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At fterword: No Now (1994/2005)

“ history and are often distinguished on the grounds that one treats the art of the past, distanced in time from its subject, and the other deals with recent art or with older art from the vantage point of contempo- rary experience”:1 so, very sensibly, notes the Irving Sandler. The peculiar hybrid that is contemporary , however, exists in the space between criticism and scholarship, between and history. That space is necessarily unstable because the current moment keeps hur- tling forward and the historical past likewise refuses to sit still for very long. This book has asked readers to consider contemporary art as a category that extends beyond—as well as before—the most recent biennial, issue of Artfo- rum, international art fair, and emerging art star. It takes about a year for a university press book to appear once the final manuscript has been submitted by the author. Given this, when writing What Was Contemporary Art? I knew that it would be at least twelve months out of date by the time it was published. Rather than regretting this delay, I have come to view it as a metaphor for the necessity of falling behind the times, for the importance of losing step with the ever-advancing march and marketing of contemporary art. By one recent accounting, there are now more than one hundred biennial exhibitions of contemporary art across the globe, from São Paolo to to Sharjah, with “almost one every ten days, on average.”2 The has never been more genuinely global, or more massively capital- ized, than it is today. In researching this book, I attended versions of the Ven- ice , the Whitney Biennial, the Athens Biennial, , and Art

8043.indb 259 2/1/13 2:18 PM 2/1/13 2:18 PM Performance in America demonstrates how works of U.S. His 2005 book challenges this presumption by showing

3 4 Performance in America: Contemporary U.S. Culture and the and Culture U.S. Contemporary America: in Performance In In approaching the contemporary as a historical phenomenon, I follow theater theater and performance from 1994 to 2004 revived a wide-ranging archive British the of and mid through American twenti- the from culture eighteenth of pace ever-quickening the with up keep to trying than Rather centuries. eth wealth a find to works recent through back looked Román contemporary, the of prior performances—from nineteenth-century saloon songs to golden-era Broadway musicals—embedded within them. In so doing, he revealed how a performance could be both contemporary and historical, both thoroughly and deeply archival. up-to-date Basel , as well as various satellite events and expositions, including the including and expositions, events satellite as various as well Basel Miami, to trying that me to clear became soon It Beach. Miami in Fair Now” “Art 2007 up keep with the pace of the art contemporary world was a practical impos- not sibility, least because I lacked the financial resources to do so. Archival research, critical thinking, the crafting of book-length chapters—these tasks contem- writing In now.” “art of logic or tempo the to themselves lend not do behind lag to paradoxically, necessary, be therefore may it art history, porary the time of the contemporary , behind the latest biennial opening, posting. project, or blog ’s historian theater and scholar performance the partner, life my of example the In Román. David contem- the theorize to efforts “critical that observes Román , Performing porary are often accused of being a ‘presentist’: focus on the contemporary could as if the contemporary history, of the at expense come to is presumed only be understood as antagonistic to the past, or in a mutually exclusive relationship to it.” that “contemporary performance is itself already embedded in a historical ar- historical a in embedded already itself is performance “contemporary that this In history. in work the contextualize help that performances past of chive way, the contemporary participates in an ongoing dialogue with previously the theatrical past,works contemporary now to relegated literary or history, cultural memory.”

Afterword 260 8043.indb 260 Not Now (1994/2005) 261 2/1/13 2:18 PM The following following The 5 (1994)

