Themes of Black exploitation, race, hidden secrets and how these distort belief systems are all over the new group photography show “Myths, Secrets, Lies, and Truths: Photography from the Doug McCraw Collection,” which opened last week at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
Running through Oct. 13, the summer show spotlights five artists, led by Hank Willis Thomas, whose 82 photographs form the bulk of the collection. There are also four black-and-white photos on display from Civil Rights-era photographer James “Spider” Martin and roughly 30 images from contemporary artists Sheila Pree Bright, Liesa Cole and Karen Graffeo.
In his photo series “Unbranded,” sprawled across the museum’s ground floor, Thomas revisits the birth of Black marketing, a moment during the Civil Rights Era when corporate America created advertisements for African-Americans for the first time with ads for body lotions, menthol cigarettes, American Express and even McDonald’s. Here, Thomas took images ripped from magazines and newspapers and digitally removed their logos and slogans — any forms of consumerism — to let the images speak for themselves.
The result, argues Fort Lauderdale art collector Doug McCraw, shows a “lack of respect” toward Black identity.
“What you have are white advertising firms thinking they know what’s best for Black markets,” he tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “What’s so brilliant here is that all Hank did was scrub the text from the ads, so all you’re confronted with are the images themselves. It’s amazing and also insulting to African Americans.”
McCraw is better known as the cofounder of the FAT Village Arts District, a mural-splashed cluster of artist studios and warehouses in the city’s Flagler Village neighborhood. McCraw says he started collecting art roughly a decade before he and business partner Lutz Hofbauer began purchasing old warehouses in Flagler Village in the late 1990s. Much of that funky artist hive -– which spawned a monthly artwalk and many local exhibits — is currently being demolished to make way for a reincarnated FAT Village, blending office, retail and residential buildings with new artist workspaces.
Kathy Goncharov, the museum’s senior curator, calls the show a “provocative” spiritual sequel to the museum’s recent blockbuster exhibit “Smoke and Mirrors: Magical Thinking in Contemporary Art,” which closed in May. If “Smoke & Mirrors” took on historical myths that managed by magic or illusion to dupe the public, this one zeroes in on racial stereotypes, marginalized communities, distorted beliefs and other hidden truths, she says.
Goncharov is a longtime admirer of Thomas’ work and says she “immediately” wanted to display his photos when she saw McCraw’s collection. She also noticed a pattern emerging: five contemporary artists confronting race and Black identity from the Civil Rights Era to the present day.
“I wasn’t too familiar with the other contemporary artists here, but I love Hank. Some of these photos were taken over a half-century ago, yet they’re all speaking to each other,” Goncharov says. “Take Hank’s advertising images, for example. The couture clothes, the menthol cigarettes. It doesn’t reflect the real lives of Black people. It’s fantasy. These are the subtle ways that America is signaling that the Black community is not equal.”
Thomas’ ads span 1968, the height of the Civil Rights era, through 2008, the year of President Barack Obama’s election. He has text-less images of Shani, Barbie’s doll pal from the 1990s, being admired by two Black girls. Another picture (titled “Afro Sheen Blowout Creme Relaxer”) shows a man and woman in a loving embrace, while a wristwatch ad (“It’s Time for Jungle Fever”) shows a Black hand resting on an exposed white belly. In “Branded Chest,” a Nike swoosh appears to literally brand a shirtless athletic man’s exposed left breast.
“These are provocative images of what a white ad firm thinks a Black person wants,” Goncharov says.
The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is evoked in Spider Martin’s black-and-white photos capturing the Selma to Montgomery Marches in 1965. They appear next to Graffeo’s images of another ethnic minority, the Romani, in street scenes around Romania and Italy; and with Bright’s prints of Black figures draped in American flags.
These are all juxtaposed with Cole’s “Secrets and Keepers” series, visions of the American South featuring portraits of men and women hiding secrets about depression, a fear of flying — and even faith. In one example, “Father Steinmiller, 2018” shows an Episcopal minister embarrassed to admit that his congregation of eight years never knew he was an atheist.
“With the images from Liesa (Cole), it’s about revealing horrible secrets. With Sheila (Pree Bright), it’s showing America’s young voting blocs. The common denominator here is exploitation, race and myths, and how they all distort our beliefs.” Goncharov says.
Adds McCraw: “The show sort of confronts you with the question: Has anything really changed since Selma?
“In my mind, not really. Those of us who live with optimism and idealism, we believe in hope for future generations. But stereotypes are still so embedded in culture. They’re still here today because history is repeating itself.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Myths, Secrets, Lies, and Truths: Photography from the Doug McCraw Collection”
WHEN: Through Sunday, Oct. 13
WHERE: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real
COST: $12-$16; free for children younger than 15 and high school students under 18
INFORMATION: 561-392-2500; BocaMuseum.org
Staff writer Phillip Valys can be reached at pvalys@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @p.v.guide and X/Twitter @PhilValys.
