Spotlight on Africa - Black model art show challenges France's colour blindness

--:--
A recent Paris exhibition honouring forgotten black models of modern art has shone a spotlight on black identity in a society where race remains a controversial subject.

France has been multicultural "since the 19th and 20th century", says Denise Murrell, co-curator of Le Modèle Noir or Black Models.

The landmark exhibition on modern art’s forgotten black models ran from March to July at Paris’ Orsay museum. On Friday 13 September, it was due to premiere at Pointe à Pitre in Guadeloupe.

The lavish show, portraying people of colour in French art from the country’s final abolition of slavery in 1848 until the 1950s, “shows without question that there was a black presence in the heart of cultural activity in the 19th century,” mirroring “today’s diverse, contemporary society”, Murrell told RFI.

Yet these figures were left out of history. The four-month long exhibition sought to give them back their identity, by renaming leading paintings in the models’ names. Portrait of a Negress thus became Portrait of Madeleine and Edouard Manet’s Olympia, showing a reclining nude prostitute, has been renamed Laure, in honour of the black maid in the background.

Being ignored

“Madeleine, the black woman in the painting, has been subject to a silencing or obliteration of her identity by a generic title…so being able to rename her was important,” continues Murrell.

Similarly, Laure, who inspired one of Manet’s most important works, is barely noticed, and extensive scholarship on the work has focused more on the cat than the servant stooping down to offer flowers to the white woman.

“Laure was emblematic of the condition of the diaspora, being invisible even though one is in plain view. I wanted to do something about it,” comments Murrell.

Revealing the maid’s identity became the foundation of the curator’s doctoral dissertation, Seeing Laure, Race and Modernity from Manet’s Olympia to Matisse, Bearden and Beyond, and an earlier exhibition of Le Modèle Noir in New York that Murrell curated called, Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today.

Black studies

Over 400,000 visitors flocked to the Orsay museum to see Laure and many of the other Black figures in French art such as Haitian model Joseph, who was the central figure of Gericault’s famous painting the Raft of the Medusa.

Joseph was portrayed as the hero in the artwork – the one who called for rescue for the other stricken crewmembers. In an era where slavery was still rampant, such a favourable portrayal was a clear call for abolition.

For Murrell, the success of Le Modèle Noir is a clear sign of the "hunger" in ...
16 Sep 2019 English South Africa News

Other recent episodes

Spotlight on Africa: celebrating women's empowerment for Women's History Month

This week, Spotlight on Africa highlights women's empowerment across the continent, as March marks the beginning of Women's History Month, and  International Women's Day on 8 March. Officially recognised by the United Nations in 1977, International Women's Day (IWD) originated from the labour movements of the early twentieth century.On 8 March,…
4 Mar 25 min

The crisis in the DRC and the African Union response

As fighting continues in South Kivu between M23 rebels and Congolese forces in the eastern regions bordering Rwanda, uncertainty surrounding the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo grows. This week, we discuss how the African Union can assist with a International Crisis Group expert and address humanitarian risks with…
18 Feb 21 min

Morocco: Bridging Africa and the world through contemporary art

This week, Spotlight on Africa takes us to Marrakech, Morocco. RFI English was on the ground to cover the Moroccan edition of the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which first launched in London in 2013, followed by New York in 2015, and Marrakech in 2018. Through conversations with a range…
4 Feb 20 min

DRC takes on Apple: can conflict mineral mining be stopped?

The Democratic Republic of Congo is launching an unprecedented case against the American tech giant Apple over conflict minerals. To explore the issues at hand, RFI talked to a former UN expert to discuss whether any progress has been made in curbing illegal mining. This week, we focus on the…
8 Jan 24 min