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Titus Kaphar

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Titus Kaphar
Kaphar in 2017
Born1976 (age 47–48)
Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.
EducationSan José State University
Yale University
OccupationArtist
HonoursMacArthur Fellows Program
Websitewww.kapharstudio.com

Titus Kaphar is an American contemporary painter whose work reconfigures and regenerates art history to include African-American subjects. His paintings are held in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, New Britain Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Mississippi Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and University of Michigan Museum of Art.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Background

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Titus Kaphar was born in 1976 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His first introduction to art was in a junior college art history course, and he taught himself to paint by visiting museums. He received his BFA from San José State University in 2001 and his MFA from Yale University. His work is often multidimensional and sculptural, with canvases slashed and dangling off the frame, or hanging over another painting. One such example is Behind the Myth of Benevolence, a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, painted in the Neoclassical style, which he attached to the corner of the frame of a nude portrait of Sally Hemings. The juxtaposition of the fully-clothed Jefferson with Hemmings' nudity reinforces the unfair power dynamic between the two, and revises Jefferson's public image to include his sexual relationship with his much-younger slave.[7]

The Vesper Project

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The Vesper Project is one of Kaphar's most immersive installations. It concerns a fictional African-American family in the 19th century that passes for white. Kaphar created an installation where visitors would walk through a 19th-century house, uncertain about what was reality and what was remembrance. The project was inspired by Kaphar's attempt to paint a portrait of his aunt, only to realize that parts of his memories of her were fictive. He spoke about the experience while promoting his show: "It occurred to me that, for some reason, my brain had decided to insert her into periods in my life when I needed extra support. That left me reeling; it left me frightened. It made me feel as if I couldn’t trust my own memory. I felt like I was losing my mind."[8]

The Vesper Project was also a collaboration with a visitor to the Yale Art Gallery, where one of Kaphar's paintings was displayed. The visitor, Benjamin Vesper, experienced a mental breakdown during his visit and punched one of Kaphar's paintings. During Vesper's subsequent institutionalization,[9] Kaphar and Vesper began a correspondence. The two exchanged letters for some time, writing about family and mental instability. Vesper broke out of the hospital and visited a 19th-century house, believing it was his family's home. Kaphar intended to create a physical space for Vesper to return and face his memories, and this became the foundation of The Vesper Project. The rooms contain fragments of memories, specters, and paintings. These rooms are able to be walked through and experienced.[10]

Time magazine

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Kaphar was commissioned in 2014 by Time magazine to paint a response to the Ferguson Uprising. The work was a 4-by-5-foot (1.2 m × 1.5 m) oil on canvas and used Kaphar's signature style of painting over his own work with white paint. The painting is titled Yet Another Fight for Remembrance and depicts two protesters with their hands raised with white paint streaked over their bodies and faces.[11]

Behind the Myth of Benevolence

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In 2014, Kaphar painted Behind the Myth of Benevolence, which depicts President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman held captive by Jefferson and the mother of six children fathered by Jefferson.[12][13] Kaphar painted the canvas in such a way as to create the illusion that the portrait of Jefferson painted by Rembrandt Peale in 1800 is being pulled back like a curtain to reveal a seated Hemings.[14] The portrait is effectively a painting within a painting.[15] Kaphar, speaking about the painting and its subject, Sally Hemings, said, "This painting is about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, and yet it is not. The reason I say, ‘And yet it is not,’ is because we know from the actual history that Sally Hemings was very fair. Very, very fair. The woman who sits here is not just simply a representation of Sally Hemings, she's more of a symbol of many of the Black women whose stories have been shrouded by the narratives of our deified founding fathers."[16]

Behind the Myth of Benevolence was damaged on three occasions while it was on view at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., prompting the museum to post security guards by the painting for the remainder of its exhibition.[17][18]

Exhibiting Forgiveness

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Kaphar's directorial feature film debut is Exhibiting Forgiveness. The film stars André Holland, Andra Day, John Earl Jelks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024 and is set to be released on October 18, 2024.[19][20][21][22]

Exhibitions

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Space to Forget (2014) at the National Gallery of Art's showing of Afro-Atlantic Histories in 2022.

