Aesthetics of Double Consciousness: Identity Through the Lens of Black Artists
Edward Owens, Private Imaginings and Narrative Facts (still), 1966. 16mm film, color, silent, 5:51 min., transferred to video. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Film and Video Committee 2021.85. ©️ The New American Cinema Group, Inc./The Film-Makers' Cooperative
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Online, via Zoom
Open to all members
Friday, December 5, 2025 at 12 pm
Monday, January 12, 2026 at 6 pm
Members are invited to join Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow Katherine Cheairs online to explore how Black artists throughout the twentieth century have addressed the idea of ‘double consciousness’, as described by scholar W.E.B. DuBois. The prominent sociologist and historian introduced this term in his monumental work The Souls of Black Folk in 1903 to describe the psychological impact of racism on Black Americans. DuBois posits that Black Americans possess two selves—the one existing within their own mind, and the one constructed by racist ideology projected onto them by others, causing an existential split about the nature of one’s being.
In this talk, Cheairs will examine the aesthetics of double consciousness—delving into how Black artists currently on view in “Untitled” (America), Sixties Surreal, and Shifting Landscapes exemplify DuBois’s ideas, consciously and unconsciously, through both figurative and abstract works. Discover how artists such as Romare Bearden, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Alma Thomas, and more, grapple with notions of identity, personhood, and representation through their practice.
Katherine “Kat” Cheairs, MFA, is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and researcher. She has appeared on panels and public programs at Pratt Institute, The New School, NYU, Vassar College, The Studio Museum in Harlem, BAM, The Aperture Foundation, Whitney Museum of American Art, and UnionDocs. They are also a frequent collaborator on archival and video-based projects at the intersection of AIDS, art, and activism. Cheairs holds a BA in Political Science from Tufts University and an MFA in Film from the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University. She is pursuing a doctorate in art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where their research focuses on arts-based research, Black feminist theory, Black studies, queer theory, and affect studies. Cheairs currently serves on the board of Visual AIDS.
