Imaging the black male - exhibit of art reflecting African American masculinity, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Painter Robert Colescott "is not afraid to play with stereotypical imagery in his painting as a way to critique it," says Whitney Museum of American Art curator Thelma Golden. Colescott's "George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware" is among the more than 100 works appearing in the exhibition "Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art" at the Whitney Museum.

"Black Male" chronicles the changing perceptions of African-American masculinity as interpreted by 25 artists of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Dawn DeDeaux, Leon Golub, Glenn Ligon, Adrian Piper, Andres Serrano, Gary Simmons, Carrie Mae Weems and Pat Ward Williams.

The matter is also explored through music videos, independent and mainstream films, and videos and commercial television programs. Perspectives on these images are offered by Herman Gray of the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University of Delaware's Ed Guerrero (author of Framing Blackness); Valerie Smith of the University of California, Los Angeles; and Clyde Taylor, a Tufts University film and aesthetics scholar.

"Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art" is on view November 10 to March 5 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

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