MICHAEL RAY CHARLES | FOREVER FREE (HOWTA CONKA DA FOWL WORLD / CHILL WHILE YOU SPILL)

Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1997

Since the early nineties, African-American artist Michael Ray Charles has explored the cultural impact of racial visual codes. Like his contemporaries Kara Walker and Kerry James Marshall, Michael Ray Charles unveils the complex historical development of racial identity in America. He confronts the viewer with a variety of images that depict African American stereotypes and the way they have shaped our collective memory.

In an interview with Tony Shafrazi, Michael Ray Charles describes the Forever Free Post Series, “The Forever Free Post was the first series I did. For me The Saturday Evening Post depicted a version of American life that was foreign to me, yet I knew existed, at least in some folks’ minds. When I began researching Norman Rockwell’s work, I thought about the form of the work and how I could use the Sambo image in a similar manner, to communication the presence of past social beliefs and their influences today.” (Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Michael Ray Charles, New York 1998, p 8.)