Bought a print I love, DH is worried it's racist

[NC4T]

Saw it on IG and loved it. Purchased it for the laundry room corridor, but it's arrived and DH is a little worried it might be racist. I can't see how. To me, it's a mum finding a few minutes of calm in the chaos and I love her babies little sleeping face.

We are white Jewish, for cultural context.

What do you think?

I hate it.

I really, really dislike the image and disliked it even more when I clicked on the link and it shows a black woman in chains. You might not have chosen the picture because of how it reflects on the work that black women have done for others but the artist clearly does from her description of many of her pieces and from her pen portrait on the website.

Her work has been a success because she intends it to open a dialogue about 'race identity, belonging, class, power and the politics of how we look at others' and it's certainly done that here.

I also the see the picture as portraying a black woman in service now that I've looked at her website.

There are a great many pictures of women reading, because for portrait painters there's a fascination about trying to capture externally what is going on in somebody's mind as they read. (The way somebody is there but not there.) But this picture doesn't do that. It's quite crudely drawn and the focus is on the shape of the woman's body - her arse in particular. Here's a sample of one of the reflective, reading pictures - though here the woman seems to have gone off into a total reverie. Or has fallen asleep.

brizzle am I looking at the same website as you? 'Body positive yoga art'?

If you want a good picture of a woman engaged in domestic labour - one which shows the exertion of doing laundry, I could give you this. The posture of the woman shows how gruelling work can be.

Lilly Martin Spencer (American artist, 1822 –1902)

The Jolly Washerwoman

In all my parenting days I have never been so vomited on I had to take all my clothes including my pants off, but miraculously the sling remained unscathed. I think thhere is a lot of post hoc rationalisation going on here......

It's a piece of art not a factual illustration.

I don't like it. It actually makes me feel quite anxious - I hated 'baby wearing' it was claustrophobic & oppressive. When you carry a baby you can just put them down, I hate having to extricate myself from fabric & knots.

The image recalls that - fucking hell I can't even get dressed or have five minutes to read myself without the bloody baby going apeshit and what's more I'm supposed to master the art of casually flinging the baby on my back as all good 'baby wearers' do so I can get EVEN more work done.

I was quite happy to sit and breastfeed all day, pottering around when they slept but what I did not want to do was be earth mother & housewife ... all those little tricks about how to breastfeed in a sling while doing the hoovering. Fuck off.

“It's a piece of art not a factual illustration“
An. So it’s OK for me to not like the imagery around women/black wonen then?

www.barbarawalker.co.uk/index.php/info/biography/

Her paintings and drawings of the human figure open up a dialogue with viewers concerning the notions about race identity, belonging, class, power and the politics of how we look at others. Working in a range of media and formats, from works on paper and canvas to large-scale wall installations, Walker is concerned with social and political issues with particular reference to history and cultural differences in contemporary life. Her work often looks at the world around her, particularly what she sees reflected in the communities in which she lives and works.

Sorry tl;dr
I dont like the pic in the op. I dont know if its racist but what i think the artist is saying, washing machine invented by the west, reading a book, a western thing and yet naked as some african tribes are except for jewelery, baby worn african style..like a clash or co existence of stereotypical native african/new arrival with modern shiny western life. Sorry if this doesnt make sense.......im probably not explaining very well sleep deprived

I would go for this sort of thing - if I had to have a “link” to laundry...
i.pinimg.com/originals/67/d2/d1/67d2d1a32ce081e2008c13b49dca91ed.jpg

@Runbaba is reading a western thing? pretty sure the Egyptians were doing it long before the Brit's.

These alternative pics raise interesting questions in themselves. The women in them are white, yes, but the ones in The Jolly Washerwoman and Rose's link at least are clearly servants. There's also a strong suggestion (overt, in fact, in the title of The Jolly Washerwoman) that they are lucky to be doing laundry and that they adore their work, which is questionable at best.

Is that better, or worse, than the depiction of a black woman with a child and a load of laundry in the OP's image?

Good points, @DarlingNikita

I have a version of this in our kitchen; it is in a large black frame with gilt edging.

lakeimagesweb.artic.edu/iiif/2/c88d1393-89e7-a975-84de-0b4566b15e09/full/!800,800/0/default.jpg

Brits.

Autocorrect

I would prefer not to make a corny “laundry link”, as I have indicated.

@kayee87 i think the egyptians invented paper not bined books like that. A western thing part in my post was referring to the style of the book.

The Laundress

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin ; November 2, 1699 – December 6, 1779) was an 18th-century French painter. He is considered a master of still life,] and is also noted for his genre paintings which depict kitchen maids, children, and domestic activities.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste-Sim%C3%A9on_Chardin

The Laundress - her face looks weary and sad.

It would be unwise to display this picture in a public area of your home if you don't have any black heritage. It is too open to negative interpretation, as this thread shows. I am still very dismayed that people see a picture of a black woman with a plain hairstyle and a child on her back and first of all see poverty and servanthood. You wouldn't think that if a white woman was portrayed in exactly the same pose.

SandyY2K There are some truths in your post but I believe you have completely misapplied them to the picture. Why do you think this is an African woman in Africa, rather than a black woman, not necessarily African in say, London? Why would a carer be naked? And not just naked but comfortable enough to read her book? That is just so unlikely as if caught the consequences would be so severe.

Many well-off Africans don't have washing machines. Either their staff do it by hand or they have a washer person come once a week or so to do the laundry. The most obvious explanation is that this is a woman of African heritage living somewhere where washing machines are common (the West, probably) and most people do their own laundry. Please don't look at black people and see poverty, deprivation and lack of education first and foremost.

You might not have chosen the picture because of how it reflects on the work that black women have done for others but the artist clearly does from her description of many of her pieces and from her pen portrait on the website. Her work has been a success because she intends it to open a dialogue about 'race identity, belonging, class, power and the politics of how we look at others' and it's certainly done that here

Then she has succeeded. And for that I applaud her. As said for me, if this was a series of prints the op intended to display in a different setting to that which she's chosen, I would have no issue. The fact she wishes to display it in isolation en route to her laundry room as a nice image is where I part ways with her.

It's a controversial thought provoking image the artist intended for societal discussion, and the vast majority of posters have picked up on that immediately and hence would not display it as rhe op intends.