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Thelma golden black male7/5/2023 ![]() ![]() He wears a dancer's top that strains to reach his belly button, and a lengthy piece of tulle luxuriously flows from his waist like a dancer's tutu, except where he rolled it up, revealing his penis. Amongst all the heavy-hitters of the day: David Hammons, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andres Serrano, Robert Colescott - here was a young Harris, standing tall with all the bravado in the world.įour photographs: two forward-facing, two from behind, Harris nude or nearly nude in the solitude of a studio, floating in the space between a crude backdrop and the camera. Debates spilled out through the museum doors and into mainstream media (see YouTube for Golden on Charlie Rose). Before the show had opened, audiences made up their minds: perhaps equal parts applause and pointed opposition. It was a hallmark for greater museum inclusion. This was Golden's first museum group exhibition, and she conceived a show about race, but not all of the artists were of the same race, ethnicity or gender. The exhibition marked a seminal moment in art history and Harris was one of the show's bright stars. ![]() ![]() This work was selected for the pioneering exhibition, Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, curated by Thelma Golden at the Whitney Museum. In 1989, in just his second semester of the MFA program at the California Institute of the Arts, Harris worked on a groundbreaking series called Constructs. Lyle Ashton Harris has had a knack for being part of groundbreaking exhibitions from a young age. ![]()
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