October published an interview with Andy con- Warhol hinestones R I turn first to an artist’s interview published interview then in I to 1994, an turn to artfirst an artist’s open- What Was Contemporary Art? has likewise sought to demonstrate the At At several other points in the conversation, Warhol similarly rejects Warhol’s In 1994, the journal Through- Buchloh. D. H. Benjamin critic and historian art the by 1985 in ducted out much of the interview, Buchloh is concerned with questions of artistic when. Warhol to mattered and art which with influence, ing ing in 2005. In at both issue associations cases, triggers with the other event moments that unsettle the relation between contemporary art and history. then was the what by and challenged is reworked the past instances, both In moment. current dialectical relationship of (once) current cultural production to cultural the current historical dialectical of (once) relationship on it visual arthas focused and in do its the so, reproduction United past. To States in the first half By of the way of twentieth century. conclusion, I want now.” “art of the pressure resisting while still the present to nearer step to Buchloh’s attempts Buchloh’s to create a modernist pedigree for his art. When asked about the impact of meeting in the 1960s, Warhol states, exchange is typical: exchange draw- linear early your of origins the about speculated have People Buchloh: ing style, whether it comes more out of Matisse, or had been influenced by Cocteau, or came right out of Ben Shahn. I was always surprised that they in factor a they Were Picabia. or example, for Ray, Man at looked really never of the or late your 1950s, did think you of work your at that time as commercial? totally art. commercial just it was Yeah, Warhol: 8043.indb 261 2/1/13 2:18 PM Throughout the conversation, the 8 10 And, in a moment of terrifically unambigu- 7 6 Not only does Warhol disclaim about the which knowledge Not only does Warhol 9 Warhol’s criteria for judging art cannot be made to conform to Buchloh’s, Buchloh’s, to conform to made be cannot art judging for criteria Warhol’s The interview bespeaks the desire of the art historian to locate the artist artist the locate to historian art the of desire the bespeaks interview The Buchloh inquires but he also denies that knowledge in the present (1985) mo- (1985) present the in knowledge that denies also he but inquires Buchloh ment of the By interview. admitting that he (still) does not know Man Ray’s as work of body that identifying of possibility the precludes Warhol drawings, his own. for a source invites Buchloh interview, the Throughout consternation. latter’s the to much to Warhol comment negatively on (then) current forms of neoexpressionist , which the critic feels have failed to heed the lessons of pop and : Buchloh: So the shift that has occurred in the last five years has not at all bothered you? The return to figuration, the return to manual painting pro- nothing cedures—that’s that you see in conflict with your own work and its history? the same. doing I’m because No, Warhol: “No, I know him didn’t “No, that well.” famously impassive artist offers variations on his preferred response (“I don’t don’t (“I response preferred his on variations offers artist impassive famously questions. to know”) within a genealogical schema of influence and innovation. The artist, however, however, artist, The innovation. and influence of schema genealogical a within will not play along. has After disclaimed Warhol Man Ray as an influence on been have not would you “And asks, Buchloh 1950s, the of art commercial his when “Well, responds, Warhol sixties?” the until drawings Ray’s Man of aware I guess I I did know the still know don’t Man he Ray was just a photographer. really.” drawings ous rejection, the artist responds to a question about the influence of Fran- cis Picabia on his commercial drawings of the 1950s by saying, “I didn’t even know who that person was” at the time.

