Panel

Racial and ethnic caricatures and stereotype are finding renewed acceptance among exhibitors, collectors, and critics of contemporary art. What changes in attitudes and which aspects of recent art theory are driving this? In hope of contributing to a thoughtful debate over the role of stereotypical images in the visual arts, this panel addresses the following questions: Why has this type of work become popular now? Have the arts professions maintained an intellectual distance from critical examination of such work and the assumptions behind it? Have vital distinctions among diverse artists been lost or left unexamined as a result? Discussants consider specific works of art by Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, Michael Ray Charles, and Robert Colescott, among others.

Moderators
Valerie J. Mercer, independent curator and art historian
Jorge Daniel Veneciano, independent curator and cultural critic

Participants
Kerry James Marshall
Michael Ray Charles
bell hooks