In Shades of Black and White : A Critical Analysis of Selected Works by Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems

Abstract

The author explores how race, identity and representation were factors in specific works of art by two African-American women artists working in the 1980s and 90s, Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson. She observe how both artists chose to use black and white photography as a language through which to criticize racial oppression and subjugation of black women and also analyze critical texts dealing with observing the differences between blackness and whiteness in racial politics.