Afterword 262 8043.indb 262 Not Now (1994/2005) 263 2/1/13 2:18 PM

11 In a neat reversal of his oft-cited desire to be a machine, 12 Toward the turns end away of from Warhol the discussing Toward artinterview, Earlier in the interview, the artist rejected an avant-garde lineage for his for lineage the artist rejected an avant-garde Earlier in the interview, entirely entirely to describe something he witnessed earlier that same day: “I don’t that people were there and district, handbag the to went I morning this know, spend all day putting just in with rhinestones their hands, which is amaz- just ing, that they do everything by hand. It would be different if some machine did it and . . . ” Far from judging the return to figuration or to painting by hand as regressive, regressive, as hand by painting to or figuration to return the judging from Far the artist that acknowledges return within his own practice. By insisting that “I’m doing the same,” he refuses the vanguardist logic proposed by Buchloh without conflict. repetition a of of in favor Rather Rather than seeing recent tendencies in contemporary art as contradicting tendencies. same those practicing to admits blithely Warhol work, earlier his Warhol Warhol here finds himself fascinated by a labor of decoration that cannot be fully mechanized. Rather than rejecting “manual painting procedures” in the manner that Buchloh directs anticipates, Warhol the to conversation an in the handbag district. morning time and place—this unexpected 1950s drawings and identified them instead as “just commercial art.” Much of the appeal of early Warhol’s commercial imagery in paradoxically, lay, its noncommercial, hand-wrought appearance and ornamental wit. Though he and draw did Warhol handbags, actual to rhinestones attached have not may trace rhinestones, beads, buckles, and gilt clasps in illustrations of ladies’ handbags, shoes, belts, and other accessories for fashion advertisements and newspaper articles throughout the 1950s. In 1985, his mention of what he saw that morning not only marks a rejection of the model of avant-garde innovation and failure proposed by Buchloh; it also recalls the commercial imagery and materials with which the first decade of career Warhol’s reiterates handbags was on rhinestones of mention artist’s The concerned. largely 8043.indb 263 2/1/13 2:18 PM 14 Here, Buchloh refers again to neo-expressionist painting, again to neo-expressionist Buchloh refers Here, 13 Warhol all Warhol but tells Buchloh to look beyond the paradigm of individual Just after his mention of rhinestones, Warhol’s voice trails off. As though though As off. trails voice Warhol’s rhinestones, of mention his after Just It’s like in the sixties when we met our first drag queens, and they thought thought they and queens, drag first our met we when sixties the in like It’s have partya kids little these and to go I it.do to Now first the were they become people queens, drag now being the queens. drag younger They think they are the only people who thought ever of being a drag queen, which it,all like they is invented new sort and again and of it’s weird. It’s interesting. it really so it makes stuff, Warhol sees the Warhol claims of “younger people now” to have “invented” drag as gen- each which in innovation heroic of model a of Instead interesting.” “really eration must create something radically from different the last, he proposes relevant. newly making in the sense of as renewal repetition When work. his understand to wishes he if influence and achievement artistic his refusal to affiliate his 1950s drawings with pantheon Buchloh’s of artists (Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau, Man Ben Ray, Shahn, Duchamp, Picabia) and design. and labor manual of order different quite a within work that inscribes proper of series a as history art time—with of out line—and of out falls Warhol names and punctual movements. world, art contemporary the of discourse a to return to need the recognizing he then asks Buchloh, “Have you been going to galleries and seeing all the new I Buchloh things?” go and responds, fairly “Yes, I consistently, never re- ally quite understood why everything has been turned around in that way, why all of a sudden people start looking at painting again as if certain things happened.” never which he sees as outmoded and redundant in its insistence on painterly au- as outmodedness or redundancy understand not does Warhol But thenticity. art the from away turns again Warhol Buchloh, to this explaining In problem. a example: different a quite and toward world

Afterword 264 8043.indb 264 5.1 ’s ad for I. Miller Shoes. New York Times, September 25, 1955. (Courtesy The Archives of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Founding Collection.) © 2012 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the , Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

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8043.indb 265 2/1/13 2:18 PM 2/1/13 2:18 PM Glenn Throughout the Throughout 15 (2005)

Light

For Warhol, however, the reception of art, whether Duchamp’s or his or art, Duchamp’s of whether reception the however, Warhol, For 16 At At the very start of the interview, Buchloh explains to Warhol that “I Ligon’s I’ve just arrived in and Toronto am already running late. My taxi driver isn’t need I space art the Gallery, Art Contemporary Plant Power the with familiar to get to. But he does know Harbourfront Centre, the cultural complex of which the Plant Power is part. He drops me off beside an expanse of shops and high-rise condominiums and I run into the building that looks the most exhibit survey the of opening the for here am I factory. renovated a like the critic asks, for example, whether the accumulations of the - ist Arman inspired the serial pop nature of silkscreens in Warhol’s the early I response well, is I think unequivocal: “No, didn’t that way. 1960s, the artist’s thing.” a for looking was I anything. of thinking wasn’t I didn’t. interview, Warhol steps outside steps the canonical timeline by Buchloh proposed Warhol interview, and into the time “when we met our first drag queens” and the time “this morning [when] I went to the handbag district.” By situating art alongside other things and people in the social and eludes material world, art- Warhol sequence definitive a within art his fixing than Rather periodization. historical of sources and influences, Warhol opts for multiple times and places. Like the rhinestones he saw “this morning” that simultaneously recalled his com- present moment mercial returns drawings from Warhol’s thirty years earlier, it. than transcending rather the past and reformulates to am currently doing research on the reception of work and Duchamp’s in the late 1950s and I would like to go a bit into that history mind.” if you don’t own, own, could not be slotted into a stable time frame. It kept seeping out into other times and places. In the final section of this book, I consider how we might bring a similar sense of untimeliness to viewing—and writing about— art. contemporary

