Voyage of the Sable Venus

By Robin Coste Lewis

And never to forget beauty,
however strange or difficult
—Reginald Shepherd

Prologue:

What follows is [an excerpt of] a narrative poem comprised solely and entirely of the titles, catalog entries, or exhibit descriptions of Western art objects in which a black female figure is present, dating from 38,OOO BCE to the present.

The formal rules I set for myself were simple:

1. No title could be broken or changed in any way. While the grammar is completely modified—I erased all periods, commas, semicolons—each title was left as published, and was not syntactically annotated, edited, or fragmented.

2. “Art” included paintings, sculpture, installations, photography, lithographs, engravings, any work on paper, et cetera—all those traditional mediums now recognized by the Western art-historical canon. However, because black female figures were also used in ways I could never have anticipated, I was forced to expand that definition to include other material and visual objects, such as combs, spoons, buckles, pans, knives, table legs.

3. At some point, I realized that museums and libraries (in what I imagine must have been either a hard-won gesture of goodwill, or in order not to appear irrelevant) had removed many nineteenth-century historically specific markers—such as slave, colored, and Negro—from their titles or archives, and replaced these words instead with the sanitized, but perhaps equally vapid, African-American. In order to replace this historical erasure of slavery (however well intended), I re-erased the postmodern African-American, then changed those titles back. That is, I re-corrected the corrected horror in order to allow that original horror to stand. My intent was to explore and record not only the history of human thought, but also how normative and complicit artists, curators, and art institutions have been in participating in—if not creating—this history.

4. As an homage, I decided to include titles of art by black women curators and artists, whether the art included a black female figure or not. Most of this work was created over the last century, with its deepest saturation occurring since the Cold War. I also included work by black queer artists, regardless of gender, because this body of work has made consistently some of the richest, most elegant, least pretentious contributions to Western art interrogations of gender and race.

5. In a few instances, it was more fruitful to include a museum’s descriptive titles of the art rather than the titles themselves. This was especially true for the colonial period.

6. Sometimes I chose to include female figures I believed the Western art world simply had not realized were black women passing for white.

7. Finally, with one exception, no title was repeated.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Employees’ Association Minstrel Show and Dance
will be held at the American Woman’s Association
361 West 57th Street, Saturday evening,
October 17, 1936

I am anxious to buy a small healthy negro girl—
ten or twelve years old, and would like to know
if you can let me have one …

—MRS. B. L. BLANKENSHIP

The Ship’s Inventory:

Four-Breasted Vessel, Three Women
in Front of a Steamy Pit, Two-Faced
Head Fish Trying on Earrings, Unidentified.

Young Woman with Shawl
and Painted Backdrop, Pearl
of the Forest, Two Girls

with Braids People
on a Ship with Some Dancing
Girls. Our Lady of Mercy, Blue.

Nude Iconologia Girl
with Red Flower Sisters
of the Boa Woman Flying a Butterfly.

Kite Empty
Chair Pocket
Book Girl

in Red Dress with Cats and Dog’s Devil.
House Door of No Return. Head-of-a-Girl-
In-the-Bedroom in the kitchen.

Contemplation Dark-Girl Girl.
In the Window Negress with
Flower Sleeping Woman

(Negress with Flower Head
of a Woman-Nude in a Land
scape) —Libyan Sybil: Coloured, Nude-High

Yellow Negro Woman
and Two Children—The Flight
of the Octoroon: the Four Quarters of

the World, Holding
a Celestial Sphere.

Invocation

BLESSING THE BOAT

Untitled
Anonymous
Clay

Prehistoric
Cow
Bone

Detail

Of a
Balsarium
Glass Moss

Fragment
Untitled Gelatin
Silver Print

On Paper On
Stucco On Canvas
On Concrete

Apotheosis:

Obverse anthropomorphic sarcophagus.
Alabastron eulogia ampulla.

Anonymous fragment. Frag
Ment. Pavement (Detail). Pain t

On tin—Figure 150, Figure 151:
Strings and black mud.

Terracotta terracotta.
Anonymous relief.

Untitled Anonymous Limestone,
Isolated Ronde Bosse.

Plant Fiber Beads, Red
Abrus Seeds, Solar-Mosaic Wood Plate.

Ointment Vase, Printed Bedspread,
Artificial Hair—Neck

Decoration from a Tunic. Untitled Chewing Gum,
Gold—Gold Repoussé, Anonymous Plaster-Ink.

Salted Paper, Coins, Carbon,
Ivory-Colored Pencil. Graffiti

On the sides and undergirding
Of a bridge. Da Guerre!

O Type accumulated—Figurine 38 felt
Tip monumental relief.

Grass Stain
Ivory Spoon
Berry Juice
White Pigment

Hide.

Heads and Busts
Headless—Footless—Armless

But with a Strongly
Incised Vaginal

Opening:

Harp

Harp
With Bridge Harp
Lute

One-key
Xylophone
Slit

Gong
Trumpet Gong
Gong

Mallet
Whistle
Rattle

Drum

Catalog I:

ANCIENT GREECE & ANCIENT ROME

Here is your name
said the woman
and vanished in the corridor
—MAHMOUD DARWISH

I.

