Bell Hooks, “Postmodern Blackness” Article Summary

Since the coming of the late 20th century the postmodern movement in art has brought numerous artists to the surface in the mainstream art world. Postmodernism has allowed works of art from Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and most recently, Banksy to be placed on the same pedestal as Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement. With all these new developments in art over the century, one issue still remains. Bell Hooks discusses in her novel Yearning: Race Gender and Politics a subsection that she calls “Postmodern Blackness.” She dives into this topic by arguing that black artists, or more specifically, black women artists are looked over when it comes to the content of their work.

“The failure to recognize a critical black presence in the culture and in most scholarship and writing on postmodernism compels a black reader, particularly a black female reader, to interrogate her interest in a subject where those who discuss and write about it seem not to know black women exist or even to consider the possibility that we might be somewhere writing or saying something that should be listened to, or producing art that should be seen, heard, approached with intellectual seriousness.” Page 2.

She argues against the notion of oppression being an unacceptable subject in postmodern art. Some black artists feel the need to conform to a preconceived idea of what acceptable art should be. “it is easy to see black folks as falling into two categories: nationalist or assimilationist, black-identified or white-identified” Page 5. Hooks explains that some art made by a black individual might have prejudicial under-tones to them. There is a message of struggle and oppression behind the purpose of why the body of art was created. Art is always evolving and progressing. I only hope that what Hooks is envisioning for the future comes true. That way the future for black female artists is much brighter.

#psu #postmodernism