Behind the Myth of Benevolence

This 2014 piece entitled Behind the Myth of Benevolence by Titus Kaphar is currently on display in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“In what seems like an investigation on the infallibility of the American founding fathers, in Behind the Myth of Benevolence Kaphar takes a portrait of Thomas Jefferson and draws it back as a curtain to reveal another portrait of a black woman, transforming painting into sculpture. She is erotically painted in an Orientalist manner: seminude in a turban that addresses exotic fetishes found in the mythology of black sexuality. The ‘revealing-the-unseen’ positioning behind a white man—a powerful US President who wrote the Declaration of Independence—sets the stage for a world of metaphors for the viewer to unravel. The artist points out fundamental problems in representation, then trusts his audience to create the narrative form. Above all Kaphar makes these creative jumps accessible.” -- Artslant