How Can You See Straight When All You See Are Targets?, 2017
Rose Frantzen (American, b. 1965)
Oil on linen
On loan from the artist.
The diagonal red lines are perfectly straight but appear to bow in and out as they move through the targets.
This specific illusion, with targets obscuring the straight lines in the painting, was paired with this figure to make a statement. Why, of all of the figures in this series, would Frantzen choose to place targets upon a Black man?
From 2017, when the series was begun, to the 2020 summer protests over police violence and the killing of unarmed men and women across the country, the country’s views on this issue evolved, but the events that Frantzen is reacting to in this painting continue to occur in high numbers, despite growing amplification and outcry for these acts of violence. In your community, has this outcry led to actionable efforts to combat the implicit bias affecting social justice and policing systems?
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
