Freedom from Truth: Self-Portraits of Nell Painter
Harvard University, Oct. 17, 2019 - Dec. 12, 2019
Many are familiar with Nell Painter from her work as a groundbreaking historian of the black experience and racial formations in the United States. She has published several award- winning books, including Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After Reconstruction, Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol, and recently The History of White People. After retiring from Princeton University, Painter returned to school at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where she received a BFA in Art. She then earned an MFA in Art from Rhode Island School of Design. Her first memoir Old in Art School reflects on this experience. Old in Art School is also the point of departure for the exhibition Freedom from Truth: Self-Portraits of Nell Painter. Since launching her career as a professional artist, self-portraiture has been key to Nell Painter's creative practice. She uses the act of creative self-reflection to explore her subjectivity as a black woman negotiating various aesthetic traditions. In Old in Art School, Painter describes the black body as a minefield, in which “[e]very single line and volume carries social meaning.”
