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The Identity Politics Movement focuses on the relationship between identity and how it is represented visually. Artists in this movement often use their art to represent their own authentic life experiences. This movement tends to feature women artists, artists of color, LGBTQ+ artists, disabled artists, and indigenous artists who focus on issues of identity. The Identity Politics Movement is a movement against authoritarianism by emphasizing the role of identity, repression, inequality, and injustice in society. Often focused on the experience of marginalized groups, it is used to critique the systematic oppression of these groups. Critics say that this movement is often simplistic, as it allows one individuals point of view to become representative for an entire identity. More recently however, artists have begun to focus on the complexity of identity and how one’s identity shifts over time. Art from the Identity Politics movement is often confrontational as it asks: what kind of art should be made? And, who is it made for?

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/identity-art/

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Identity Art & Identity Politics Movement Overview

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Artists of color, LGBTQ+ artists, and women have used their art to stage and display experiences of identity and community.

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In the twentieth century The Civil Rights movement and Second Wave Feminism brought attention to the fact that most artists, curators, and patrons of art were white, heterosexual men. As African Americans fought for legal rights, they also battled stereotypes and discrimination. The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920’s was when African American arts first began to gain traction. African Americans sought to define their own culture and identity through their art. By the middle of the century African American artists as well as other artists of color began to make work that brought attention to the discrimination and prejudice of racial minority groups.

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/identity-art/

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Identity Art & Identity Politics Movement Overview

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Artists of color, LGBTQ+ artists, and women have used their art to stage and display experiences of identity and community.

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Second Wave Feminism also influenced the identity politics movement. I’ll leave most of the explanation out here, as there is another Padlet about specifically Feminist Art. I will say that like the Influence of the Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights, women began creating art that critiqued or ironically emphasized the dominance of men both in society and the art world.

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/identity-art/

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Identity Art & Identity Politics Movement Overview

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Artists of color, LGBTQ+ artists, and women have used their art to stage and display experiences of identity and community.

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Kahinde Wiley is famous for his revisions of historical works, as well as his intricate backgrounds (including the background of this Padlet). One of his most famous works, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, is strikingly like Jacques-Louis David’s, Napoleon Crossing the Alps. In Wiley’s painting it isn’t Napoleon Bonaparte on the horse, but a young African American man dressed in contemporary clothing. The contrast brings attention to the race of both Napoleon, white European, and the man in Wiley’s painting, Black African American. Wiley may be doing this to show the oft forgotten role of ordinary people in historical events. It may also be to criticize society’s Eurocentric perspective of the world.

Another of Kahinde Wiley’s most famous works is the official portrait of Barak Obama. Though this work does not reference a historical piece, it does stand in stark contrast to previous presidential portraits. Instead of a traditional background of a mantle or the exterior of the White House, Kahinde’s painting features bright greenery and flowers referencing significant parts of President Obama’s life. Being the first Black president, Obama purposefully chose an artist that understood that identity and would incorporate it in his official portrait.

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/wiley-kehinde/

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Frida Kahlo is often considered a surrealist artist, often depicting dream like human organs in barren landscapes. But her work also fits in with the Identity Politics movement. At a young age Kahlo was in a bus accident that resulted in a life long disability. She learned to paint from her wheelchair, painting from only her perspective. She often included characteristics of Mexican folk paint in her work: bright colors, death, religion, and nature. In the painting above, The Two Fridas, she paints herself once in traditional Victorian clothing, and once in traditional Tijuana clothing. Painted shortly after her divorce, she aims to show her anguish, as if her life has been split in two, but also her resilience, her heart is still whole. Frida Kahlo’s work is less about representing the identity of a group, and more about representing her own identity and lived experiences.

https://youtu.be/B9XYtPqWLB4

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Romare Bearden, an iconic African-American artist, began his career during the Harlem Renaissance. He focused on the experience, hopes, and lives of African Americans. Starting off as a painter, Bearden began creating collages from old magazine cutouts. His collages subject matter were taken straight from the life of someone living in Harlem: train yards, migrants, Jazz music, and African American spirituality.

The painting included above, Three Folk Musicians, depicts the authentic life experience of someone in Harlem: people gathered around listening to music. His choice of medium, collages, may also be representative of the African-American experience at the time. It was never a priority, it was cast a side, trash to be forgotten.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/romare-bearden-12958

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Chov Theanly is a young Cambodian artist. His painting above, from his Striving collection, depicts a young Cambodian on a farm. It shows the reality of young Cambodians, as they live on farms far away from large cities, but still have moto’s and their famous Angkor Beer. Theanly’s works are often surrealist, with dream like visuals that aim to depict the life and thoughts of the people of Cambodia.

https://aura-asia-art-project.com/en/artists/chov-theanly/

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Faith Ringgold is famous for her unique medium, painted quilts. Quilt making’s roots date back to slaves in the south. Ringgold makes quilts, then paints them to tell the stories of those in the Black community. She said, “My process is to give us ‘colored folk’ and women a taste of the American dream straight up. Since the facts don’t do that too often, I decided to make it up.” Like many artists from this movement, her goal is to show the life of a marginalized group and to better represent their identity.

https://www.faithringgold.com/about-faith/