Benjamin Jones
A young San Francisco artist’s exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora explores the issues surrounding beauty and skin color in the black community, and does so using a medium that was once used as a tool of discrimination.
The paper is crumpled, creased, and frayed. And despite the beautiful, realistic portraits painted on them, brown paper bags betray their humble origins – collected from supermarkets, shopping centers and corner stores.
“The shape of the bag on the canvas is undeniable. It almost screams, ‘This is a paper bag. It’s a paper bag,'” said artist Mary Graham.
For Graham, the choice was intentional. His portrait series is on display at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. The exhibition is titled “Value Test: Brown Paper.”
Collectively, the portraits broadly explore the issue of colorism in the African-American community, and specifically the painful and complicated history of the so-called ‘Brown Paper Bag Test’.
“In many Black families, we may have heard the term ‘Paper Bag Test,’” Graham said.
The “paper bag test,” Graham said, was an internalized form of racism and self-discrimination. In its simplest form, skin color was measured against a standard brown paper bag. The practice, however, can have profound and painful implications for people – socially, emotionally and economically.
“Colorism exists because racism exists. And we haven’t gotten rid of racism,” said Margaret Hunter, professor of sociology at Santa Clara University.
Hunter said colorism is rooted in racism and reflects patterns of discrimination around the world.
“It’s hard to be honest about what kind of advantages you can have if you have light skin and admit it. And also think about how these advantages minimize others,” she said.
By painting directly on bags, Graham’s work invites audiences to confront – head-on – the African-American community’s thorny relationship with color.
“I wanted that tension to be present at all times,” Graham said.
Interestingly, Graham said that while the portraits may evoke family feelings, reminding people of grandparents, aunts and cousins, they are actually entirely fictional in nature.
“It didn’t feel right to paint a real person on the paper bag because the story is so complicated,” she said.
Like the best art, portraits hold up a mirror to society where we can find both the beauty and the horrible truth of how we have often mistreated and misjudged each other.
Devin Fehely
