How often do you think of music when you look at a work of visual art (a painting, a photograph, or a framed collage)? Scholar Nikki A. Greene’s new book, Dirt, Glitter, and Glass: Bodies and Voices in Contemporary Black Artexplores this juxtaposition, bringing the visual into dialogue with the auditory and tactile.
The structure of the book aptly follows the five main components of songwriting: “Intro,” “Verse 1,” “Verse 2,” “Verse 3,” and “Outro.” Green focuses each verse on an artist—Renee Stout, Radcliffe Bailey, and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, respectively—and draws inspiration from the music Specific works are dissected in terms of sexuality, sonic resonance, and visual aesthetics.
Although the focus may seem narrow, each verse does not belong to just one artist. Rather, it ambitiously presents the artist’s specific regional context of black art, music, and people at large. For example, in order to study Stout in depth, Greene charts the reality of mid-Atlantic America throughout the 20th century. For Bailey, the American South; Campos-Pons, Cuba, and the Caribbean’s diasporic relations with the United States. Each chapter thus blends mini-artist biographies with socio-political historical narratives to chart a rich and generative artist genealogy. When writing Stout, Greene mentioned Betye Saar. Most of Campos-Pons’ chapters are dedicated to Kelly Mae Weems. Bailey’s chapters are filled with connections to the likes of Romare Bearden, David Hammons, Todd Gray and director Barry Jenkins.
And of course, there’s music. Green maps sonic influences through accompanying playlists, connecting artistic intent to musical artists, identifying musical influences in visual works, and highlighting the actual music in work and performance.
In “Section One,” Green compares Stout’s use of physical form in sculpture and provocation of black female sexuality to funk and rock pioneer Bette Davis. For both artists, she points out the ways in which resistance is often seen as shameful and society is slow to understand. “Section Two” sees a more abstract effort exploring Bailey’s mixed-media work within the dual realities of black excellence and anti-black violence represented in the late artist’s native South. Green begins by detailing the music video for hip-hop group Arrested Development’s “Tennessee” (1992), in which Bailey appears with jazz superstar Miles Davis (a reference to his aforementioned ex-wife Betty) and Sun Ra drew a clear line. “Second Section” feels a little clunky and disjointed, perhaps due to Green’s efforts to outline the weight of black masculinity and light that these artists struggled with.
More successfully, Campos-Pons’s “Section Three” addresses the lack of Western recognition of black validity: contributions to the arts, the power and gifts of black women, Cuba’s struggle for autonomy, and more. Greene brought in saxophonist Neil Leonard’s well-researched compositions for Campos-Pons’s compositions, such as the performance piece Authenticated (2016), connect these dots with the late Afro-Cuban singer Celia Cruz’s unique use of sugar – sugar! —as assertions of female, black and Afro-Caribbean power.
Despite its many achievements, this book is ultimately an academic work that occasionally veers into academic language. The epilogue, in particular, is perhaps too densely presented with Greene’s social theories and observations.
But while this style requires some extra effort on the part of the reader, it also means that the many black names in the book – both visual and musical artists – will now be permanently published and etched as records of an increasingly interdisciplinary approach to the creative field middle. Afrofuturistic Jazz by Sun Ra Do Interact with Romare Bearden’s collage style and hit Bailey’s sparkling “Pullman” heart. Through this select group of artists, Greene adds a novel component to the critique of Black American culture by exploring sonic grime through funk, glitter through gloss, and glass through the colonial history of black contemporary art.
Dirt, Glitter, and Glass: Bodies and Voices in Contemporary Black Art (2024) by Nikki A. Greene, published by Duke University Press and available online or through independent booksellers.