Afterword 266 8043.indb 266 Not Now (1994/2005) 267 2/1/13 2:18 PM 18 17 . Though . Though to give a sense of the ever-quickening pace of the contem- to a give of sense the ever-quickening It It takes a moment to adjust to the modified light of the galleries, and I in medias in res medias You have just read a portion of present-tense art criticism from the past. Occa- past. the from criticism art present-tense of portion a read just have You long have I artist an by exhibition major a of opening 2005 June the by sioned of issue 2006 in May the published was piece the admired, already eleven months out of date by the time it was published, the piece be- piece the published, was it time the by date of out months eleven already gan tempo. accelerated its with up keeping of challenge the and world art porary Ligon: Some —but Changes virtually no one else seems to be. The place is nearly deserted. I look over to the gallery assistant at the front desk, who says, “They’re all out on the deck.” After convincing her to stash my luggage behind the desk, I walk quickly through the galleries and out the back of the building. I enter a roped-off deck with a long a bar, table of hors d’oeuvres, to or so listening people hundred are Two Ontario. Lake and of view a sunny for see I the don’t artist or, a speech by of one the of show. the two I among anyone the Canadians. recognize of attentive crowd As that matter, the acknowledges the various individuals and foundations that have at have I figure I galleries. the inside back slip to decide I show, the supported disperses. end and the crowd the thank-yous before minutes ten least turn to my right and enter a room that has only one work in it. It is a neon (the first, to my knowledge, of Ligon’s career). In typewriter-like text, it spells out the words “negro sunshine.” No caps, no quotes, just the two words illuminating the otherwise shadowy room with their slightly hum- light. ming, Outside, I off-white on think that to roped-off myself, deck is the space of the contemporary art world, of collectors, curators, and gallerists socializing in the sun. high wattage, Inside light—soft impact,is Glenn Ligon’s and past historical the both to in plugged exquisitely yet unexpected entirely the present. I spend the next fifteen minutes in this light, leaving only when outside. the reception in from streaming people begin white some (other) 8043.indb 267 2/1/13 2:18 PM Warm Broad intro- Glow Warm Warm Warm Broad Glow was part of its 19 , it was because the sculpture could could sculpture the because was it , Glow Broad Warm (1993), one of the joke the artist executed executed artist the paintings joke the of one (1993), (Pimps) Cocaine Warm Broad was the Glow last work, speaking, Warm chronologically included gave me permission to gave Broadfall out with of step Glow the social Warm identity of concept the to curators and critics by tethered often Though Some Some , Changes and it was not reproduced or discussed in the exhibition in when piece the about written been yet had fact, in nothing, Almost catalogue. of as, even it, on silence the break to time the at hesitated I Toronto. in it saw I reproduced, and about written widely be would work the that knew I course, ap- an seemed wordlessness If artist. contemporary a as stature Ligon’s given to response propriate the about language, or race about definitive something mean to made be not wake the artin neon of legacy the about or politics, identity against backlash of Mario Merz and Bruce Nauman. That the sculpture did not resolve into a stable meaning or message was not, to however, say that it lacked content. To the contrary, the oblique address of world of the opening in Toronto. Or rather, Ligon’s artwork offered me artwork entry offered Ligon’s Or rather, world of the opening in Toronto. into a different kind of opening—an imaginative and aesthetic opening onto the past than rather an opportunity and schmoozing for professional the ex- and business cards. hugs of change content. The material sculpture’s form—shaped glass tubes, black industrial paint, electrical cords and outlets, pulsating neon light—generated the “ne- that the gro work sunshine” simultaneously named. duced a vernacular remnant from the segregationist past to a modern form of commercial signage and, in so doing, suspended the syntax of race in the anachronism. of light politics, art Ligon’s has never been about the simple affirmation of identity poli- racial of form “correct” any of positing the about or otherwise) or (racial Take tics.

Afterword 268 8043.indb 268 5.2 Glenn Ligon, Warm Broad Glow, 2005. Neon and paint, 36 × 192 inches (91.4 × 487.7 cm), edition of 7, AP 1/2. (Courtesy Regen Projects, .) © Glenn Ligon.

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8043.indb 269 2/1/13 2:19 PM 5.3 Artforum cover, May 2006. © Artforum.

