The Many Shade s of Black

Three Decades of Carrie Mae Weems

At The Frist Center For The Visual Arts

like the lives of most African

Edward Rubin

The Frist Center For The Visual Arts, also known as “The Little

Museum That Could” has been mounting important, groundbreaking

exhibitions ever since it opened its doors 12 years ago in

Nashville, Tennessee. Housed in a beautiful Art Deco post office

from the early 30s—the building is listed on the National Register of

Historic Places. The Frist is Nashville’s answer, on a smaller scale of

course, to the “big boy” museums like the Museum of Modern Art in

New York City. It may be small but it mounts big.

Most recently on view was Carrie Mae Weems’ retrospective,

“Three Decades of Photographs and Video.” Beautifully curated

by Kathryn Delmez who did her thesis on the African American

artist, is a provocative, thought-provoking, and timely exhibition—

think Spielberg’s “Lincoln”, Tarantino’s Django “Unchained”, both

currently up for Oscars—and Obama in the White House will be on

the road throughout 2013 and well into 2014. Leaving the Frist, its

originating venue, it travels to the Oregon Art Museum, Cleveland’s

Museum of Art, Cantor Arts Center in California, ending its run at

the Guggenheim in New York.

Carrie Mae Weems, subjects examine things from every

conceivable angle including race, gender, class, identity, culture,

history and institutional power. She has been showing her work

internationally for over three decades. Still, her work and reputation,

– Edward Rubin

The Many Shade s of Bla ck

Three Decades of Carrie Mae Weems

At The Frist Center For The Visual Arts

like the lives of most African Americans, a fact her body of work

aims to change, has been flying mostly under the radar. “It’s fair

to say that black folks,” she told one interviewer, “operate under a

cloud of invisibility—this too is part of my work, is indeed central

to the work…Even in the midst of the great social changes we’ve

experienced just in the last years with the election of Barack Obama,

for the most part African Americans and our lives remain invisible.”

Viewed in this light, this retrospective is something of a corrective—

an early marker, pointing the way to a post-racial era?

The layout of the show turns the visitor’s viewing experience, in

gallery after gallery; into a poignant walk through the artist’s own

personal history, the history of African-Americans in this country,

and by extension, peoples around the world. Preparing us for our

journey is Family Pictures and Stories (1978-84), the artist’s first

major photographic series. Here Weems generously shares, through

candid images with text, and actual audio recordings, the outer and

inner lives of her Portland, Oregon based family. One particular

picture, Family Reunion, depicts her family at what appears to be

the beginnings of a picnic.