Against Invisibility: Aging and Black Women’s Representation in Art

I decided to make my return to blogging for Three Panels Press by writing this article in recognition of Black History Month.

First, it is important to consider how older women have historically been framed in art. Older women have frequently been pushed to the margins, rendered invisible, while youth and beauty are celebrated and centered. Older women, throughout art history, have been stereotyped as witches, with unruly hair and sagging breasts. An example is a Roman sculpture known as The Old Market Woman (14-68 CE). They were also stripped of their gender, made to look more androgynous, unable to tell if they are masculine or feminine. An example appears in Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes, where Judith is accompanied by an older woman, though it’s hard to truly tell her sex, as there are no defining features of her femininity. Older women have also served as reminders of proximity to death. In cases where the artist knows the sitter, they tend to be more compassionate in their portrayals.

I’ve had a harder time finding research on how older Black women are portrayed in art. I know that there are artworks that feature Black women in stereotypical roles, think Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863), and the feature of a Black woman servant who looks to be a stereotypical Mammy figure. The Mammy figure is a stereotype of Black women as docile servants, though they may also be portrayed as cantankerous, depending on the narrative being constructed. They’re often desexualized and depicted as large women with darker skin tones. I have not found much about older Black women in art, though I may need to look deeper. I wish research on older Black women in art was more easily accessible, though there may be a dearth of research because the subject remains underexplored. In fact, I haven’t found much about older people in art in general. We need more research in this area. 

However, I want to highlight works by Brian Lanker, who has photographed older Black women. He’s known for his best-selling book and exhibition titled I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America, which debuted at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He was born in Detroit in 1947 and died in Oregon in 2011. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist. 

This image is of Septima Poinsette Clark and was taken in 1987. Clark was an educator and grassroots activist. She was part of a successful 1920 campaign in South Carolina for the right of African Americans to teach in the city’s public schools, among other achievements. Here, we do not see a woman who’s made to look like a witch or desexualized. Her age isn’t highlighted, nor is she shifted to the margins in favor of youth. She is centered, powerful, her head held high. This image is dignified and gives the impression of a woman who is many wonderful things. 

Here’s another photograph by the same artist. The image is of Sonia Sanchez.

Sanchez is a poet, playwright, activist, and scholar who was a key figure in the Black Arts Movement. Again, we get a dignified image of an older Black woman that centers her and holds her in high regard.

Lanker does a good job of highlighting older Black women with dignity, centering them and not depicting them as crones or emphasizing them as sagging or with androgynous features. I found it interesting that Lanker was a white man, as I had assumed that a Black photographer had taken these photos, but it goes to show that those of other races can photograph Black people with dignity. I think it’s about being aware of biases and actively working against them.

To learn more and view more of his photos, visit: I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker’s Portraits of Remarkable Black Women (Part II) | National Portrait Gallery

Sources:

Hofrichter, F. F., & Yoshimoto, M. (Eds.). (2021). Women, aging, and art : a crosscultural anthology. Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

Kampmann, S. (2015). Visual Aging Studies: Exploring Images of Aging in Art History and other Disciplines. Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2, 279–291. https://doi.org/10.7146/ageculturehumanities.v2i.130723

Kansas Press Association. (n.d.). Brian Lanker. Kansas Press Association. https://kspress.com/brian-lanker

McCormack, C. (2021). [Review of Women, Aging and Art: A Crosscultural Anthology, by F. F. Hofrichter & M. Yoshimoto]. Woman’s Art Journal, 42(2), 58–60. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27097078