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8043.indb 270 2/1/13 2:19 PM Not Now (1994/2005) 271 2/1/13 2:19 PM traced a recursive path, rather than a linear plot, through through plot, linear a than rather path, recursive a traced Changes Some Cocaine Cocaine the (Pimps)— tiny flecks of paint jumping off the letters, the (off-) two two decades of Ligon’s career. Early projects and artistic concerns resur- faced through the lens of later experiences and creative commitments. The Pryor pictures provide a case in point. Having launched the series in paint- the 1993, artist, the to According canvases. four just after it abandoned Ligon ings “felt very raw to me. . . . jokes Pryor’s are quite scatological and racially was that way a in them inhabit to had I texts those use to order in so charged color combination of orange against red—changes and recharges its language. language. its recharges and red—changes against orange of combination color A raunchy joke from an old Richard Pryor album becomes, hands, in Ligon’s microworld a smudges, and strokes, stencils, of surface painted intricately an of colored incident and inscription. The picture pays respect to the beauty obscenity. Pryor’s of in the early 1990s (the boom years of multiculturalism). The text of the painting, painting, the of text The multiculturalism). of years boom (the 1990s early the in reads: Pryor, Richard by routine stand-up of LP 1970s late a from transcribed . . . too them dicks be holding Niggers hold guys “Why you people go White things?” your else everything took done “You Say motherfucker.” and to a contribute of the syntax language the joke raw by Ligon, painted As broader sense of For starters, impropriety. the joke was meant to be heard rather than read, listened to rather than looked at. Its humor flows in part paint- as a text Reconstituted delivery. Pryor’s of the and cadence logic from voice. Pryor’s from dissociated, entirely not though distanced, is joke the ing, It is now the who viewer mouths these whether silently words, or aloud, and thereby speaks the rage barely veiled beneath their The humor. visual form of 8043.indb 271 2/1/13 2:19 PM 21 In 2004, however, Ligon returned Ligon In 2004, however, 20 , for example, the hot-pink text of a of text hot-pink the example, for #1 , Girl a It’s If Especially , Narratives the artist speaks is rather, (or, spoken for) in the In an essay written while he was working on this series, Ligon asks, on this series, Ligon working while he was written an essay In So why have I returned to Pryor after all Perhaps it these is years? that Pryor is funny again. Not that he wasn’t funny back in the seventies, it’s just that all his militancy, his rage at social and economic injustice, his almost quaint. down taboos breaking of The sexual seems amusing now, bring to promised they world the because anymore me scare don’t jokes the “Remember says, Pryor As then. did it than away farther even seems Lasted six months.” When I over. listen to Pryor It’s brother? Revolution I guess. fear, my for and am a little sad—nostalgic I laugh now, records Ligon’s Ligon’s dialectical engagement with history is nowhere more intense to to Pryor’s jokes and began to make additional text paintings. While similar in size to their predecessors and using the same square format, the and palette a of multiplication later tartly Warholian a keyed-up, feature canvases In contrasts. color while in Mudbone punch line, (Liar) yellow an unexpectedly delivers joke sex #3, a purple passage on “the biggest dicks in the world” gives way to a long electric-blue conclusion. Even Even as Ligon resumed work on his Pryor paintings, the jokes that were his reced- black a militancy of moment recalled revolution and promised source ing ever further into the past. death Pryor’s in 2005 can only have widened them. of transcription visual and Ligon’s jokes his between the distance prints series of companion the 1993 In self-portraiture. of than in his practice Runaways and typogra- and rhetoric the mimics Ligon series, latter the In slave. the of voice phy of nineteenth-century slave while narratives replacing the details of the biography: his own from drawn with information text frightening frightening to me but also was the very power of those texts. . . . I Basically, too got scared to with going keep them.”

Afterword 272 8043.indb 272 5.4 Glenn Ligon, Cocaine (Pimps), 1993. Oilstick, synthetic polymer, and graphite on linen, 32 × 32 inches (81.3 × 81.3 cm). (Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.) © Glenn Ligon.

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8043.indb 273 2/1/13 2:19 PM 5.5 Glenn Ligon, Mudbone Liar (#3), 2004. Oilstick and acrylic on canvas, 32 × 32 inches (81.3 × 81.3 cm). (Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.) © Glenn Ligon.

