Michael Ray Charles…
is an African-American painter, that has lived all over the country, but was born in Louisiana and currently resides in Texas. His work primarily deals with a critical investigation into historic racial stereotypes of African Americans and effect that has had on society’s view of African Americans in general. Charles works in a colorful and graphic but antiqued style, which combines historical imagery of Black caricatures and stereotypes such as the Sambo, Aunt Jemima, grinning pickaninnies, and Uncle Tom, and combines it with a contemporary commentary on how these have been demeaning and damaging to African Americans.
Major themes:
Race, violence, gender, sexuality, identity, storytelling
Reflection:
Michael Ray Charles has come under some criticism as perpetuating the stereotypes that were made about African Americans in the early 20th century and before, however, I feel that in order to overcome a stereotype, you can not just push it under the rug and pretend it never happened. You have to talk about and discuss it and look at it from all points of view to realize that it is truly dangerous to group people into broad, generally offensive and untrue categories. A stereotype is defined as “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing” (Google). I have heard people talk about stereotypes before in the way that they are there for a reason, as if there is some truth to them or they wouldn’t exist. However, I feel that the key word in the definition is “oversimplified.” Human beings are not generic facsimiles of each other, they are layered, complex and unique individuals. There are so many experiences and nuances to humans, that what we see on the surface as “similar” makes it easy to not see what is underneath. To get closer, to learn what is truly special about each person is difficult at best. In a way, this difficulty has allowed people to succumb to stereotypes and not fight them, even when the stereotype is about a category of humanness you fall into. However, I feel that art and art education can help to overcome not just the perpetuation of stereotypes and call attention to that uniqueness to society, it can also allow the artist to examine him/her/themself and realize that they truly are not just like everyone else - and that is a great thing. Michael Ray Charles is doing this with his art. He is taking the ideal of “beauty” and exposing it for what it really is - how it “embodies what we consider ugly as well as what we consider beautiful.” There are two (or more) sides to every story, and that must be examined to overcome the fear we generate when we generalize.
Lesson Plan Inspired by Michael Ray Charles:
A possible lesson idea would be to identify several stereotypes, especially those that students have been directly affected by, and create a painting or some other form of art that critically examines the stereotype by showing it but using a narrative element on top of it, either symbolically or through text, to think about it in a new way. This shows the power of visual imagery and shows that stereotypes are often employed in society, especially in advertising and other visual culture that is trying to communicate to a large audience in a quick way. Those subtle visual cues affect our lives in many ways, and to allow students to research and examine these stereotypes and then subvert them through art is a great way to learn about their society and subtle influences in their every day lives.
Questions:
Why does Michael Ray Charles use a similar style to old advertisements?
In what ways is he perpetuating stereotypes? How is he working to break stereotypes?
Do you think there is a more effective way to break stereotypes?
In what ways do stereotypes represent or conversely, influence our identities?
What other examples of stereotypes have you seen in visual culture?
