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Lot Essay
Robert Colescott’s Eat Dem Taters is an exceptional declaration of the artist’s layered lexicon of appropriation, satire, and subversion. Recognized as one of the most important contemporary figurative painters of the twenty-first century, Colescott uses references from Western art history and popular culture to disrupt artistic norms and interrogate the underlying biases and stereotypes that informed these images. Colescott’s most recognizable and celebrated works of the 1970s appropriate and re-present iconic images of nineteenth century European painting through his signature one-two punch of wit and absurdity. Eat Dem Taters is one of only two parodic masterpieces from 1975 that utilize this technique of interrogation and reimagination; the other, George Washington Carver, is in the permanent collection of the future Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles.
The present work is revered as a masterpiece within the artist’s oeuvre, Eat Dem Taters has remained in the family collection of art historian and curator, Robert Rosenblum, since the year it was painted. Colescott and Rosenblum shared a similar veracity for tackling tradition and making space for under-represented narratives, and the work’s inclusion in the Rosenblum family collection for the past four decades speaks to its significance as a reflection of Rosenblum’s developed and particular taste for rebellious masterpieces. The significance is also underscored by the variety of texts and exhibitions through which it has been highlighted. Having been included in the artist’s first solo museum exhibition, Robert Colescott: A Retrospective at the New Museum, New York in 1989, the work was most recently exhibited in the first major comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work, Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, which aptly concluded its tour at the New Museum.
Eat Dem Taters purposefully parallels Vincent van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters (1885). Mirrored through its earthy palette and crowded composition, Colescott refashions one of the most recognizable images from art history—peasants eating their earnings from a day’s worth of hard work in the field—with hyperbolized Black figures. Presenting a parody of the somber scene, Colescott brashly and assertively exposes the racist imagery that infiltrates our collective psyche, and the erasure and exclusion of Black subjects within art history.
“The fact that the original work can be redone questions its value. I think that if I make a painting that has such a strong quality of irony or ‘sass,’ if I push an idea so far that it’s something that really sticks in people’s minds, I’ve put a barrier between the viewer and the original work…” (“Excerpts from ‘A Conservation with Robert Colescott’,” Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, p. 230).
Eat Dem Taters audaciously reconceives The Potato Eaters with a grinning group of Black subjects circled around a table at dinner time. Compared to the original sitters, who had coarse, bony faces and hands and downtrodden dispositions, Colescott presents his subjects with gleeful grins and exaggerated features akin to minstrel imagery. Beginning in the 1830s, minstrel shows were performed by white actors in blackface imitating enslaved Africans. These caricatures presented Black individuals as lazy, foolish, and joyful, suggesting they felt fortunate to be enslaved and removed from their “primitive” circumstances in Africa. Minstrel, Mammy and Black caricatures also featured in “soul food” advertising of this period, including Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s. This fictitious representation of Black individuals and other racial stereotypes were deeply ingrained in the media, across radio, television, and theater–even taught in classrooms–and experienced by generations of people across race and class. The artist recalls experiencing these images himself, stating “Unfortunately, stereotypical images are part of the American heritage. I had to come to terms with it for myself, ultimately controlling the images by making them and making them say some things for me” (“Excerpts from ‘A Conservation with Robert Colescott’,” Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, exh. cat., New York, 2019, p. 230). The codification of Blackness through minstrel imagery was not only a way for Colescott to release the experienced trauma associated with these stereotypes, but also a means for him to turn the mistruths on their head, undermining their authority through satire and rascality.
‘They ultimately ridicule the meanness and silliness of the images, which are white inventions. They also say, “Look here, I’ve been left out of (art) history, but if the white man had included me at that time (and what about our portrayal currently?) I probably would have looked like this!” The same prejudice that excluded Black folk from the culture created the stereotyped sambo image’ (“Excerpts from ‘A Conservation with Robert Colescott’,” Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, exh. cat., New York, 2019, p. 230)
To clearly state his message, Colescott emulated all other aspects of The Potato Eaters’s composition, down to the time on the clock on the back left wall, the situation of the subjects, and the number of mugs on the table. These visual similarities make Colescott’s Eat Dem Taters direct in its reference to the source work, while also dramatizing the few differences he integrated. In addition to his reimagined subjects, Colescott also altered the original image through the incorporation of text. The work’s title, Eat Dem Taters, is playfully inscribed in cursive and teetering block letters at the upper right of the composition. The text serves as another example of Colescott’s use of codification; here, reimagining van Gogh’s title in Black vernacular, or ebonics. The casual nature of this text insertion also cements the light-hearted and puckish attitude with which Colescott approached his paintings. This unpretentious treatment of subject matter and style of painting are undoubtedly influenced by 1930s cartoons, which the artist was fond of, and his time spent in the Bay Area in the 1970s and 80s amongst underground comics, such as R. Crumb.
To relay this candid approach to storytelling, the artist used brushstrokes that are both skillful and sloppy, suggesting once again a nonchalant attitude but also a raw, direct form of expression. Both van Gogh and Colescott challenged the status quo pertaining to narrative painting in the subjects they chose to depict and the style with which they presented them, prioritizing message over technical proficiency. For Colescott, these painterly imperfections only furthered his intention, imbuing an attitude of absurdity that overturned the hierarchy of the stereotypes he aimed to dismantle. The unexpected and unruly manner of Colescott’s paintings incite pause, reflection, and reconsideration of what we accept as sanctioned or canonized – both in painting and in Black representation.
