Michael Ray Charles in "Consumption" - Season 1 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21

—How are you doing?

—Nice to meet you.

MICHAEL RAY CHARLES: I’m Michael Ray Charles.

–WOMAN: What’s the reason for the blackface?

—CHARLES: Well, the blackface is to 
comment on the presence of the past.

Man has always tried to cover up 
what has been most ugly about man.

—Right.

—CHARLES: Or mankind. Right. So 
issues about race in this country.

Race, race relations, we’re 
still conflicted about it.

—WOMAN: Right, exactly.

—CHARLES: The bottom line is that 
we’re dealing with American history.

I’ve been called a sell-out. 
People question my blackness.

A lot of people accuse me of 
perpetuating a stereotype.

And I think there’s a fine line between 
perpetuating something and questioning something.

And I like to get as close to it as possible.

I was in graduate school at 
the University of Houston,

and I was in search of an image that 
could best articulate Americanism,

sum up what is happening, what has happened, 
or what was happening with blackness.

A friend handed me this, and I said 
thanks, and so I tossed it in the corner.

And one day I’m cleaning 
out, sweeping out the studio,

and I picked this up and 
began to really look at it.

This led to a series of pieces.

Actually this was the first piece,

which was included in an exhibition in which I 
made 50 little carriages, like baby carriages.

And I displayed these as if 
they were stars on the flag.

People began to knock over the 
glass case and, on many occasions,

condemn the presence of such imagery.

It was the first time I got a sense of 
not only the seriousness involved with

use of these images, but the 
emotional presence of the past.

I find beauty in odd places.

You know, sometimes I’m driving or 
walking and I might just stop and freeze.

Maybe a sign, or the way light hits a building,

the way that the shadow is 
thrown across the street.

I think beauty embodies what we consider 
ugly as well as what we consider beautiful.

For me, beauty is history. Beauty is having lived.

Beauty is evidence, it’s a mark.

—Dad?

—What’s that, buddy?

—I won.

–You did? You won again?

—I beat you.

—Ooh, you wait.

—I still won.

—You did again?

—Yeah.

There’s several Etruscan images.

One, this one appears to be 
heads of a white woman and negro.

Late 6th century BC.

One of the things that I’m quite 
interested in is making sense of

how these images may be 
connected to images like this.

One of the things that I’ve discovered is 
that a lot of these Hellenistic period,

Greco-Roman pieces were collected 
at the turn of the century.

Once these images were 
collected and then displayed,

they were appropriated by 
early American illustrators

and are used to inform their own work, perhaps.

This is a work in progress. Triptych, which 
eventually will read “Classical, Modern,”

and then “Post-Modern,” in the last panel.

This piece is about the influence 
of the classical image upon

early 20th-century image of blacks as well as

late to early 21st-century 
image of a black person.

The classical image comes from, as 
mentioned before, Greco-Roman pottery.

And I thought it was interested, the juxtaposition 
of this image with this particular image,

which comes from a cast-iron bank, and the 20th…

20th-century mass-produced item here.

I've been dealing with the 
"sambo" image for ten years now.

For the life of me, when I think I've got 
it figured out, I just realize I don't.

I think people today, they operate from an 
emotional place when they see these images,

because they think of the past 
as being something that happened

and that these concepts don't linger.

But these concepts continue 
to affect us in many ways.

I think that these images are just 
as much White as they are Black.

You've got to think of how these 
images were used in American culture.

They were everywhere.

I think it was linked to early 
marketing practices, early advertising.

Linking a product to romance, a 
romantic notion– the Old South.

The caricature of the sambo, 
the darkie, the pickaninnies,

I think these images are very much 
a part of who we are, as Blacks,

and they're very much a part 
of who we are as Americans.

This is my favorite, my kid 
keeps asking me for this one.

Notice the Tarzan image. You really 
look at this image of the Tarzan.

It's a very beautiful image. 
Soft and subtle. Curves.

Very much like Speed Racer. 
Very much like Elvis Presley.

The black hair, dark eyebrows, 
blue eyes. A beautiful image.

Compared to this image. 
Anger. Beast-like features.

I think it's the same message 
we've been receiving for years.

In this particular case, 
if it's not said directly,

it's said indirectly and 
it's understood indirectly–

and enforced on, I think, subconscious 
levels--that…black is bad.

—Amen.

CHARLES: Thank you, Eric.

As long as my kids are in a 
place where they are productive,

and the environment helps them to 
flourish and grow, I’m happy, I’m fine.

I’ll sacrifice not being in New York.

What’s important to me is 
that they get a good start.

And what’s important to me is they’re 
well-prepared to live in this world,

in America, wherever they choose to 
live, they’re well-prepared to do so.

I’m starting a series “Rock 
‘n Bold.” “Rock ‘n Bold,”

which for me begins to explore 
notions about minstrelsy and blackface

and how that being that first pop 
culture phenonmenon in this country.

This is not a malicious piece.

I attempt to explore several things here. 
It’s very layered, it’s very layered.

The reference to blackface in 
relationship to Elvis Presley image,

the blackface image can flip-flop for me,

it can reference a male, a female, 
a white male in a black context,

a black male definitely in a 
white context. Asian, whomever.

Someone that’s small, someone that’s, you know…

someone who, or anyone that is “othered.”

Elvis was considered a hillbilly.

His manager mentioned that if he could get 
a white boy that could sing like a nigger,

he could make a million bucks. And that he did.

And “a little southern comfort 
has helped us all” is a jab,

like a little reminder that all of the work 
that was done by a slave was free labor

that has led to the construction of this country.

The Lincoln coin itself has 
become a cool signature of mine,

it’s almost like a logo.

I use the Lincoln head because 
it’s like a lingering question.

What exactly were we emancipated 
from? Was it enslavement?

Yes, but on another level there were other 
devices that made up the gap that managed to,

again, enslave us again, I 
guess, but in a different manner.

I like to say that one can make change,

one can make a difference.

So, I think that each painting 
that I do can evoke thought

and encourage someone to perhaps 
consider things a little differently

than they’ve understood it in the past.