Rober Colescott’s never-before-seen series of works on paper, ROBERT’S complete HiSTORY of WORLD ART, is now on view for the first time at Blum & Poe. Colescott is known for blowing paintings apart, exploding the entire conceit of art history itself and putting it all back together again with a sense of satire. In the process, he puts a new spin on the way art history tells its own story.
The series kicks off with four cigarette-holding buxom, fleshy women wearing thigh highs and garters. Each woman represents an early art historical period. For example, Rome is personified by a woman with her legs splayed, puffs of cigarette smoke wrapped around herself like a feather boa. This may call to mind the famous Roman sculpture “Laocoön and His Sons.”
Similarly, Islam is portrayed by a Black woman with a mound of pubic hair peeking out from behind her salacious getup. However, the only indication that she is supposed to represent Islam is her veil and the arabesque clouds of smoke that descend in curlicues around the figure. The supposed modesty of the veil seems to mock the caution surrounding nudity and representation of the figure within traditions of Islamic art.
Colescott takes artistic liberties by inserting his own version of the art historical isms, all while challenging the viewer to assess one’s own idea of what beauty, art, history, race and religion should look like. His body of work is an attempt to critique the entirety of art history, while offering to perhaps present the ridiculousness of it all.