Statuette of a Woman Reduced
to the Shape of a Flat Paddle

Statuette of a Black Slave Girl
Right Half of Body and Head Missing

Head of a Young Black Woman Fragment
from a Statuette of a Black Dancing Girl

Reserve Head of an African Princess
Statuette of a Concubine

Full Length Figure of a Standing
Black Woman Wearing Earrings

Statuette Once Supported an Unguent Vase
Vase with Neck in the Form of a Head

of a Black Statuette of a Female
Figure with Negroid Features

Figure’s Left Arm Missing Head
of a Female Full-length Figure

of a Nubian Woman
the Arms Missing

Bust of a Draped Female Facing Forward
One Breast Exposed Black

Adolescent Female with Long Curls and Bare
Breasts Wearing a Voluminous Crown

Partially Broken Young Black Girl
Presenting a Stemmed Bowl

Supported
by a Monkey

Standing Female Reliquary Figure
with Crested Coiffure and Hands

Clasped in Front of Torso, Holding
a Staff Surmounted by a Human Head

Figure Has Prominent
Vagina Bended

Knees and Oversized Head
with Half-Open Eyes

and Semicircle Mouth
That Juts Out

from the Face Some
Fine Scarification

on Chest and Belly
Dark Brown Almost Black

Patina with Oil Oozing
in Several Places

Numerous Cracks
on Back of Head and Hole

on the Coiffure
One Nipple Appears

to Be Shaved Off
or Damaged Black Woman

Standing on Tiptoe
on One End of a Seesaw

While a Caricatured Figure Jumps
on the Other

End

: ELEMENT OF FURNITURE DECORATION

[Two Nubian Prisoners Bound
to a Post] Protome [Probably

the Handle of a Whip
or Other Implement] Oil Flask Back

View Head of an African Prisoner
Statue of Prisoner Kneeling Arms

Bound at the Elbows
Left Arm Missing

Bust of a Nubian Prisoner
with Fragmentary Arms

Bound Behind Funerary Mask
of a Negro with Inlaid Glass Eyes

and Traces of Incrustations
Present in the Mouth

Censer in the Form of a Nude Negro
Dwarf Standing with His Hands

at His Sides upon an Ornate Tripod
and Supporting on His Head

a Small Cup
in the Shape

of a Lotus
Flower

II.

water jar

bowl

ointment spoon

in the form of swimming
black girl

mirror
with handle

in the form of a carved standing
black girl

handle
of a sistrum

a Bes and an Isia dancing
back-to-back

two nails

with Negro heads in relief

head

of a Negro which may have
adorned

a pin

mounted in a

ring

bezel

bowl

decorated with three heads
in relief

separated by flat veined leaves
female puppet with

mortar and pestle
necklace

with two heads
of black women forming

a clasp
perfume vase

head of an adolescent

aryballos

juxtaposing two heads of Negroes
cast from the same mold

mirror
with handle

in the form of a young Nubian
female standing

lamp

in the form of

the head

of a black perhaps

incense
shovel

with a Negro head attached

to handle
a girl

with long corkscrew curls
round face wide
flat nose and mouth

open

and jutting forward
to form

a spout

inkwell

in the form of a crouching
Negro Negro
seated writing on

a scroll

III. THE GREAT HUNT: TORMENT OF THE DAMNED

Heraldic Lion Holding
Between His Paws the Head

of a Kneeling Black Captive
Statuette of a Negro Captive Kneeling

Hands Bound Behind Back
Negro Youth Struggling

with a Crocodile Negro
Youth Struggling with a Crocodile

Negro Youth Struggling
with a Crocodile Pygmy

Armed with a Stick Statuette
of a Black Girl with Her Head

Inclined Toward the Left
Shoulder Dagger with Decoration

In Relief Lion Devouring a Black Head
of a Black Nude Black Serving Girl

Carrying an Ointment
Chest on Her Head

Ointment Spoon in the Form
of a Swimming Nubian Girl

Swimmer Holds Before Her
a Duck Fragment

That Once Formed the Spoon
[Black Swimmers Symbolizing the Dawn]

Young Black Female Carrying
a Perfume Vase with a Necklace

with Pendant Figure of the God Bes
Drawn in Black Ink Around Her

Neck Plaited Lock
of Hair on Left Side of Her Head Relief

[The Queen of Meroë Spearing
Captives] Handle or Pommel

in the Form of Three Conjoined Heads
Including a Black Woman Perhaps

Black in the Clutches of a Lion
Black Prisoners Followed

by Women and Children Statuette
Figure of a Young Black Girl Holding

a Perfume Vase in Front of Her Statuette
of Young Nubian Girl Carrying an Ointment Vase

Wearing a Necklace
of the God Bes

God of Joy
and of the Dance

IV.

Standing

Female Figure with Child Kneeling
Female Figure with Child Standing
Female Figure Head
Rest Supported by Seated
Female Figure Kneeling
Female Figure with Bowl Standing
Female Figure with Bowl and Child Standing
Female Figure Seated
Female Figure (Pipe)
Female Figure Undated
Female Figure Mask
Female Rhythm Pounder

Standing

V.

Attendants bringing
Offerings to the burial

Funerary relief
Detail of relief

Carved relief
Grave relief

Vase with painted
Decoration relief

Site relief
Relief fragment

From the tomb (Isis
Receiving the Sacrifice)

Relief
Relief

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Employees’ Association Minstrel Show and Dance will be held at the American Woman’s Association 361 West 57th Street, Saturday evening, October 17, 1936

I am anxious to buy a small healthy negro girl— ten or twelve years old, and would like to know if you can let me have one …