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8043.indb 274 2/1/13 2:19 PM Not Now (1994/2005) 275 2/1/13 2:19 PM By using the antiquated diction, style, and syntax of antebellum handbills antebellum of syntax and style, diction, antiquated the using By The and Adventures Life of Glenn Ligon A Negro; Who was sent to be educated amongst white people in the year 1966 when only about six of years age and has continued with to fraternize them to the time. present and title pages to describe his own late-twentieth-century experience, the artist draws out the latent effects of history on the current moment, includ- ing (the current moment here being 1993) the art qualified world’s embrace multiculturalism: of Black Rage; or, Over I Got How or Sketches the of and Labors Life of Glenn Ligon of horrors the of commodification his of account faithful and full a Containing enjoyment. the public’s art objects into for black life the same series, from print another cite to Or, The Narrative 8043.indb 275 2/1/13 2:19 PM , an Freestyle exhibit she curated As framed by Golden, the concept concept the Golden, by framed As 22 , the current moment in contemporary Some Changes For Golden, “post-black” named the push/pull effect of a 23 Rather than situate the slave narrative securely in than Rather the situate the narrative past, slave insists Ligon At the time of of post-black was intentionally double-edged, insofar as it referred to “artists “artists to referred it as insofar double-edged, intentionally was post-black of who were adamant about not being labeled as ‘black’ artists, though their work was steeped, in fact deeply interested, in redefining complex notions of blackness.” of the of Sufferings and Uncommon Life of Glenn Ligon, Man, A Colored Who at a tender age discovered his affection for the bodies of other men, since. ever and tribulations scorn and has endured himself. by Written on the continuing relevance of that narrative to contemporary black life, in- cluding, and his especially, own. The printed proliferation and stylistic back- dating of the character “Glenn Ligon” opens a pro- space, and personal his at of aspects once various on comment critical to artist and the for creative, remembers— Ligon anachronism, of language the Using experience. fessional but also sends up—his grade-school education among predominantly white students, his participation in the artistic commodification of black abjection, for desires his contraband of a age”) tender (“at discovery and the unsettling other men. This last print deftly registers the queer force of sexuality as it and stigma. secrecy brushes up against African-American art was often referred to as “post-black,” a term intro- duced by Thelma Golden in the of context Harlem. in Museum Studio the at 2001 in

Afterword 276 8043.indb 276 5.6 Glenn Ligon, Narratives (detail), 1993. Suite of nine photo etchings on chine collé, approx. 28 × 21 inches (71.1 × 53.3 cm) each. (Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles.) © Glenn Ligon.

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8043.indb 277 2/1/13 2:19 PM 2/1/13 2:19 PM ’s ’s Time 25 . Time It did so by going back “before , Freestyle the term created something of a Time presented it as a form of multi- feel-good, Time magazine, for example, (punningly) declared a Rather than situating post-black within a long and contested contested and long a within post-black situating than Rather 24 ose ose laughed when she was happy but she had not the wide, aban- R returned to Gertrude Stein’s “Melanctha: Each One to Gertrudereturned Broad Stein’s Glow Warm In In the immediate wake of doned laughter that makes the warm broad glow of negro sunshine. Rose Rose sunshine. negro of glow broad warm the makes that laughter doned was never joyous with the earth-born, boundless joy of negroes. Hers laughter. woman sort any of ordinary, just was Warm Warm Broad Glow registered a protest against such reductive formu- Rose Johnson was a real black negress but she had been brought up folks. white child by their own like quite

Rose Rose is contrasted against, rather than characterized by, the “warm broad black real (“a parentage in black genuinely Although sunshine.” negro of glow minor media sensation. cheerleader.” “major its as Golden with art” post-black for age “golden of reading affirmative blandly a on part in based was “post-black” of embrace the term as referencing “work by a generation whose approach to issues of racial identity has been liberated and informed by growing America’s multi- fabric.” cultural racial designation racial that could be neither comfortably claimed nor completely disowned. history history of racial designation, liberation. cultural lations of post-black as expressed in further even back and “negro” of moment historical and lexical the to ‘black’” shiny specifi- of black servility to the Most and stereotype obedience. sunny cally, as She May,” first published in 1909. On the opening page of the novella, Stein describes a Johnson, Rose friend of in protagonist, the the mixed-race terms: following

