Article: "Censorship, Not the Painting, Must Go"

In “Censorship, Not the Painting, Must Go: On Dana Schutz’s Image of Emmett Till,” Coco Fusco wrote about Open Casket, an abstracted depiction of Emmett Till in his open casket by Dana Schutz, and the widespread criticism it received while on view at the Whitney Biennial in 2017.

Fusco’s keen analysis of the painting, its context, and its reception distills the charged discussion around the work down to productive discourse.

A few excerpts, included below, specifically address representation in art education and within art institutions, and shifts which need to occur in order to actively engage in critical anti-racist cultural production:

“…the decolonization of art institutions… entails critical analysis of systemic racism coupled with a rigorous treatment of art history and visual culture.”

“..While elite art schools deploy tokenist inclusion strategies to create the impression of diversity, they actively avoid revising curricula and discourses of critique; the end result is that they produce artists and curators who lack formal opportunities to engage with critical race discourses and histories of anti-racist cultural production. In the absence of informed discussion, we get unadulterated rage.”