Gary Baseman is not an artist of recent African descent, but his work may or may not have something to do with the Black experience. I am no expert on his art or his theory, so I only throw this out as a question:
Can Baseman's work be crossing the line into racist sterotyping?
It has been said that Baseman is one of the most successful artists in America today. Baseman states that his work "blurs the line between toy culture and fine art." My question is, what is the message he is trying to convey? Clearly, the non-human creatures in his paintings are modeled off of vintage cartoon figures. He is stripping away an perceived innocence the viewer may have of these animal-like cartoon figures, as they have their way with the female figures.
The big question I ponder is why the animal-like figures seem so much like black face icons to me? How should I feel about a monkey-like figure tying up a pale fleshed woman and spilling his (Baseman's words) "creamy goodness" on her ? Who is the perpetrator? Is it Baseman, or is it me? Am I just looking to point a finger at a man whose intentions are good?
Is this not a perpetuation of the racist cartoons from the 1930's and 1940's?
What's more-- this guy is making a killing off of these images. He's not the only one, but he has been featured in prominent magazines like Esquire, Forbes, the NY Times. He has works featured in the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. and has a children's TV show on the Disney channel. I even own the board game he illustrated, Cranium.
Clearly, I'm missing the point. Will someone please enlighten me? Maybe to be a successful artist these days you have to study under Dorr Eldred Wood, President of the ACME School of Drawing in the 1940's (see the advertisment below).
I don't know, maybe I'm way off Base.......
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