Afterword 278 8043.indb 278 Not Now (1994/2005) 279 2/1/13 2:19 PM Free- Warm Broad Warm Glow Warm Broad (myself included) Glow may rec- not have Warm Warm Broad Warm Glow is to confront instead the wider force 26 Many viewers of viewers Many According to Golden, “post-black” started as an irreverent comment, A few years ago, my friend, the artist Glenn Ligon, and I began using the term “post-black.” Our relationship is grounded in a shared love of absurd uses of language, and our conversations, both serious and silly, “Post-black” and phrases. made-up words and misused full of always are was shorthand for post-black art, which was shorthand for a discourse and traces the identifying at better was Glenn . . . volumes. fill could that what exactly it,knew said I he moment the but was, I than it of instances he meant. negress”), Rose was raised “by white folks” and is, presumably for this reason, reason, this for presumably is, and folks” white “by raised was Rose negress”), devoid of the “boundless joy of negroes.” In such passages, Stein traffics in the most extreme of racial stereotypes. But she also scrambles the logic of those stereotypes by suggesting they are rather “earth-born” than “inborn,” blood or nature. than of rather life social and domestic of the product ognized “negro sunshine” as a citation from Stein. This would not, I imag- ine, disturb Ligon very much. In declining to make the connection explicit, Ligon unbinds the sculpture from Stein and her place in the American liter- view ary canon. To of a past that has not Throughout passed his Ligon away. has career, traced the movement of language across multiple registers and from contexts, ver- nacular speech to printed from texts, common usage to obsolescence, from popular culture to literature to visual art and back again. she with As notes in Ligon. the a that she kind exchanged even of joke, reaches back across a century of history, fiction, and stereotype to address a address to stereotype and fiction, history, of century a across back reaches race. or “over” beyond is supposedly that audience postmillennial catalogue: style 8043.indb 279 2/1/13 2:19 PM Warm Broad Warm , I sensed but could not specify takes time. But it also it But time. takes Glow Broad Warm Freestyle or its appearance in the pages of Warm Warm Broad Glow The argument of this book has been that contemporary art is simply not this book has of contemporary been that argument The When I first saw Even Even as she introduces “post-black” into critical discourse, Golden lo- a slight indirection in the light cast by the sculpture. I Ligon had later applied an learned industrial thatrubber-coating compound called Plasti Dip to the face of the sign. The Plasti Dip serves a double purpose: it traces the phrase “negro sunshine” in black and it blocks the emanation of neon from the front of the sign. These two functions in were fact one and the same. By partially obstructing the off-white light, the Plasti Dip created a halo effect that is heightened—which softened—the to visual say, drama of time a other clearing moments and by space for associations makes to regis- present. in the living ter a function of the current moment or the immediate past. Contemporary art is also a relation between an ever-shifting present and the volatile force of at art contemporary teaching Barr Alfred of examples the used have I history. 1930s the in MoMA at art premodern of exhibitions 1927, in College Wellesley Con- of Institute the of naming the over controversy the and 1940s, early and temporary Art in 1948 to argue for a history of contemporary art. But many today’s of present-ism the counter to adduced be also could examples other Time magazine. Ligon has always gravitated toward vernacular speech acts that trouble the protocols of proper usage (“you done took everything else / motherfucker”) and to forms of language that have become antiquated to sunshine”). (“negro recharged and renewed be now may they where point the as such work a of viewing The . Glow cates cates it as private slang that cannot be fully calibrated or codified, a short- hand best apprehended in “traces and instances.” It makes sense that Ligon should have shared that shorthand with Golden long before its presenta- tion as a curatorial concept in

Afterword 280 8043.indb 280 Not Now (1994/2005) 281 2/1/13 2:19 PM invite us invite Glow Broad Warm e-flux posting, hot young artist, and auction-house In 2012, as this book goes to print, the culture of contemporary art seems art contemporary of culture the print, to goes book this as 2012, In as such bit,a artworks lights the dimming By now. And not here. Not art world. Those examples would draw upon different institutional narratives, narratives, institutional different upon draw would examples Those world. art focused. on which I have those objects from and visual contexts, national to be burning But more the intensely than glare of the ever. now-ism—of lat- est international art fair, record—can be fairly blinding. The spectacular immediacy of the contempo- the about critically think to ability our overwhelm to threatens art world rary the past. to moment the current of relation to to slow down, take a deep breath, and consider histories prior to our own. different a envisioning ourselves find will we invitation, the accept we Should and time. place 8043.indb 281