Culture 24 – “Only surviving full-length Vincent Van Gogh portrait turns up in Grimsby at Abbey Walk” Review of “Head and Whole” exhibition – By Ben Miller, August 2011
New York Times – “Club Negro – Experience the Freedom” Ken Johnson
D’Art Magazine – “Picking Cherries -Art Miami Top Ten List, 2009″ – Douglas F. Maxwell
Charles McGill
By KEN JOHNSON
Published: New York Times – Friday, May 26, 2001
Club Negro at Barbara Ann Levy
453 West 17th Street
Chelsea
Charles McGill is an African-American artist who lives in Harlem. He also plays golf, a game that is still, notwithstanding the ascendancy of Tiger Woods, popularly thought of as an economically advantaged white man’s sport. As an artist, he slyly conflates these different aspects of his identity.
Under the auspices of a fictive label, ”Club Negro,” he has issued a line of satiric mock-commodities for black golfers. For example, a commercial-style display promoting new, Africanized golf balls titled ”The Hard to Swallow Suite” offers brands like the ”New Spook” (”If you can’t beat them, scare them,” reads the ad copy on the shelf) and the ”Malcom X” (”Guaranteed to improve your game by any means necessary”).
Elsewhere, Mr. McGill presents various decorative objects for the clubhouse. A glass-doored rack contains rows of balls inscribed by hand with disclaimers like ”I was never on Soul Train” or ”I can’t jump.” A wooden plaque displays a golf club festooned with dreadlocks; another is entirely papered by reproductions of old photographs depicting lynchings.
The collision Mr. McGill craftily sets up between incongruous worlds — the one traditionally overprivileged and effete, the other disenfranchised and funky — is at once funny and sobering.
KEN JOHNSON
As of 3/13/2010 the link to the Art in America review by Joe Lewis has gone inactive. It may work in the future but as of now it is inaccessible. I have retyped the review and inserted it below.
Charles McGill’s first solo exhibition, “Club Negro: Experience the Freedom,” presented small, wall-mounted sculptures designed and fabricated for the occasion. The work discovers new conceptual mass within the well-worn territories of race and representation. Using golf as a visual metaphor, McGill examines symbiotic relationships between culture, racial profiling and mass-media stereotypes by modifying the game’s implements–clubs, balls and bag. He combines these “tools” with historical data, sociopolitical texts and personal ephemera, lacing his observations with humor and irony.
Featuring a golf ball printed with the phrase “Nigger 2000” like a brand name, the piece (bearing the same name) presents mock advertising copy that exclaims, “Why be on the front line, when you can be on the front nine? Introducing the Nigger 200, the amazing new Golf ball designed for revolutionaries who just don’t have the time! Experience the freedom… Nigger 2000.”
McGill’s meticulous attention to detail and appropriation of point-of-purchase advertising techniques allow him to address difficult racist positions in an understated way. The potential for political didacticism in his art work is undercut by lighthearted sexual innuendo in works such as My Two Black Balls, which consists of McGill’s culturally irreverent trademark, black golf balls, on tees glued to an awards plaque.
Another work that assails stereotypes is IAMIAMNOT. Fifty-four golf balls, nine rows of six, each with a short, declarative handwritten statement, are mounted on tees in a cabinet behind glass. The messages play upon a familiar litany of misinformation that reinforces racism and prejudice: “I can’t jump. I did not travels the Underground Railroad, I was never a porch monkey, coon or jigaboo. I did not march on Washington, I have never done anything by any means necessary, I have never had a dream.”
Adept at fusing disperate concepts of a bold and provocative nature, McGill alos creates objects that are as well crafted and beautiful. An excellent case in point is Club Negro, circa 1964, a self-portrait. The artist carefully festoons a golf club with his own dreadlocks. Mounted like a trophy, the club’s sweet spot faces up. The artist’s subversion of the golf club, an icon of privilege, is soaked with associations and esthetic prowess. Perhaps a distant cousin to Meret Oppenheim’s teacup, the dreadlocked club is liberated from its formidable social boundaries by McGill’s playfulness. – Joe Lewis, Art in America, May 2001
In order to read the following 2 reviews you must use the ZOOM feature on your computer to magnify the text. They no longer appear online. Sorry for any inconvenience.
While doing some research I searched the name Arthur Negro, the name of a life-sized sculpture you see to the right of this post. I wanted to see if it would tie back to my site. What I found astounded me – click on ‘genealogy‘ and scroll six names down.
Campus Hanoi was pleased to welcome American artist Charles McGill for our Monday Art Talk.
