Fifteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

I propose an analysis of anti-racist, queer, and feminist art historical scholarship in order to inform a case study of white cis man/artist Frank Benson’s 2014 sculpture, “Juliana” (portraying poet/artist/DJ/Black trans woman Juliana Huxtable reclining and nude) and displays thereof both in museums and on social media. This case study focuses the analyzed scholarship around two primary themes: misogynistic objectification in artistic representation – especially the trope of the reclining female nude – and white supremacist pseudo-science that pathologizes anti-normative races and genders. An examination of scholarship on these themes with an eye towards their reliance on Freudian/psychoanalytic presuppositions, in tandem with “Juliana,” makes it abundantly clear how art history as it spans artistic practice, curation, institutionally legitimized theory, and popular imagination has persistently obscured Black transgender subjectivities and continues to do so.