Kaphar has staged numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and internationally. His solo shows include The House That Crack Built (2000), San Jose State University Gallery; Painting Undone (2005), Savannah College of Art and Design Red Gallery; The Jerome Project (2014), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Vesper Project (2014), originating at Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; and Language of the Forgotten (2019), Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams.[23]

Kaphar has also participated in a large number of group exhibitions, including The Black Index (2021), and Afro-Atlantic Histories (2022).[23][24] His work, Shadows of Liberty (2016), was featured in Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus (2022) at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The work is a reimagined presentation of John Faed's Portrait of George Washington Taking the Salute at Trenton (1856).[25]

Notable works in public collections

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Awards

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Source: [36]

References

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  1. ^ "Modern and Contemporary Art". yale.edu. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  2. ^ "Titus Kaphar". moma.org. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  3. ^ "Time Person of the Year". time.com. December 10, 2014. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  4. ^ "Local Donors Strengthen VMFA's Contemporary Collection". vmfa.museum. 21 March 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  5. ^ "Titus Kaphar". jackshainman.com. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  6. ^ "Exchange: Flay (James Madison)". exchange.umma.umich.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  7. ^ "Annette Gordon-Reed and Titus Kaphar — Are We Actually Citizens Here?". The On Being Project. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  8. ^ Frank, Priscilla (2013-02-17). "Artist Titus Kaphar Talks Memory And Madness In His Latest Installation, 'The Vesper Project' (INTERVIEW, PHOTOS)". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  9. ^ "Exhibit | Titus Kaphar: The Vesper Project - Crave Online". CraveOnline. 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  10. ^ generator, metatags. "The Vesper Project - TITUS KAPHAR". TITUS KAPHAR. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
  11. ^ "Titus Kaphar on Putting Black Figures Back Into Art History and His Solution for the Problem of Confederate Monuments". Artnet News. 27 March 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  12. ^ Jacob Urist (23 September 2020). "TITUS KAPHAR, ARTIST OF THE TIMES, PAINTS WITH EYES OPEN". Cultured Magazine. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  13. ^ Stockman, Farah (16 June 2018). "Monticello Is Done Avoiding Jefferson's Relationship With Sally Hemings". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  14. ^ Mary Louise Kelly (4 October 2018). "Meet The MacArthur Fellow Disrupting Racism In Art". NPR. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  15. ^ Ray Hardman (11 June 2020). "Painting By New Haven Artist Makes Cover Of Time Magazine". WNPR. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  16. ^ Victoria L. Valentine (28 March 2018). "National Portrait Gallery: Titus Kaphar and Ken Gonzales-Day Explore 'UnSeen' Narratives in Historic Portraitur". Culturetype. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  17. ^ Daniel Boffey (27 September 2020). "Rebel US artist puts black lives in the Renaissance frame". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  18. ^ Alicia Ault (4 April 2018). "Two Artists in Search of Missing History". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  19. ^ Owen Gleiberman. "'Exhibiting Forgiveness' Review: A Father-Son Drama Free of Fakery". variety.com. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
  20. ^ "Exhibiting Forgiveness review – André Holland powers moving father-son drama | Sundance 2024". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
  21. ^ Jourdain Searles. "'Exhibiting Forgiveness' Review: André Holland Fights for His Future". IndieWire. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
  22. ^ Jones, Marcus (2024-07-03). "Sundance Gem 'Exhibiting Forgiveness' Sets October Release Date". IndieWire. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
  23. ^ a b "Titus Kaphar Biography" (PDF). Gagosian. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 March 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  24. ^ "The Black Index". University of California, Irvine. Retrieved 2 October 2024. The artists featured in The Black Index—Dennis Delgado, Alicia Henry, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Titus Kaphar, Whitfield Lovell, and Lava Thomas—build upon the tradition of Black self-representation as an antidote to colonialist images.
  25. ^ Mishak, Shawn (March 4, 2022). "The Cleveland Museum of Art Presents 'Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus'". Cleveland Scene.
  26. ^ "Uncle Thomas". Seattle Art Museum. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  27. ^ "Visual Arts Review: The Legacy Museum — An American Inheritance". The Arts Fuse. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  28. ^ "The Jerome Project (Asphalt and Chalk) V". MoMA. Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 26 April 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  29. ^ "Jerome XXIX". Studio Museum. 5 December 2018. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  30. ^ "Stripes". NGV. National Gallery of Victoria. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  31. ^ "Unfit Frame". ArtsBMA. Birmingham Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  32. ^ "Shadows of Liberty". Yale University Art Gallery.
  33. ^ "The Cost of Removal". Crystal Bridges. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  34. ^ "From a Tropical Space". MoMA. Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  35. ^ "Contour of Loss". Met Museum. Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  36. ^ "Titus Kaphar Biography" (PDF). Gagosian. Retrieved Apr 10, 2024.
  37. ^ Deb, Sopan (4 October 2018). "MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners for 2018: The Full List". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
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