Using golf as a visual metaphor, Charles examines symbiotic relationships between culture, racial profiling and mass-media stereotypes by modifying the game’s implements–clubs, balls and bag.He combines these “tools” with historical data, sociopolitical texts and personal ephemera, lacing hisobservations with humor and irony.
Featuring a golf ball printed with the phrase “Nigger 2000″ like a brand name, the piece (bearing the same title) presents mock advertising copy that exclaims, “Why be on the front line, when you can be on the front nine?Introducing The Nigger 2000, the amazing new Golf ball designed for revolutionaries who just don’t have the time!Experience the freedom … Nigger 2000.”
Charles’ meticulous attention to detail and appropriation of point-of-sale advertising techniques allow him to address difficult racist positions in an understated way.The potential for political didacticism in his art work is undercut by lighthearted sexual innuendo in works such as “My Two Black Balls”, which consists of Charles’ culturally irreverent trademark, black golf balls, on tees glued to an awards plaque.
Charles also discussed his works, “Arthur Negro I” and “Arthur Negro II”, satirical life-size statues of a black revolutionaries in an argyle sweater and plus fours, equipped with uzi submachine guns and bulletproof vests. The talk was followed by a question-and-answer session where the audience posed questions to Charles about his work and how his work expressed hispersonal feelings.
Campus would also like to express its appreciation to Canon Vietnam for the use of their projector during this discussion. Description of Charles McGill and his work taken from Art in America, May 2001 and The New York Times, July 30, 2006. More about Charles and his artwork can be found on his website at www.artnegro.com.
Reviews/Links
The Brooklyn Rail review of TRAPPED – by Dan Tarnowski – Published May 2012 THE PHATORY | APRIL 7 – MAY 26, 2012
SKINNED: A collection of work conceived from an obsession with an object – Blurb.com Order here!
WBAI Radio Interview – “Charles McGill with Delphine Blue – Shocking Blue Friday Edition Friday April 20, 2012. Interview begins at 46 minutes”
Zing Magazine – “Interview with Charles McGill” by Brandon Johnson
Style Weekly – “Identity Crisis” Michael Dullin
Culture 24 – “Only surviving full-length Vincent Van Gogh portrait turns up in Grimsby at Abbey Walk” Review of “Head and Whole” exhibition – By Ben Miller, August 2011
HZ Journal – “Playing Through” Clifford Owens
New York Times – “Club Negro – Experience the Freedom” Ken Johnson
D’Art Magazine – “Picking Cherries -Art Miami Top Ten List, 2009″ – Douglas F. Maxwell
Charles McGill
By KEN JOHNSON
Published: New York Times – Friday, May 26, 2001
Club Negro at Barbara Ann Levy
453 West 17th Street
Chelsea
Charles McGill is an African-American artist who lives in Harlem. He also plays golf, a game that is still, notwithstanding the ascendancy of Tiger Woods, popularly thought of as an economically advantaged white man’s sport. As an artist, he slyly conflates these different aspects of his identity.
Under the auspices of a fictive label, ”Club Negro,” he has issued a line of satiric mock-commodities for black golfers. For example, a commercial-style display promoting new, Africanized golf balls titled ”The Hard to Swallow Suite” offers brands like the ”New Spook” (”If you can’t beat them, scare them,” reads the ad copy on the shelf) and the ”Malcom X” (”Guaranteed to improve your game by any means necessary”).
Elsewhere, Mr. McGill presents various decorative objects for the clubhouse. A glass-doored rack contains rows of balls inscribed by hand with disclaimers like ”I was never on Soul Train” or ”I can’t jump.” A wooden plaque displays a golf club festooned with dreadlocks; another is entirely papered by reproductions of old photographs depicting lynchings.
The collision Mr. McGill craftily sets up between incongruous worlds — the one traditionally overprivileged and effete, the other disenfranchised and funky — is at once funny and sobering.
KEN JOHNSON
As of 3/13/2010 the link to the Art in America review by Joe Lewis has gone inactive. It may work in the future but as of now it is inaccessible. I have retyped the review and inserted it below.
Charles McGill’s first solo exhibition, “Club Negro: Experience the Freedom,” presented small, wall-mounted sculptures designed and fabricated for the occasion. The work discovers new conceptual mass within the well-worn territories of race and representation. Using golf as a visual metaphor, McGill examines symbiotic relationships between culture, racial profiling and mass-media stereotypes by modifying the game’s implements–clubs, balls and bag. He combines these “tools” with historical data, sociopolitical texts and personal ephemera, lacing his observations with humor and irony.
