by: Ellen C. Caldwell
for JSTOR Daily
Artist Glenn Ligon has grounded his work in American history, addressing the persistence of and inextricable link between the history of slavery and the black experience in the U.S.
Recently, he curated an exhibition called Blue Black at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. The show brings together more than forty artists and fifty works, all related to the theme “Blue Black,” a title inspired by Ellsworth Kelly’s wall sculpture, but imbued with meaning by Ligon himself.
Though many of Glenn Ligon’s untitled textual works might appear simplistic or even abstract on the surface, they hint at much more complex histories and narratives. As a curator, Ligon does much of the same with a carefully selected group of emblematic works by artists like Kerry James Marshall, David Hammons, Chris Ofili, Carrie Mae Weems, and Andy Warhol. Each artist addresses race in differing ways—sometimes overtly and other times more covertly, as in Warhol’s portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, Liz #4, which really emphasizes her whiteness….