Henry Taylor: B Side
Oct 4, 2023–Jan 28, 2024
Untitled
5
Taylor created this installation in homage to the Black Panther Party and, in particular, to his brother Randy, who was active in the Party’s branch in Ventura, California. The Black Panthers advocated for self-defense and community empowerment, and established social programs—including free food, clothing distribution, and health clinics—to uplift marginalized communities. By including photographs of individuals recently killed by the police alongside mannequins clothed in both the black berets and leather jackets the Panthers typically wore and more contemporary attire, such as Colin Kaepernick’s San Francisco 49ers jersey, Taylor connects protests against racial injustice from the past and present.
Henry Taylor (b. 1958), Huey Newton, 2007
Henry Taylor (b. 1958), Huey Newton, 2007. Acrylic and collaged photocopies on canvas, 94 9/16 × 76 1/4 in. (240.2 × 193.7 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg in honor of Adam D. Weinberg 2016.86. © Henry Taylor
Taylor based this painting on a 1967 photograph of Black Panther Party cofounder Huey Newton wearing his characteristic black beret and holding a rifle and a spear, symbols of Newton’s call for armed self-defense against racial inequality and oppression. In this portrait, Taylor links Newton’s activism to the ongoing fight for racial justice through collaged fragments of news reports of the 2006 police murder of Sean Bell, whose portrait Homage to a Brother (2007) is also on view.