A brush with...

A brush with... Ellen Gallagher

Jun 29, 2021

01:04:33

Snipd AI

Ellen Gallagher, an influential contemporary artist, discusses her rich cultural influences ranging from literature to music. She shares her unforgettable experience living with a Keith Haring print at Oberlin College and her admiration for Diego Velázquez. The conversation dives into Afrofuturism through the lens of the techno band Drexciya, and explores Herman Melville's nuanced takes on race. Gallagher reflects on the intersection of identity and art, prompting thought on what it means for an artwork to resonate deeply within our psyche.

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Quick takeaways

Ellen Gallagher's diverse artistic journey is deeply influenced by her Cape Verdean and Irish heritage, reflecting themes of Black identity and history.

Through her provocative imagery, Gallagher critiques stereotypes and reclaims narratives in popular culture related to race and identity.

Humor serves as a vital tool in Gallagher's work, allowing her to navigate serious themes of race and cultural history with resilience.

Deep dives

Ellen Gallagher's Artistic Journey

Ellen Gallagher, a prominent artist, explores themes of Black identity and history, informed by her heritage as the daughter of a Cape Verdean father and an Irish mother. Her unique background inspires her work, which ranges from painting and drawing to sculpture and film. Gallagher's artistic education, including studies at prominent institutions, shaped her distinctive approach to abstraction while drawing influences from minimalist art. Her work often reflects significant narratives related to the history and culture of the Black Diaspora, interweaving personal and collective experiences.

Intro

4min

Art, Identity, and Community: A Reflective Journey

29min

Artistic Reflections and Cultural Engagement

3min

Navigating Identity and Culture

12min

Exploring Melville's Impact on Race and Class Narratives

4min

Exploring Drexia: Beauty and Terror

5min

Creativity Through Sound and Space

6min

Ellen Gallagher's Upcoming Exhibitions and Podcast Updates

2min

Ellen Gallagher talks about her life and work through the art, literature, music and other cultural experiences that have profoundly affected her. She tells Ben Luke about the extraordinary opportunity she had to live with an original Keith Haring print while at Oberlin College, Ohio; her love of Diego Velázquez and Stanley Brouwn; the influence of the Afrofuturist mythology of the Detroit techno band Drexciya; how Herman Melville, in his novels and novellas, wrote more perceptively about race than he is often credited with, and much more. And, of course, she answers the ultimate questions we ask in each episode: if you could live with just one work of art, what would it be? And what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects.

Links for this episode:

Ellen Gallagher at Hauser & Wirth

Ellen’s page for the Sonsbeek 20-24 quadrennial

The Freud Museum, London

Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams, His Art and His Textiles

Keith Haring's Untitled (1982), The Keith Haring Foundation

Diego Velázquez at the Prado

Velázquez’s Infante Felipe Prospero (1559) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Headrest: Female Caryatid Figure (19th century) by the Master of the Cascade Coiffure

Ellen Gallagher’s Ecstatic Draught of Fishes (2020) at Hauser & Wirth, London

Pieter Paul Rubens’s Miraculous Draft of Fishes in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne from the Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne

The Art Newspaper’s report on the racist joke beneath Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square