Raymond Saunders: Black is a Color

Having exhibited nationally and internationally since 1952, Saunders, working in a range of media from drawing to assemblage, interrogates the false premise that artists who happen to be black produce something that can be uniquely identified as “black art.” Rather, Saunders dares his audiences to accept the fact that black really is just a color; one among many on the palette of any artist who seeks to emancipate himself and his practice from the binds of identity-driven art. The paintings on view incorporate traditional and nontraditional materials such as found objects, doilies, ephemera from his personal archives, and chalk. He often works and reworks paintings; sometimes subtracting and other times adding elements that may feel familiar, recalling the work of such contemporaries as Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.