Pull Up for Change: The Art World Shrouded in its Stoic Delusion of ‘Whiteness’, White Elitism and More is the Problem

An opinion piece by Keoy Wan Hui

A fair amount of time has elapsed since my initial draft for this article reflecting on the art world’s response to the BLM movement, a.k.a. at the peak of the George Flyod protests: the policemen who murdered Breonna Taylor on 13 March are still walking free today while British artist Marc Quinn has garnered much media attention and backlash lately for his part-white supremacist, part-misogynistic sculpture poorly veiled on the pretext of anti-racism – a statue of BLM protestor Jen Reid titled ‘A Surge of Power’ (2020), which was installed on the plinth where the statue of Bristolian slave trader Edward Colston previously stood. In what seemed like an endless tussle internally on how one is to broach the subject of racism and BLM without being abrasive nor tone-deaf towards those generationally hurt by its very violence, I have come to the conclusion that some (white) people are bound to be offended or disagree with what I am about to say, and that we (non-black people) are also guaranteed to make mistakes in the process of speaking out for anti-racism, but the important thing is to get involved anyway. Initiate meaningful conversations with your family and friends. Question your own comforts and privileges that continue to perpetuate racial inequality. 

My biggest issue with the art world is the stubborn reluctance to confront ‘whiteness’ in addressing the BLM movement and racism. In fact, ‘whiteness’ should be the starting point for any conversation about anti-racism. Where the art world is so deeply embedded in white colonialism and continues to perpetuate white privilege in so many ways, any outward-facing claim for diversity and inclusivity seems incredibly profane. If we look at the statistics, only 4% of the positions outside service and security in US art museums are held by black professionals. White male artists are historically and habitually given preferential institutional treatment over others is a hard truth – “it’s reflected on museum walls and in patronage” says Bronx Museum’s social justice curator Jasmine Wahi. Art critic Kenny Schachter also duly reminds us of how white the auction houses are in his epic review of their recent televised sales (not to mention the delightful memes on Instagram). From the art institution to the museum, the gallery to the auction house, the biennial to the art fair, non-whites are institutionally disenfranchised: the art world is shrouded in its stoic delusion of white elitism. 

This might sound like an attack on white people but this is far from personal, since it is a matter of fact that we do not get to choose what race we are born into and the subsequent conditions of socialisation it is structured upon. Robin DiAngelo’s study on ‘White Fragility’ perfectly captures why it is perhaps so difficult for individuals and institutions to acknowledge, assess and grapple with their own ‘whiteness’ in this anti-racism discussion (An essay I highly recommend reading, as a white person or not). What we can do collectively however, is to acknowledge our privilege. To recognise, and then actively dismantle, all covert and overt forms of racism – institutional, structural, interpersonal and internalised –  that pervades and persists in society. It is important for those in positions of power to rethink the structures of the art world for greater diversity and inclusivity. One thing for certain is: there will be a whole lot of discomfort involved in the process of learning and unlearning (especially for white people), but it is inevitable as much as it is long overdue. 

But surely in this debate for anti-racism and BLM, you might ask, shouldn’t we be talking about Black people and giving them more room to be heard? Yes, most definitely we should. I am not discrediting any efforts that individuals, galleries, organisations and museums specifically dedicated to promoting African American and Black artists have been making from the get-go, way before the BLM movement even rose to its current momentum. Amplifying black voices is important and necessary, but the failure to look inwards and reflect on how structural and institutional racism is enveloped in our global art ecosystem means we are barely scratching the surface: there is no real commitment to change and equality. Museum boards will remain whitewashed while black-run organisations continue to take the side-lines, and the representation of black artists becomes a cherry-picking activity for galleries and institutions. 

What does a black square do to demonstrate solidarity? Posting a black square with no context and caption on social media is at best performative allyship; at worst, it stands for nothing, not even equality – paradoxically becoming white noise that flushes out the voices, information and messages that truly matter and demand to be heard. Nobody needs another PR publicity stunt that screams emptiness. The fashion industry has been rife with this sort of performativity over the last few months, which is constantly being called-out by its consumers. Some claim ‘silence is violence’ but emptiness is no better. Capitalising on the momentum of the movement in order to ‘stay relevant’ shouldn’t be something laudable to speak of either. It is all grossly perfunctory. One should also be highly cautious of ‘white saviour complex’ masquerading as allyship as is the case of Marc Quin and his ‘artistic practice’, which, when dug deeper, only reveal an insidious truth of him “appropriating the identities and struggles of marginalised people” for maintaining his public profile and personal wealth. 

As the global pandemic has urged the world to hit the reset button, my hopes are that the art world does the same in the case of dismantling the rampant systemic racism. The need to make real structural changes at every level is becoming ever more urgent: Museums should be dedicating part of their acquisition budgets to buying works by artists of colour and non-western artists; they should be revisiting collection displays and rethinking the narratives that glorify white colonialism and uphold white supremacy. Anisa Tavangar reveals in her research how “a lack of flexibility to reimagine the format of [the Rockefeller Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art] suggests a complacency towards retaining colonialist, imperialist and inherently violent precedents for the display of art objects.” The same can be said of the British Museum in the UK and many others. Galleries have to review their representation of artists so that the percentage of black artists being represented isn’t a mere 5% at Gagosian or 9.2% at White Cube. 

Fundamentally, art organisations need to review their hiring practices for diversity, as well as internal day-today interpersonal dynamics and organisational culture to ensure anti-bias training and prevent acts of micro-aggression taking place. “It is one thing to hire a person of colour; it’s another thing to put a person of colour in a leadership role; it’s another thing to give that person room to participate in steering the gallery,” says San Francisco dealer Jenkins-Johnson. Most importantly, it is about creating a culture where BIPOC voices can be heard but not treated as de facto educators. Everyone has a social responsibility to self-educate on the gaps in our education in order to effectively identify and dismantle white supremacist structures perpetuated in the art world. Diversity calls for measurable action and it is high time for the art world to pull up. 

James Baldwin once wrote “It is the innocence which constitutes the crime”.  This innocence as Prakash Kona describes most precisely, “is termed innocence because of a refusal to grow; an innocence trapped in an unwillingness to take responsibility for one’s actions; a dangerous kind of innocence because it devastates the lives of others with absolute conviction in its own righteousness; an innocence incapable of coming to terms with reality. It is the innocence with which David will betray himself in the process of betraying those who love him in the novel Giovanni’s Room. It is the innocence of someone who cannot have a personal life because they are incapable of being committed to themselves as persons.” Nobody – absolutely no non-black person – is absolved of being implicated in this discussion of equality because it is a condition of society. In Covid-19 times, we are claiming that we need art now more than ever. I certainly hope that this is not a plea made in sheer vanity to save the art world from economic destitution in this global recession; so let us show how the world needs art now more than ever, how art can be a profound catalyst for change that we believe it to be. They say there are many lanes to a revolution, here’s to finding ours within the art world and may it be nothing but genuine.

Keoy Wan Hui,

Contributor, MADE IN BED