30 Americans

I went to se the 30 Americans show at the Corcoan with the Black Student Union. The trip was great, we went to china town and had lunch and the saw the exhibition. It was warm for January and it was nice to get out of Baltimore for a day and see what DC is like in the winter. This Corcoran Museum like the rest of DC is very American. the walls, the signs, the buildings scream of  Roman architecture. The show was disappointingly traditional. I saw a lot of art I expected to see from the artists exhibited. I later found it that this was a part of the Rubbells family collection and the collection was donated to the Corcoran for the exhibition. As I walked through the collection I found out how much their collection and selection influenced the scope of this exhibition. Black Art, Post Black Art or any artwork classified based on an ethnic genre carries the burdens and stygmas associated with educating the masses about a cultural experience. The Rubbells collected artwork of very famous it exhibition African American artists for over a period of thirty years. Although  I appreciate the family collecting this artwork I am surprised by the lack of diversity within the collection. There were a few sculptures one by David Hammons and another by Leonard Drew. A few installations, probably one  the strongest works in the exhibition by Gary Simmons, another by Kara Walker and Glenn Ligon. The show was a riff with imaginative hype about the black experience lacking substance and freshness. The title was the first key to this staleness, the title called  The exhibition due not generative fresh blood into what it means to a black artist working in present day United States. The work is strong but had very traditional formats, portraiture painting harkening back to early American portatire of Kenhende Wiley, Carrie May Weems  and photography of Hank Willis Thomas, commenting on how Africans were enslaved in American, Nick Cave sound suits.