![]() “It’s the only permanent space I can think of dedicated to art,” he says. It is perhaps those excursions outside of Compton that drive home the significance of the new museum for Pittman. “He was dedicated to us seeing ourselves as artists,” he recalls. Pittman credits his high school art teacher Cleveland Palmer with supporting his artistic development, taking a small group of students on field trips to places like ArtCenter in Pasadena. Installation view of Anthony Lee Pittman: Sons Like Me (photo Matt Stromberg/Hyperallergic) These include artists Charles White and John Outterbridge filmmaker Marlon Riggs disco pioneer Sylvester (“he went to church on Central and 118th, right by where I grew up,” Pittman notes) and poet Essex Hemphill, whose poem “In the life” lends the exhibition its title. Two altars are set up in the exhibition: one in the back to honor Pittman’s Mexican grandparents who passed away, and another at the entryway featuring photographs of Black artists, writers, and musicians who inspire him. A traditional Vanitas still life is updated with a firearm, a can of malt liquor, and a jar filled with marijuana, transforming it into a “hood vanitas,” as Pittman describes it. In addition to the paintings, the exhibition features two industrially woven tapestries, referencing Mexican artisanal weaving, mass-produced blankets ubiquitous in many Latino homes, African-American quilting traditions, and Medieval European tapestries. 4” (2023), Woven Tapestry, 54 inches x 70 inches (image courtesy the artist) Anthony Lee Pittman, “Vanitas Still Life No. His head is ringed by a halo-like waffle and floating chicken wings, referencing the Obama Special at local iconic restaurant Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles, a jab at the uncritical adulation often heaped on him. Pittman copies the Obamas’ pose from Kehinde Wiley’s well-known painting, but turns the green hedge into a curtain, pulled back to reveal a desert drone strike. ![]() ![]() Nearby hangs Pittman’s response to Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of Barack Obama, offering a less celebratory vision of the former president’s legacy. He spent 700 days in solitary confinement and hung himself two years after being released, his death leading to calls for prison reform. In other paintings, Pittman confronts contemporary issues, as in a portrait of Kalief Browder, who was held at Rikers Island jail for several years without trial after being accused of stealing a backpack. “That was my first big loss as a child,” he says. Those are Pittman’s childhood dogs, who were killed by sheriff’s deputies when they escaped the yard, coming back as guardian angels to protect his father. Black members of his family are depicted as saintly figures with golden halos, including a portrait of his father, who is shown in front of a police car as two pitbulls hover supernaturally overhead. Quotes from songs by another native son of Compton, Kendrick Lamar, line the walls. Pittman’s works reflect his Black and Latino background, interwoven with elements from European art history, Afro-Futurism, and contemporary music. Compton Art & History Museum, February 18, 2023 The museum’s inaugural show, Sons Like Me, highlights this dual focus on history and art, with a solo presentation of painting and textile works by Anthony Lee Pittman and ephemera from the Communicative Arts Academy, a seminal Compton-based arts nonprofit that operated from 1969 to 1975. The pair envisioned an art space that would feature work by contemporary artists from the community alongside archival materials, on loan through partnerships with the California State University, Dominguez Hills and California State University, Los Angeles. Over the past two decades, Compton’s Latino population has been growing, making up 70% of the city’s residents according to the 2020 US census. Compton has gone through many demographic shifts over the last century, beginning as a largely White town until the 1950s, when middle-class Black Americans began moving to the area after racially restrictive housing covenants were outlawed. That history, Byrd notes, does not start with the NWA - the rap group largely responsible for making Compton a global household name and cultural force in the late 1980s. Marquell Byrd and Abigail Lopez-Byrd, co-founders of the Compton Museum of Art & History (image courtesy Compton Museum of Art & History) ![]()
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