom ever pays attention. Indeed the rooster is coming home but not to roost. Just coming!

By: betsy

betsy — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:06:45 +0000

Visited PST and this exhibit Friday. I very much wish the Ligon material had been far, far away from the Asco collection. By the time I made my way thru Asco, I was weary from seeing anger/angst. I should have researched the various presentations beforehand, perhaps. And now I am sorry I didn’t skip Asco (which I found depressing) to go directly to Ligon and PAY ATTENTION. His work is terrific, and may I say, a real bookend to the Kienholz. I live out here in the 909, but will try to get back in to LA before the Ligon departs. Thank you for this meaningful exhibit.

Comments on: Four Questions for Glenn Ligon

By: sandra lazzar

By: betsy