CLOSE
UP IN BLACK: AFRICAN AMERICAN FILM POSTERS
April
25, 2003—July 17, 2003
Close Up in Black was organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Smithsonian's Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture.
Local funding has been provided by The Miami Herald and FUNDING ARTS NETWORK.
"The art of the poster evokes the soul of a movie. It freezes an instant of the film in the mind of the moviegoer. It strikes the elemental chord of the film. The poster image...may linger in the mind as clearly as any single scene from the movie."
—Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2002
"The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line."
—W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903
Overview
Film is a language of dreams, and its posters are freeze-frames of
imagined worlds. From those worlds, images flicker out of the dark
across a movie screen to become a mirror for our culture—reflecting
what is and subtly shaping what will be.
Like the nation itself, American film was long segregated into black and white. When moving pictures first cast their spell, black audiences were unwelcome in white theaters. Independent film companies produced scores of movies specifically for black audiences. Since then, the nation has struggled to imagine an equal place for people of all colors in the American dream, and filmmakers have tried to weave the stories of black and white Americans into an honest tale.
The posters in this exhibition are a visual guide to this history, a chronicle of a century of graphic art, and a celebration of creators of color who fell in love with the medium and its promise of artistic freedom.
The exhibition is divided into six sections:
For a complete list of exhibition-related programs, please visit our Calendar.
FEATURED
OBJECT:
Poster, Princess Tam-Tam, 1935
Film produced by Les Films H. Roussillon
Commercial color lithograph
France
32 x 32 inches
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Margaret
Herrick Library.
Starring Josephine Baker. A French novelist transforms a simple African shepherdess, played by Josephine Baker, into an exotic princess and the toast of Parisian society. The movie gave Baker top billing, and a chance to show her talents as a singer, comedienne, and dancer. Princess Tam-Tam played in the United States, in French with English subtitles.