The Met Museum Asks: How Can Black-Themed Art Be Freed from the White Gaze?

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s classic marble sculpture Why Born Enslaved! (1868) shows the bust of an unknown Black woman. Tattered clothing exposes a bare breast, and Afro-textured hair frames the woman’s face. Her nose flares as she looks over her left shoulder in fear, agony, with possibly a mixture of disgust and desired vengeance.

The sculpture is at the center of a new exhibit, Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux's "Why Born Enslaved!" Reconsidered, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Multiple variations are showcased along with modern takes and reworkings of the piece. Surrounding the sculpture are variations made of terracotta, plaster and paint, and unbaked clay—all crafted by Carpeaux. A plaster shell reworking, Negress (2007) by Kara Walker, is perched in a corner.

A contemporary rendition of the sculpture featuring a basketball player in a similar pose, After La Negresse (2006) by Kehinde Wiley, sits near the original. Fixed at the center of the room, the popularity of Why Born Enslaved! is seen with its various spawns circling it. The perimeter of the room is adorned with other pieces of artwork unrelated to Why Born Enslaved!—but similar in context.

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