Featuring a golf ball printed with the phrase “Nigger 2000” like a brand name, the piece (bearing the same name) presents mock advertising copy that exclaims, “Why be on the front line, when you can be on the front nine? Introducing the Nigger 200, the amazing new Golf ball designed for revolutionaries who just don’t have the time! Experience the freedom… Nigger 2000.”
McGill’s meticulous attention to detail and appropriation of point-of-purchase advertising techniques allow him to address difficult racist positions in an understated way. The potential for political didacticism in his art work is undercut by lighthearted sexual innuendo in works such as My Two Black Balls, which consists of McGill’s culturally irreverent trademark, black golf balls, on tees glued to an awards plaque.
Another work that assails stereotypes is IAMIAMNOT. Fifty-four golf balls, nine rows of six, each with a short, declarative handwritten statement, are mounted on tees in a cabinet behind glass. The messages play upon a familiar litany of misinformation that reinforces racism and prejudice: “I can’t jump. I did not travels the Underground Railroad, I was never a porch monkey, coon or jigaboo. I did not march on Washington, I have never done anything by any means necessary, I have never had a dream.”
Adept at fusing disperate concepts of a bold and provocative nature, McGill alos creates objects that are as well crafted and beautiful. An excellent case in point is Club Negro, circa 1964, a self-portrait. The artist carefully festoons a golf club with his own dreadlocks. Mounted like a trophy, the club’s sweet spot faces up. The artist’s subversion of the golf club, an icon of privilege, is soaked with associations and esthetic prowess. Perhaps a distant cousin to Meret Oppenheim’s teacup, the dreadlocked club is liberated from its formidable social boundaries by McGill’s playfulness. – Joe Lewis, Art in America, May 2001
In order to read the following 2 reviews you must use the ZOOM feature on your computer to magnify the text. They no longer appear online. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Art In America – Joe Lewis
Journal of Africa-American Art
Links
Style Weekly – “Identity Crisis” Michael Dullin
Russell ProjectsFB – Press release
While doing some research I searched the name Arthur Negro, the name of a life-sized sculpture you see to the right of this post. I wanted to see if it would tie back to my site. What I found astounded me – click on ‘genealogy‘ and scroll six names down.
Genealogy
The Studio
Ellen de Bruine Projects
College of New Rochelle
Examined Life Skowhegan Alumni
WPB NYC Blog
NYFA Headlines
The Bridge
Artifacts from The Former Black Militant Golf and Country Club
Galerie Bourbon-Lally
Beyond Appearances/Lehman College Art Gallery
MAD Museum
ArtNet
Gary Lucas Blog
NYFA
Art Matters Foundation
The Bridge
Iona College
re:source Art in General
Barbara Ann Levy Gallery
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Visiting Artist/Campus Hanoi
Published on: 1/22/2007 Last Visited: 12/3/2007
Campus Hanoi was pleased to welcome American artist Charles McGill for our Monday Art Talk.
Using golf as a visual metaphor, Charles examines symbiotic relationships between culture, racial profiling and mass-media stereotypes by modifying the game’s implements–clubs, balls and bag.He combines these “tools” with historical data, sociopolitical texts and personal ephemera, lacing hisobservations with humor and irony.
Featuring a golf ball printed with the phrase “Nigger 2000″ like a brand name, the piece (bearing the same title) presents mock advertising copy that exclaims, “Why be on the front line, when you can be on the front nine?Introducing The Nigger 2000, the amazing new Golf ball designed for revolutionaries who just don’t have the time!Experience the freedom … Nigger 2000.”
Charles’ meticulous attention to detail and appropriation of point-of-sale advertising techniques allow him to address difficult racist positions in an understated way.The potential for political didacticism in his art work is undercut by lighthearted sexual innuendo in works such as “My Two Black Balls”, which consists of Charles’ culturally irreverent trademark, black golf balls, on tees glued to an awards plaque.
Charles also discussed his works, “Arthur Negro I” and “Arthur Negro II”, satirical life-size statues of a black revolutionaries in an argyle sweater and plus fours, equipped with uzi submachine guns and bulletproof vests. The talk was followed by a question-and-answer session where the audience posed questions to Charles about his work and how his work expressed hispersonal feelings.
Campus would also like to express its appreciation to Canon Vietnam for the use of their projector during this discussion. Description of Charles McGill and his work taken from Art in America, May 2001 and The New York Times, July 30, 2006. More about Charles and his artwork can be found on his website at www.artnegro.com.