STEAL BACK

Let me tell you a story about scammers. 

Once upon a time, 1907 to be exact, Pablo Picasso walked into the Musee d Ethnographie du Trocadero in Paris and saw an African mask. He observed angular geometry, stylized features, and spiritual power compressed into form. He walked out, painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, and became the father of Cubism. Revolutionary! Genius! 

When asked about African art’s influence, Picasso said, “Art negre? Connais pas,” meaning “Black art? Never heard of it”. He then commissioned a critic to write a 44 page essay dissociating his work from African sources. Meanwhile, his private collection, only rivaled by the British museum, was filled with African masks and sculptures that informed his entire visual language. The African artists who carved those pieces? Their names didn’t make it into the art history books. Andy Warhol said “Art is what you can get away with.” Picasso got away with stealing African art and calling it Cubism. Warhol got away with turning Campbell’s Soup cans into million dollar commodities. Roy Lichtenstein got away with tracing comic book panels, many drawn by uncredited Black artists and selling them as fine art. These stories aren’t about theft. They’re stories about who gets to claim ownership, who gets to rewrite origin stories, who gets to profit from someone else’s labor and call it innovation. 

Theft is an art historical tradition. Picasso, Warhol, and Lichtenstein, scammers all. And now me too! Except I’m not getting away with anything. I’m stealing back. I take Western art historical references, Ophelia, Manet, Rothko, and Van Gogh’s sunflowers, recontextualizing them within authentic Black narratives. Ophelia doesn’t drown in a Danish stream, she’s a girl from a Louisiana bayou playing her violin to the darkness until something plays back. Van Gogh’s sunflowers aren’t sitting in a vase waiting to be observed; they’re being given with love, because in Black American culture we know you give people their flowers while they’re here. 

I paint these large-scale watercolor narrative paintings, keeping the FUBU principle in mind. For Us, By Us. Picasso took without asking and erased the source. I’m taking back what was always ours and making sure you know exactly where it came from. Good artists copy. Great artists steal. Me? I’m stealing back! Black artists? We're stealing back!