Born in Oakland, California in 1925 to parents of mixed race, Colescott was perceived and presented as both white and Black depending on the cultural context. Having entered the army to serve in World War II at a time when the military was still segregated, he chose to define himself as “white” on his entry papers. After serving in Europe, Colescott returned to California and earned his BFA at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1949, he went to France on the G.I. Bill, where he studied in the studio of French modernist Fernand Léger. It was under Léger’s direction that Colescott turned to figuration, which was more accessible to ordinary people than abstraction. In an attempt to define his own aesthetic language, Colescott began to reinterpret famous artworks from European art history, as seen with his early painting Olympia, where he paid homage to the 1863 painting of the same title by Édouard Manet in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. This early example of Colescott’s interest in appropriation reveals his innate impulse to expose the underlying biases and prejudices in historical works. Here, Colescott brings the Black maid out of the shadows and onto the same plane as Olympia. These early discoveries and explorations set Colescott on a lifelong mission to interject Black people into Western art through appropriation.
Soon thereafter in the early 1960s, Colescott traveled to Egypt to study and teach and soon became enamored with Egypt’s cultural identity, which offered him new perspectives on race. When he returned to the United States in 1969-1970, his painting style dramatically shifted to be more personal and political, as well as more bold and figurative. Colescott’s adoption of a figurative style was especially groundbreaking during this period when conceptualism and minimalism reigned supreme. While conceptualism and minimalism felt exclusive, unreachable, and capitalized by white artists, figuration permitted Colescott and other Black artists to convey a narrative that was direct and accessible. For Colescott, this was particularly achieved through appropriation, an artistic style that wouldn’t become stylish until the early 1980s. Colescott’s trailblazing appropriative works of the 1970s embody a moment when the artist came into his own, both through the integration of radical subject matter and the development of unique visual expression.
If you decide to laugh, don’t forget the ‘humor is the bait,’ and once you’ve bitten, you may have to do some serious chewing. The tears may come later.(R. Colescott quoted in H. Copeland, “Truth to Power,” Artforum, October 2009, vol. 48, no. 2, p. 40).
Eat Dem Taters is undoubtedly one of Colescott’s most meaningful and developed works that has only grown more nuanced in its meaning with time, demonstrating the artist’s unique ability to dissect and rebuild a narrative into complex conversations surrounding identity, race, and culture that remain relevant today. Rich in reference, irony, and wit, Eat Dem Taters calls attention to subjects and narratives that were otherwise overlooked, both in art history and during the artist’s lifetime, serving as the ultimate testament to Colescott’s enduring mission to revolutionize Black perception and representation in painting.
The present work is revered as a masterpiece within the artist’s oeuvre, Eat Dem Taters has remained in the family collection of art historian and curator, Robert Rosenblum, since the year it was painted. Colescott and Rosenblum shared a similar veracity for tackling tradition and making space for under-represented narratives, and the work’s inclusion in the Rosenblum family collection for the past four decades speaks to its significance as a reflection of Rosenblum’s developed and particular taste for rebellious masterpieces. The significance is also underscored by the variety of texts and exhibitions through which it has been highlighted. Having been included in the artist’s first solo museum exhibition, Robert Colescott: A Retrospective at the New Museum, New York in 1989, the work was most recently exhibited in the first major comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work, Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, which aptly concluded its tour at the New Museum.
Eat Dem Taters purposefully parallels Vincent van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters (1885). Mirrored through its earthy palette and crowded composition, Colescott refashions one of the most recognizable images from art history—peasants eating their earnings from a day’s worth of hard work in the field—with hyperbolized Black figures. Presenting a parody of the somber scene, Colescott brashly and assertively exposes the racist imagery that infiltrates our collective psyche, and the erasure and exclusion of Black subjects within art history.
“The fact that the original work can be redone questions its value. I think that if I make a painting that has such a strong quality of irony or ‘sass,’ if I push an idea so far that it’s something that really sticks in people’s minds, I’ve put a barrier between the viewer and the original work…” (“Excerpts from ‘A Conservation with Robert Colescott’,” Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, p. 230).
Eat Dem Taters audaciously reconceives The Potato Eaters with a grinning group of Black subjects circled around a table at dinner time. Compared to the original sitters, who had coarse, bony faces and hands and downtrodden dispositions, Colescott presents his subjects with gleeful grins and exaggerated features akin to minstrel imagery. Beginning in the 1830s, minstrel shows were performed by white actors in blackface imitating enslaved Africans. These caricatures presented Black individuals as lazy, foolish, and joyful, suggesting they felt fortunate to be enslaved and removed from their “primitive” circumstances in Africa. Minstrel, Mammy and Black caricatures also featured in “soul food” advertising of this period, including Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s. This fictitious representation of Black individuals and other racial stereotypes were deeply ingrained in the media, across radio, television, and theater–even taught in classrooms–and experienced by generations of people across race and class. The artist recalls experiencing these images himself, stating “Unfortunately, stereotypical images are part of the American heritage. I had to come to terms with it for myself, ultimately controlling the images by making them and making them say some things for me” (“Excerpts from ‘A Conservation with Robert Colescott’,” Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, exh. cat., New York, 2019, p. 230). The codification of Blackness through minstrel imagery was not only a way for Colescott to release the experienced trauma associated with these stereotypes, but also a means for him to turn the mistruths on their head, undermining their authority through satire and rascality.
