Robert H.

Colescot t
AUGUST 26, 1925 JUNE 4, 2009 BY BLESSON ABRAHAM A4

George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware

The painting deals with concerns of ethnic depiction and history by altering familiar historical figures as African-Americans. In this specific painting, Revolutionary War general and first U.S. president George Washington is replaced by George Washing Carver. The purpose of the piece was to build on the irony that Americas first noticeable African American scientist, originally a slave, had the same name as a slave-owning son of Virginia's elite.

Robert H. Colescott
Was a well-known American painter who was acknowledged for his interest in satire and crowd subjects genre. Being of African-American decent provoked him to convey comical and vicious reflections on being African-American. He studied in Paris and was "the first African-American artist to represent the United States in a solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1997 (Albright). Today much of his early work has been presented in the Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Married five times Died of Parkinsons on June 4, 2009

George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware

The painting was very appealing simply because I love satire and Colescott happened to be in the first results I got when searching for a well-known U.S. artist. After looking into Colescott and some of his other famous works I began to respect the level of courage he had for depicting the irony within American history. This particular work, Colescott parodies by contrast the foremost tradition of American historical understanding by white males. A lot of his other works contained racist symbolism as well. Colescotts work is very influential and has allowed me to open my eyes to art and even begin to experiment with paint and canvas.