Representing the Black Experience Through Sculpture

While at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I came across an exhibit I was not expecting called Why Born Enslaved. It's a single sculpture by artist Jean Baptist-Carpeaux.

He created this sculpture after emancipation in America and 20 years after slavery had been abolished in France as well. The sculpture is beautiful and it's also a reminder that this woman was depicted as a slave in what could be considered an example of a white man's vision of a woman in bondage.

It's a good reminder that context is always a part of the artist's vision.

For more on that topic, check out two great podcast conversations: How to Be an Anti-Racist Artist and Poverty Mindset, both with artist Erica Courdae.