‘They ultimately ridicule the meanness and silliness of the images, which are white inventions. They also say, “Look here, I’ve been left out of (art) history, but if the white man had included me at that time (and what about our portrayal currently?) I probably would have looked like this!” The same prejudice that excluded Black folk from the culture created the stereotyped sambo image’ (“Excerpts from ‘A Conservation with Robert Colescott’,” Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott, exh. cat., New York, 2019, p. 230)
To clearly state his message, Colescott emulated all other aspects of The Potato Eaters’s composition, down to the time on the clock on the back left wall, the situation of the subjects, and the number of mugs on the table. These visual similarities make Colescott’s Eat Dem Taters direct in its reference to the source work, while also dramatizing the few differences he integrated. In addition to his reimagined subjects, Colescott also altered the original image through the incorporation of text. The work’s title, Eat Dem Taters, is playfully inscribed in cursive and teetering block letters at the upper right of the composition. The text serves as another example of Colescott’s use of codification; here, reimagining van Gogh’s title in Black vernacular, or ebonics. The casual nature of this text insertion also cements the light-hearted and puckish attitude with which Colescott approached his paintings. This unpretentious treatment of subject matter and style of painting are undoubtedly influenced by 1930s cartoons, which the artist was fond of, and his time spent in the Bay Area in the 1970s and 80s amongst underground comics, such as R. Crumb.
To relay this candid approach to storytelling, the artist used brushstrokes that are both skillful and sloppy, suggesting once again a nonchalant attitude but also a raw, direct form of expression. Both van Gogh and Colescott challenged the status quo pertaining to narrative painting in the subjects they chose to depict and the style with which they presented them, prioritizing message over technical proficiency. For Colescott, these painterly imperfections only furthered his intention, imbuing an attitude of absurdity that overturned the hierarchy of the stereotypes he aimed to dismantle. The unexpected and unruly manner of Colescott’s paintings incite pause, reflection, and reconsideration of what we accept as sanctioned or canonized – both in painting and in Black representation.
Born in Oakland, California in 1925 to parents of mixed race, Colescott was perceived and presented as both white and Black depending on the cultural context. Having entered the army to serve in World War II at a time when the military was still segregated, he chose to define himself as “white” on his entry papers. After serving in Europe, Colescott returned to California and earned his BFA at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1949, he went to France on the G.I. Bill, where he studied in the studio of French modernist Fernand Léger. It was under Léger’s direction that Colescott turned to figuration, which was more accessible to ordinary people than abstraction. In an attempt to define his own aesthetic language, Colescott began to reinterpret famous artworks from European art history, as seen with his early painting Olympia, where he paid homage to the 1863 painting of the same title by Édouard Manet in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. This early example of Colescott’s interest in appropriation reveals his innate impulse to expose the underlying biases and prejudices in historical works. Here, Colescott brings the Black maid out of the shadows and onto the same plane as Olympia. These early discoveries and explorations set Colescott on a lifelong mission to interject Black people into Western art through appropriation.
Soon thereafter in the early 1960s, Colescott traveled to Egypt to study and teach and soon became enamored with Egypt’s cultural identity, which offered him new perspectives on race. When he returned to the United States in 1969-1970, his painting style dramatically shifted to be more personal and political, as well as more bold and figurative. Colescott’s adoption of a figurative style was especially groundbreaking during this period when conceptualism and minimalism reigned supreme. While conceptualism and minimalism felt exclusive, unreachable, and capitalized by white artists, figuration permitted Colescott and other Black artists to convey a narrative that was direct and accessible. For Colescott, this was particularly achieved through appropriation, an artistic style that wouldn’t become stylish until the early 1980s. Colescott’s trailblazing appropriative works of the 1970s embody a moment when the artist came into his own, both through the integration of radical subject matter and the development of unique visual expression.
If you decide to laugh, don’t forget the ‘humor is the bait,’ and once you’ve bitten, you may have to do some serious chewing. The tears may come later.(R. Colescott quoted in H. Copeland, “Truth to Power,” Artforum, October 2009, vol. 48, no. 2, p. 40).
Eat Dem Taters is undoubtedly one of Colescott’s most meaningful and developed works that has only grown more nuanced in its meaning with time, demonstrating the artist’s unique ability to dissect and rebuild a narrative into complex conversations surrounding identity, race, and culture that remain relevant today. Rich in reference, irony, and wit, Eat Dem Taters calls attention to subjects and narratives that were otherwise overlooked, both in art history and during the artist’s lifetime, serving as the ultimate testament to Colescott’s enduring mission to revolutionize Black perception and representation in painting.