The Cartoons That Confront White Supremacy
A Unique Pairing of Two American Artists
When Canadian American painter Philip Guston first unveiled his cartoonish, neo-expressionist paintings of Ku Klux Klan members in 1970, his peers said he was out of his mind. The then middle-aged artist had previously found success as a first generation abstract expressionist and a member of the New York School, a group of radical New York City-based artists in the 1950’s and 60’s who found inspiration in surrealist and contemporary avant-garde movements. Guston was well known in the art scene at this time, having been commissioned for murals from a very young age, and even crossing paths with the legendary Frida Kahlo. But after growing frustrated with abstract painting, Guston moved to the quaint town of Woodstock, New York and began experimenting with neo-expressionism, painting more figuratively and in a cartoonish manner; glimpses of his personal life and thoughts taking form on the canvas. This was the impetus of an era that would produce Guston’s most renowned and criticized works.
On a beautiful Sunday morning not too long ago, I met up with two of my friends to go visit the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side, where Guston’s paintings are on display for a limited time. What struck me immediately, the second I walked into the display room, was the nature of the Klansman, a group of people I have been taught my entire life to rebuke. They were cartoonish, bumbling, and unassuming even; KKK members going about their everyday lives, doing simple tasks like painting, driving a car, or smoking a cigarette. It’s very easy to think that this tone is insensitive, diminishing the terrifying reality and history of a group of uncompromising white supremacists. You can see how this highly animated and satirical depiction of the subject matter caused a lot of controversy for Guston, but the paintings are thoroughly self aware, and are seen most clearly in their original intention; making a mockery of Klan members and therefore weakening their power as they morph into the box Guston created for them. The evil of the KKK is not undermined. The causality with which they smoke a cigarette with blood stains on their robes forces us to reckon with their assuredness. Guston simultaneously reminds us of the gravity and reality of white supremacy. As a child of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants and an early civil rights activist, he was someone who was deeply self aware of both his oppression and his privilege. In The Studio (my favorite work of Guston’s), a Klansman paints a self portrait. Guston seems himself behind the hood, not as a contributor but in a blunt recognition of his whiteness and by virtue, his inadvertent participation in a society that still suffers from its roots fundamentally built on racist principles. It pulls this idea to the extreme, the utmost evil form of racism, to very candidly show what inaction on white supremacy can do.
Alongside Guston’s paintings was a collection of mixed media pieces by Trenton Doyle Hancock, a contemporary African American artist who combines comic book drawing styles with neo-expressionism. Hancock went most of his life not knowing who Philip Guston was, until a recommendation from a printmaking professor at East Texas State University who saw similarities between his and Guston’s works, changed his life forever. He would go on to create many pieces with Guston in mind, replicating his unique, cartoonish Klansmen and putting his own spin on them. In a special enclosed box in the center of the display room was Hancock’s magnum opus, 30 works on paper in the style of a comic book strip titled; Epidemic! Presents: Step and Screw! The series depicts one of his alter egos, “Torpedo Boy”, a young superhero who finds himself in trouble when he is surrounded by a group of Klansmen. I stepped into the immersive display having zero familiarity with Hancock’s work, so I was astonished and struck by the illustrations’ storytelling ability. In a bolder confrontation of the violence of the KKK, Hancock takes the Klansmen caricatures that Guston created and places them in scenarios where they must confront those whom they wish to torment. It’s almost an extension, a glimpse into the stories that are left out of Guston’s paintings. Hancock allows for justice to be brought to the oppressors, a justice that was not seen in Guston’s works. His superhero-like characters such as “Torpedo Boy”, are often seen getting into violent altercations with the Klansmen, perhaps a reflection of both the ever-present racism that from the generation of one artist to the next, persists, and a beacon for hope in our modern day. Instead of the Klansmen “getting away with it” (as they did in Guston’s works), it calls for our society to have the capacity to fight fervently against racism as it remains within our long established systems and structures.
The intersection of these two artists makes their work so remarkable, not that they aren’t remarkable on their own, but their combination tells a whole different story; filling in the gaps and complimenting each other in a way that forces a level of intimacy with the subject matter. Both artists master the near-impossible task of spotlighting our country’s distressing past (and present), one that we often wish to forget, with the gall and tenacity of daring humor. In 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, four museums who were planning on exhibiting Philip Guston’s KKK works pushed back the exhibition release multiple years, believing the paintings of the giddy Klansmen would be too sensitive to show at the present time. This received a lot of blowback from the art community, including Hancock, who were in agreement of the importance for these paintings to be seen, especially in the context of a surge in police brutality. Guston’s paintings proved controversial in 1969. They continued to be controversial in 2020. But their importance was never questioned by those who saw his vision. We must accept and recognize these works, with all the discomfort and disturbing images they may provoke, because they don’t allow us to forget.
Guston and Hancock’s paintings are on display, side by side in a special exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York City until March 30th.
Sources:
Steinhauer, Jillian. “What Trenton Doyle Hancock Learned from Philip Guston.” The New York Times, 7 Nov. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/arts/design/trenton-doyle-hancock-philip-guston-jewish-museum.html.
Greenberger, Alex. “Controversial Philip Guston Show Postponement Met with Shock and Anger from Art Community.” ARTnews.com, 28 Sept. 2020, www.artnews.com/art-news/news/philip-guston-retrospective-postponement-reactions-1234571844/.
D’Souza, Aruna. “Where’s the Controversy in “Philip Guston Now”?” The New York Times, 19 July 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/arts/design/philip-guston-national-gallery-washington.html.
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