How often do you think of music when you visualize a visual work – a paint, a photograph or a mounted and framed collage? The new book of the scientist Nikki A. Greene, Grime, glitter and glass: body and sonic in contemporary black artExplore this juxtaposition, putting the visual in conversation with the sound and the tactile.
Rightly, the structure of the book follows the five main components of the composition of a song: “Prelude”, “Verse One”, “Verse Two”, “Pours Three” and “Coda”. Greene concentrates each verse on a single artist – Renée Stout, Radcliffe Bailey and María Magdalena Campos -Pons, respectively – and dissects specific works in terms of musicality and sound resonance as much as visual aesthetics.
Although the accent seems narrow, each verse does not rest with a single artist. Instead, it ambitiously presents the particular regional context of the artist of black art, music and people in general. In order to delve into Stout, for example, Greene supervises the realities of the United States in the middle of the Atlantic throughout the 20th century. For Bailey, the South American; For Campos-Pons, Cuba and the Caribbean diasporic relations with the United States. Thus, each chapter mixes mini-biographies with a socio-political history, mapping a lush and generative artistic family tree. By writing on Stout, Greene refers to Betye Saar. A large part of Campos-PonsThe chapter is dedicated to Carrie Mae Weems. Bailey's chapter is dotted with links with Romare Bearden, David Hammons, Todd Gray and director Barry Jenkins among others.
And then, of course, there is music. Complete with a Support reading listGreene maps the sound affect by connecting artistic intention to musical artists, identifying musical influences for visual work and highlighting real music in works and performances.
In “Verse One”, Greene compares the use by stout of the physical form and the provocation of black female sexuality in sculpture to that of funk and the pioneer of rocks Betty Davis. For the two artists, it exploits the way in which the challenge is often marked by the stigma and delayed understanding of society. “Verse Two” sees a more abstract effort to explore Bailey's mixed work in the double reality of black excellence and anti-black violence demonstrated by the South, where the late artist was based. Greene first details the video clip of Hip-Hop Group stopped “Tennessee” of Development (1992) in which Bailey appears, traces a line of the great jazz miles Davis (invoking his ex-wife aforementioned Betty) and Sun Ra. “Verse Two” feels slightly heavy and disjointed, perhaps because of Greene's efforts to describe the weight of black masculinity and the shine with which these artists fight.
More success, the “verse three” of Campos-Pons addresses the Western lack of recognition of black validity: in contributions to art, in the power and donation of black women, in the Cuba struggle for autonomy, and more. Greene brings highly sought-after compositions of the saxophonist Neil Leonard for the work of the Campos-Pons, such as the performance piece Identified (2016), connecting the points with the late Afro -Cuban singer Celia Cruz Using sugar by Celia Cruz – Sugar! – as a claim to be female, black and Afro-Caribbean power.
For all its exploits, this book is ultimately a learned work and sometimes turns into the academic language. CODA, in particular, is a perhaps too dense display of social theories and observations of Greene.
But although the style requires an additional effort from the reader, it also means that the many black names of the book – visual and musical artists – are now published forever and engraved in the increasingly interdisciplinary approaches of creative fields. Sun Ra Afrofuturism Jazz do Interact with the collage style of Romare Bearden, which in turn affects the “Pullman” scintillating heart of Bailey. Exploring sound grip via funk, glitter via shine and glass via colonial stories of black contemporary art through these selected artists, Greene adds a new component to black American cultural criticism.
Grime, glitter and glass: body and sonic in contemporary black art (2024) by Nikki A. Greene is published by Duke University Press and is available online and via independent booksellers.
