So What Is Afro Surrealism?

Sometimes things just come to me. I mean, as an artist sometimes inspiration can come out of the blue. Other times, I may need some help. For instance, it's been awhile since I've written anything; I was going through a dry spell like the Sahara Desert.

My dry spell be like...

So as I was trying to figure out what to write about this time, I ran across an article discussing Donald Glover's show Atlanta and how it is an example of Afro-Surrealism. I knew right then that I had my topic for this month. Serendipity. However, as an African American, I'm ashamed to admit that prior to this, I had never heard of Afro-Surrealism. As an artist, I do know what Surrealism is. The Britannica Dictionary defines surrealism as:

a 20th-century art form in which an artist or writer combines unrelated images or events in a very strange and dreamlike way.

As a cultural movement, and more to the point, as an art and literary movement, surrealism ostensibly began sometime during or after World War II. As mentioned, it was more than just an art movement; it was also a philosophical, and as we'll discuss shortly, has influences in writing and film as well. Surrealism is typified by the juxtaposition of reality or real objects with fantasy or dream-like elements, creating a bizarre or 'super-real' , super-reality, hence the style's name.

German artist Max Ernst was a well known surrealist artist, but the movement was probably most typified by the art of Salvador Dali.

Max Ernst, The Elephant Celebes, 1921

Arguably Salvador Dali's most famous work, The Persistence of Memory. 1931. Oil on canvas, 9 1/2 x 13

I don't want to go too much into Surrealism proper here, mainly because right now him here to talk about Afro-Surrealism. I just wanted to give you a quick run-through of 'basic' Surrealism (if you can call it that) in order to set up a proper understanding of what Afro-Surrealism is.

There's quite a bit to unpack in Afro-Surrealism, and I'm learning as I go, so buckle up buttercup; it's gonna be a wild ride.

Leopold Senghor, very first president of Senegal is said to have posited that European surrealism was 'empirical', while Afro Surrealism is metaphysical and mystical. Personally, I'm not sure that I agree with that distinction, but as I mentioned, there's a lot to unpack.

In May 2009, The San Francisco Guardian published D. Scot Miller's Afro Surrealism Manifesto and helped put a name to the experience of many African American artists. The challenge for African American artists is to encapsulate or depict through their work what it means to be black in America -and I would add- in the world, right now.

Like its 'European' counterpart, Afro Surrealism is also among other things a cultural movement. I'm going to discussing it mainly in terms of artistic expression. As an artistic movement, it has become interwoven into literature and film as well as visual arts.

Many consider the 2017 film Get Out by Jordan Peele to be a cinematic example of Afro Surrealism.

Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris Washington in the 2017 film Get Out. It doesn't get much more surreal than this image here.

I won't spoil it here on the off chance that some of you haven't seen it, but it is truly a surreal film. The image above evokes feelings of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch's iconic composition The Scream. The image above captures the anxiety, the uncertainty, and -yes-fear of what it means to be a person of color and more specifically for me, as a black man to navigate the world today.

Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream Of Nature) by Edvard Munch 1893. Munch trying to get out of the 'sunken place'...

As I mentioned earlier, the show Atlanta has elements of surreality. One episode that stands out is Alligator Man, first episode of its second season. Adding to the sense of the bizarre, the episode also makes prominent mention of the 'Florida man' meme.

Incidentally, promotional art for season three of Atlanta has been created by Alim Smith, who is considered by many an Afro-surrealist artist. Also, as I write this, season three of Atlanta finally begins tonight. Now that's serendipity.

'Alligator Man' spotted fleeing the scene from Uncle Willy's Florida home.

An element of Afro-surreality exists in my book, The Substance of Things Hoped For. The Main character is an young African American man, Benjamin Bishop, who experiences a near death situation and finds himself catapulted into the metaphysical reality of Life World, where different races more or less coexist, including humanoid beings with wings called Seraphs, and people who have evolved from dinosaurs.

I have struggled over time with how to categorize my own art; is it expressionism, surrealism-what 'ism' is it? Well, as I look over my work now, I think I can safely say that it is representative of Afro Surrealism. These compositions below are fairly metaphysical in nature. Consider 'Everlasting Arms' and 'The Dichotomy', Parts I & II below; In Everlasting Arms we see non-corporeal forms reaching out to the muscular arm of a savior for support as dis-embodied angelic wings flutter past.

'Everlasting Arms' Oil on canvas 1998

'The Dichotomy'' was an ambitious piece that intended to explore the dual nature of man and poses the question, "how can the pious and the profane both simultaneously exist in the same bodily frame?" It's taken from Romans 7:19:

"For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want."- New American Standard Bible

The Dichotomy, Parts 1 & 2, consisting of two 18" x 24" stretched canvases

I suppose it's a decent enough composition, but it still hasn't answered the initial question. If any of you guys should happen to run across the answer, let me know. 'Til next time, stay surreal.