COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0001247
image_record_id
aahi0001247
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
(Forever Free) Before Black (Toy Soldiers)
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
1997
Work Dates type:
creation
Image Date (display):
2008-02-18
Work Creator (display):
Michael Ray Charles (American, born 1967)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
Michael Ray Charles was born in 1967 in Lafayette, Louisiana, and graduated from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1985. In college, he studied advertising design and illustration, eventually moving into painting, his preferred medium. Charles also received an MFA degree from the University of Houston in 1993. His graphically styled paintings investigate racial stereotypes drawn from a history of American advertising, product packaging, billboards, radio jingles, and television commercials. Charles draws comparisons between Sambo, Mammy, and minstrel images of an earlier era and contemporary mass-media portrayals of black youths, celebrities, and athletes—images he sees as a constant in the American subconscious. "Stereotypes have evolved," he notes. "I'm trying to deal with present and past stereotypes in the context of today's society." Caricatures of African-American experience, such as Aunt Jemima, are represented in Charles's work as ordinary depictions of blackness, yet are stripped of the benign aura that lends them an often unquestioned appearance of truth. "Aunt Jemima is just an image, but it almost automatically becomes a real person for many people, in their minds. But there's a difference between these images and real humans." In each of his paintings, notions of beauty, ugliness, nostalgia, and violence emerge and converge, reminding us that we cannot divorce ourselves from a past that has led us to where we are, who we have become, and how we are portrayed. Charles lives in Texas and teaches at the University of Texas at Austin. (PBS Art21 Accessed 2008-02-06)
Work Creator UCB affiliation (display):
visiting artist, Visiting Artist Program, 2003
Work Style Period:
Contemporary
work_styleperiod
Contemporary
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
basketball (court ball games)
subject
basketball (court ball games)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
toy soldiers
subject
toy soldiers
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
African Americans
subject
African Americans
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
soldiers
subject
soldiers
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
acrylic, latex, stain and copper penny on paper
Work Measurements (display):
60 in (H) x 44 in (W)
Image Source Reproduction citation:
Charles, Michael Ray, Calvin Reid, Spike Lee. Michael Ray Charles. Tony Shafrazi Gallery,1998.
image_source_copy_from_print_name
Charles, Michael Ray, Calvin Reid, Spike Lee. Michael Ray Charles. Tony Shafrazi Gallery,1998.
Image Source Reproduction citation
false
Image Rights (display):
unknown
Image Rights fair use checklist:
1) use of this image is for education and educational research; 2) access is restricted to University of Colorado and Auraria Higher Education Center communities; 3) the original photographer is credited if known; 4) the image is published; 5) the amount of the work in relation to the whole is needed for education or educational research; 6) the number of derivatives is the minimum required for education or educational research; 7) the image has not been found to be reasonably available for sale; 8) duplication of the image does not violate preexisting contracts.
Work Rights (display):
© Michael Ray Charles
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see