“Lovell’s work is pure visual poetry….

…It is a remarkable thing for a black visual artist working with black subjects to be able to slip away from easy politicization, from the narrowness of representation, and to reach toward the expression of black humanity.  It is remarkable, also, to make the argument that Lovell makes so well with his work – that what is black is at once particular and universal, familiar, and unknowable.”

- Kevin Quashie

DC Moore is pleased to present Le Rouge et Le Noir, an exhibition of new work by Whitfield Lovell on view from October 16 – December 18, 2021.

Through his works and installations, Whitfield Lovell creates space for memory, metaphor, and emotional exploration that asks pressing questions about the past and present.  By way of Lovell’s multi-sensory installation, the exhibition Le Rouge et Le Noir (The Red and the Black) unfolds throughout the gallery space as a journey of exploration. Hope and threat intertwine, and the symbolic use of color by the artist is powerful and evocative.

For his series The Reds, Lovell was inspired by the symbolism of the color red, which can evoke a range of meanings, from life and blood to courage, will, passion, and love. The assemblages in this series exude a resonant, complicated strength, and vitality. His pairings of individuals, drawn reverently and with uncanny complexity, juxtaposed with vintage objects, which carry the history of their once daily use, allow Lovell to bring forth powerful, multi-faceted associations.

In the Winteriesse series, Lovell draws with silver conte on black paper, a body of work that he started when he was at the American Academy in Rome in 2019. The artist writes:

“In Rome, I felt I should be listening to Puccini and Verdi, but I found myself listening to Schubert. That was the mood I was in. I had recently had several deaths in my family, and so Schubert’s “Winterreise,” which means “winter’s journey,” was actually very close to my experience, because it’s a song cycle with twenty-four songs, and about a man taking a journey through a snowstorm to run away from grief and loss of love. And so, this was completely where my head was, and it was winter and it was Rome, and so I did one drawing for each song, and then three more.” 

Eventually, Lovell encased objects with some of the drawings, allowing the objects and drawings to speak to one other and adding additional layers of implied meaning. Schubert’s work, from 1827, is powerful and impassioned and the metaphorical journey to escape grief is parallel to the artists’ own personal journey at the time.

Throughout his career, Lovell has often been inspired by music, poetry, and literature. In this exhibition, Stendahl’s 1830 novel Le Rouge et Le Noir inspires, as does the song made famous by Nina Simone, Ne Me Quitte Pas. In Stendahl’s writing, Lovell sees resonance with the plight of the young man who tries to rise above his station and is blocked by others as well as by his own passions. In Simone’s song, written by Jacques Brel in 1959, Ne Me Quitte Pas, (Don’t Leave Me) presents the promise of a renewed life, a new chance.