LeRage, 2017
Information about the artwork
- MaterialInkjet print on aluminum sandwich panel with aluminum stand
- Dimensions212 x 196 x 51 cm
- Year of acquisition2019
- Inventory numberUAB 1232
- On viewOn view
- Copyright© Arthur Jafa. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery.
Photo: Haydar Koyupinar, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Museum Brandhorst, Munich
More about the artwork
The Incredible Hulk is a popular character from the Marvel comic universe. This green creature with supernatural powers is the alter ego of the unassuming nuclear physicist Bruce Banner, who transforms into the Hulk whenever he becomes angry. Arthur Jafa, who grew up in Mississippi, a state with a large African-American population, has created a Black doppelgänger of the hero, which also serves as a hidden self-portrait—a crypto-self-portrait. By titling his work “LeRage,” Jafa is addressing an universally human emotion and, in reference to the comic character, the potential contained in rage: it can be destructive, but it can also serve as a driving force to resist injustice. Moreover, the title alludes to the concept of "Black Rage,” first introduced in the book of the same name by the psychiatrists William H. Grier and Price M. Cobbs. Published in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the subsequent riots ın Washington, DC, the book examines the despair, conflict, and anger of Black Americans. Since then, the term has come to signify the response to oppression and racism through anger, violence, and resistance, and it remains an important concept within Black Theory and a subject of works in art, music, and literature.
