By Taft Museum of Art

Kerry James Marshall's "Voyager" combines complex picture making with a complex iconography and style unique to the artist.

In the early 1960s, the prominent black artists of the day gathered at the Greenwich Village studio of Romare Bearden to debate the controversial subject of how they could assist the Civil Rights Movement while simultaneously maintaining a sense of artistic individuality.

It was important for them to support the Movement in every way possible. But figuring out how to do so, given the various political and aesthetic pressures of the time, was complex. Creating art that harked back to the social realism of the 1930s would be regressive. Rejecting the then dominant mode of abstraction was certain to bring on the wrath of the critics. There was no single or obvious answer to this dilemma.

Just a few years later, in 1967, Raymond Saunders wrote a pamphlet, Black is a Color, in which he expressed his conviction that African-American artists should not feel obligated to create art grounded in racial subject matter. He believed that black artists must be free to express themselves as they wished, without being criticized for abandoning responsibility to their race.

Saunders stated that his art should not be labeled "black art" because he was a black man. For Saunders, black was a color of the palette, and it should not be used as a descriptive term identifying art made by African Americans.

As the tyranny of abstraction as the only acceptable means of working ended and postmodernism embraced representational art and social, political, sexual and racial themes, this discussion shifted somewhat. African-American artists could now create works of art that addressed racial identity or racial politics, and their art would be considered within the stylistic and philosophical mainstream of contemporary art.

This did not change the fact that African-American artists who choose not to make art related to race often find themselves facing a conundrum. They expect -- and rightly so -- that their art should be discussed in terms of its particular content and style. Nonetheless, the subject of the maker's race, despite the art's non-racial content, continues to remain front and center.

The title of Saunders' pamphlet has been adopted as the title of the current special exhibition at the Taft Museum of Art. Of course, its premise provokes debate now, just as it did 40 years ago.

Black is a Color brings together work by more than 30 artists, created from the late 1950s to the mid-1990s. They are on loan from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., a museum that has made it its mission to collect contemporary art by African Americans.

Some of the artists in the show have created work that focuses on racial themes; others have not. Some are probably pleased to be grouped exclusively with African Americans, endorsing the idea of race as an exhibition theme. Others are surely unhappy. They would not voluntarily participate in exhibitions of exclusively African-American artists. Despite the good intentions of the Corcoran and the Taft to give their work greater exposure through this exhibition, some African-American artists believe this approach only further ghettoizes their art.

The Taft exhibition is not intended to resolve these questions, but rather to pose them. It does this extremely well. Like the best exhibitions, it provokes and teaches by presenting excellent works of art by major artists.

The Taft deserves credit for seeking outside expertise with Black is a Color. They hired a guest curator, Tuliza Fleming, to install the exhibition and to write informative wall labels. Fleming is an African American, an art historian, the assistant curator of American Art at the Dayton Art Institute and a very bright, well-informed individual.

The first thing Fleming did was review the rather eclectic group of pictures lent by the Corcoran. She divided them into four thematic groups. From the start it was clear that there is no single artistic characteristic unifying this art. As stated above, it is the race of the artist that defines the parameters of this exhibition, not the content of the art itself, so the works in the exhibition are of different styles and convey divergent messages.

To help the viewer understand the art, Fleming imposed her own curatorial framework. This guides the viewer and provides the exhibition with several subtexts. The categories, presenting in this order, are "Documentary Photography," "Reconstructing Memory," "Identity Politics" and "Expressing Abstraction."

"Documentary Photography" gets the exhibition off to great start with pictures by two of the great mid-century American photographers -- Gordon Parks and Roy DeCarava. For me, DeCarava's "Street Closed" (1975) sets the tone for the exhibition. It is a beautifully composed, small black-and-white photograph with layered meanings. DeCarava's New York street scene puts us in the center of a massive traffic jam. His lens focuses upon a group of traffic barriers set up to close cars off from a particular intersection. Three signs have been attached to barriers, and they dominate the foreground of DeCarava's photograph: "Do Not Enter -- Street Closed -- Streets for People."

The first picture in the second section, "Reconstructing Memory," is a tiny print by Clarissa Sligh, "Wonderful Uncle" (1987). It grips the heart with its poignancy and unfortunate relevancy. A young black girl is the only image. She stands alone, isolated and vulnerable. Her thoughts and memories swirl around her in text format. She recalls telling her mother about her uncle's sexual advances and her mother replies, "Hush, your father won't believe you."

The fourth section, "Expressing Abstraction," would have been better served if it had come next, because then the exhibition would have had both a thematic and a somewhat chronological layout, as many of the works in this section were created prior to the pieces grouped under "Identity Politics."

The pictures in "Expressing Abstraction" illustrate the strength of the art created by many African Americans who elected to make art consistent with the mainstream styles of abstraction and minimalism.

In 1972, Alma Thomas was the first African-American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her painting included here, "Autumn Drama" (1969), is a gem. Bright, bold stokes of color are strung together in vertical lines. Many lines are tightly packed one against another to fill the surface of the picture plane. The composition takes what might have been static marks and turns them into a unified and vibrant visual delight.

The largest and most recent works in the exhibition are classified under "Identity Politics." For visitors interested in understanding how contemporary artists are exploring social and political themes in the context of racial and sexual identity, this section is where you want to spend some serious time.

There are excellent works by the most prominent African-American artists working today: Adrian Piper, Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Colescott, Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker, Lorna Simpson and Kerry James Marshall. I only wish the layout had given these pieces more viewing room so you could stand back and enjoy them at a greater distance.

One of my favorites from this section is Marshall's "Voyager." Like the DeCarava, it combines an aesthetic grounded in complex picture making with a complex iconography and style unique to the artist.

Marshall is an ambitious painter who works on a large scale. He uses narrative, i.e., story telling, to examine contemporary, urban, African-American social and political life. The opulence of his pictures seduces the viewer, who then wants to understand his narrative intent.

A very dark-skinned black woman stands in the prow of a boat. Her head is encircled with a wreath of pink flowers. The boat has the same name as a 19th-century schooner that was the last ship to carry slaves to the United States. This woman is traveling towards slavery and death, but other images incorporated in the picture suggest new life -- and the potential for a different future.

When the Taft Museum of Art's renovation resulted in a new, special exhibition space, it created the opportunity and challenge of mounting a meaningful special exhibition program. With Black is a Color, the Museum has met this challenge and more. This exhibition was a risky choice; it is must-see for all of us.