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Lot Essay
When looking at Rashid Johnson’s 2015 work Untitled Anxious Men, the feeling of one’s own anxiety and concern can immediately be reflected upon. By creating this wild and gestural composition within a contained space, Johnson is not only recognizing the idea of general anxiety, but more specifically, representing the effects of certain triggers, such as, “global immigration issues, attacks on America, and attacks within America by police on young black men” (R. Johnson, quoted in C. Kino, ‘Rashid Johnson: An Anxious Man,’ Cultured Magazine, Autumn 2016, p. 175).
Untitled Anxious Men is a piece filled with emotion, experienced through the gestural scratches and marks energetically engraved into the work. Rashid Johnson continuously exhibits his skill with unique materials, all symbolically connected to Black history. Together, his use of white ceramic tile, black soap and wax create a visually compelling and visceral experience for the viewer, as the layering of materials complete with frantic movements and the expression on the man’s face compel the viewer to feel and understand the anxiety behind the work. However, it goes much deeper than that, communicating the artist’s ideas and personal experiences related to issues of identity, race, and class. Johnson explains, “The materials I’ve used over the last five to 10 years were things that were close to me, that reminded me of certain aspects of my experience growing up – for example, the relationship I had to Afrocentrism through my parents in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. My mother would always have shea butter around, and she wore dashikis. I was celebrating Kwanzaa, hearing the unfamiliar language, Swahili, and seeing black soap and chew sticks around the house, things that were about applying an Africanness to one’s self” (C. Stackhouse, “Rashid Johnson,” Art in America, 3 April 2012, online). He goes on to explain, “Then my parents evolved into middle-class Black professionals, and I was kind of abandoned in this Afrocentric space they had created. I was forced to negotiate what that period and those objects meant for me. I saw these things, as I got older, in Harlem, in Brooklyn, being sold on the street. I always thought to myself: What is the goal now with these materials? What are people trying to get from them?'” (ibid).
These ideas continued to grow, leading to the creation of a series of anxious men, with works like Untitled Anxious Audience (2016), as Johnson began to realize that his experience was one shared with many, stating, “my anxiety was not mine exclusively. When something happens to me, it happens to my family – to the human family” (C. Kino, ‘Rashid Johnson: An Anxious Man,’ Cultured Magazine, Autumn 2016, p. 175). His personal experiences and those of fellow Black Americans remain at the center of his work.
After gaining notoriety in 2001 as the youngest artist in Thelma Golden’s seminal group exhibition Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem, his career began to flourish, as he continued to expand his artistic practice and concepts. From photography, to sculptural installations, to paintings, Johnson creates expressive and powerful works that share his Black experience with viewers, providing visibility for historically overlooked and underappreciated narratives and realities.
Untitled Anxious Men is a piece filled with emotion, experienced through the gestural scratches and marks energetically engraved into the work. Rashid Johnson continuously exhibits his skill with unique materials, all symbolically connected to Black history. Together, his use of white ceramic tile, black soap and wax create a visually compelling and visceral experience for the viewer, as the layering of materials complete with frantic movements and the expression on the man’s face compel the viewer to feel and understand the anxiety behind the work. However, it goes much deeper than that, communicating the artist’s ideas and personal experiences related to issues of identity, race, and class. Johnson explains, “The materials I’ve used over the last five to 10 years were things that were close to me, that reminded me of certain aspects of my experience growing up – for example, the relationship I had to Afrocentrism through my parents in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. My mother would always have shea butter around, and she wore dashikis. I was celebrating Kwanzaa, hearing the unfamiliar language, Swahili, and seeing black soap and chew sticks around the house, things that were about applying an Africanness to one’s self” (C. Stackhouse, “Rashid Johnson,” Art in America, 3 April 2012, online). He goes on to explain, “Then my parents evolved into middle-class Black professionals, and I was kind of abandoned in this Afrocentric space they had created. I was forced to negotiate what that period and those objects meant for me. I saw these things, as I got older, in Harlem, in Brooklyn, being sold on the street. I always thought to myself: What is the goal now with these materials? What are people trying to get from them?'” (ibid).
These ideas continued to grow, leading to the creation of a series of anxious men, with works like Untitled Anxious Audience (2016), as Johnson began to realize that his experience was one shared with many, stating, “my anxiety was not mine exclusively. When something happens to me, it happens to my family – to the human family” (C. Kino, ‘Rashid Johnson: An Anxious Man,’ Cultured Magazine, Autumn 2016, p. 175). His personal experiences and those of fellow Black Americans remain at the center of his work.
After gaining notoriety in 2001 as the youngest artist in Thelma Golden’s seminal group exhibition Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem, his career began to flourish, as he continued to expand his artistic practice and concepts. From photography, to sculptural installations, to paintings, Johnson creates expressive and powerful works that share his Black experience with viewers, providing visibility for historically overlooked and underappreciated narratives and realities.