Going There

Richard J. Powell is John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University.

“An amazing book that dares to ‘go there,’ plunging into the depths of black visual satire, an abyss where monsters and minstrels revel in the madness of racism. Richard Powell’s deeply learned and brilliantly written text dances alertly through the minefield of stereotype and caricature to reveal the critical power of satire.”—W. J. T. Mitchell, author of Seeing Through Race and Mental Traveler: A Father, a Son, and a Journey through Schizophrenia“Going There is a groundbreaking study of African-American visual satire. Powell presents a comprehensive, rigorous, and well-researched investigation into this thorny arena, illuminating some of the most controversial artworks of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.”—Derek Conrad Murray, author of Queering Post-Black Art: Artists Transforming African-American Identity After Civil Rights“With a steady hand, Powell grounds the tradition of black visual satire in its historical, political, and discursive context. But he doesn’t drain the images of their risk. Powell honors the intelligence and audacity of the works and their creators and, most importantly, gives black satire its full historical, aesthetic, and political due.”—Mike Sell, author of The Avant-Garde: Race, Religion, War“Satire and the black condition. An endless quagmire of slippery slopes, and inverted dialogues. Richard Powell skillfully dissects the social dynamics of humor in the black context demonstrating how we are perpetrators, and those perpetrated upon. It is a must read for all Americans willing to implicate themselves. No one will escape.”—Lowery Stokes Sims, co-editor, Race and Art Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott