Darlene McClinton
Darlene McClinton’s self-portrait I AM, produced while she was a graduate student at Howard University in Washington, DC, is one of the artist’s most well-known works. McClinton has stated that she is interested in creating uplifting and positive images of black culture, and I AM is a striking example of cultural politics through style. The painting is one of a series of portraits that the artist produced in a Pop Art idiom.
Darlene McClinton, I AM, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches
Working from a photograph, McClinton utilizes a high keyed palette of hot pink, turquoise and gold organized in flat blocks of color. McClinton states that she employed 20-25 layers of paint and masked each section of the large painting to differentiate sharply between her hair, neck and hand in the shadow. A reduced number of hues imitating silk screen printing and the evident star-quality of the sitter reveal her study of Andy Warhol’s society portraits. McClinton takes up stylistic traits from Warhol such as “imperfections” or errors in the passages of color in the printing process and treats them very differently. The gold edge around her hair creates a halo-like border, and McClinton’s image of a young black woman crowned by her hair is more akin to Barkley Hendricks’ painting, Lawdy Mama, than Warhol’s female icons.
McClinton created a series of works of black women with natural hair and herself wore an Afro until not too long ago. By portraying herself in natural hair, McClinton reaffirms adherence to the canon of “black is beautiful” as opposed to artificially straightened hair of Eurocentric beauty standards. Perhaps the most iconic woman to wear an Afro was Angela Davis. McClinton produced a painting in homage to the activist and scholar who famously stated: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
The gesture of thoughtfully placing her hand on her chin that lends McClinton’s self- portrait a sense of agency was inspired by another iconic activist, Malcom X. McClinton says her pose, with fingers held to her chin is a direct homage to the Malcom X photographic portrait with hands on chin staring out at the viewer with a “very intense gaze.” By taking up the pose herself, McClinton seems to suggest that it is possible to change perceptions through creating as she continues to do in her teaching, non-profit work and public art projects.
El-Hajj El Shabazz —Malcolm X, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Interview with Darlene McClinton
Artist Bio