Black Self: Notes for a conversation

Abstract

When asked to convene a colloquium about something that, for me, defines the art world during this on-going pandemic, I thought of the obvious – revisionism in the West, and the stratospheric obsession/fetishization of the black body. Why, I wondered, is black portraiture ‘a thing’? And why, of all people, was Amoako Boafo the most sought-after black portraitist in 2020? Why, at this historical moment, should the art world reclassify its driving concerns, rethink curation, staffing, education, and access? Because black art is the new frontier? Because of a seismic ethical shift, generated by the slaughter of blacks in America? Because the spectre of imperialism persists?