Class Pictures Opening at Milwaukee Art Museum
Thursday, April 16th, Dawoud Bey’s successful traveling exhibition Class Pictures opens at the Milwaukee Art Museum after making several stops in New York, Houston, Indianapolis, and Baltimore.
The exhibition and accompanying book feature striking, large-scale color portraits of students at high schools across the United States from a wide economic, social, and ethnic spectrum. In this video excerpt of a talk with Carrie Mae Weems from February 2008, when the exhibition was on view at Aperture Gallery, Dawoud Bey explains how the portraits in Class Pictures result from a close collaboration with his subjects. His directions were made to highlight the gestures, looks and how the teenagers were posing within the classroom. Bey also speaks about the relevance of the subjects’ written testimonies and how they complete and deepen the portraits.
Dawoud Bey will give a talk and book signing at the museum during the opening reception on Thursday, April 23rd and on Tuesday, April 28 in a discussion with curator Lisa Hostetler.
Click here to watch an extended version of the talk.
Tags: Carrie Mae Weems, Class Pictures, Dawoud Bey, Milwaukee Art Museum
