Revisiting Cleopatra

It is time to be accurate with imagery

You can’t be what you can’t see. That’s what the old folks used to say. Luckily for us, we can see a Brown-skinned version of artist Irene V. Clark’s take on Cleopatra, courtesy of Swann Galleries.

It’s important to view (and collect) art created by Black artists. I find this piece striking and beautiful. One good way to support an anti-racist lifestyle is to expose yourself and your children to art that showcases a variety of worldviews. Studying the artists of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), for example, is a good way to engage in this practice.

As for the artist’s background, as noted on Swann’s Instagram, Clark was born in Washington, D.C., in 1927, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and initially gained recognition as an artist in Chicago during the WPA. Much of Clark’s work is in the permanent collections of the Oakland Museum of Art and Atlanta University. (Swann also attributes the biography notes to Aaron Galleries; Dover pl. 49; p. 123.) The image pictured here is from an October 2016 auction: Irene Clark, Cleopatra, gouache on plywood board, circa 1940–50.