During the decade of 2010-2020, the global art world experienced a literal explosion of Black artists from the United States, Africa and the African diaspora working with the Black figure as the focus of their creativity. This lecture will examine how artists have continued the project of representing black bodies in the global exhibition and market scene, albeit in the context of persistence discourses on imperialism and colonialism, escalating forced migration, state surveillance and violence against black bodies—male, female, gay and transgender—revelations of sexual exploitation and—not incidentally—a global pandemic. The lecture will demonstrate the dizzying variety of technical and stylistic approaches to figuration, which seem at the same time to reveal tentacles that connect these distinct approaches to the figure that speak of lineages that often cross boundaries and cultures. With this arsenal of modernist attitudes, styles and techniques at their disposal, the question is how each artist chooses to adapt them to depict images that can be personally charged, or culturally-responsive.
