id: 173998
accession number: 2017.128
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2017.128
updated: 2020-07-13 09:02:26.211000
Tea for Two (The Collector), 1980. Robert Colescott (American, 1925-2009). Acrylic on canvas; overall: 215.5 x 185 x 5 cm (84 13/16 x 72 13/16 x 1 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Agnes Gund given in honor of Darren Walker 2017.128
title: Tea for Two (The Collector)
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1980
creation date earliest: 1975
creation date latest: 1985
current location:
creditline: Gift of Agnes Gund given in honor of Darren Walker
copyright:
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: acrylic on canvas
department: Contemporary Art
collection: Paintings
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Robert Colescott (American, 1925-2009) - artist
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measurements: Overall: 215.5 x 185 x 5 cm (84 13/16 x 72 13/16 x 1 15/16 in.)
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inscriptions:
inscription: Signed and dated in the upper left: “R. Colescott/80”
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: From Then to Now: Masterworks of Contemporary African American Art
opening date: 2010-01-29T00:00:00
From Then to Now: Masterworks of Contemporary African American Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-May 9, 2010).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Robert Colescott: Another Judgement. Knight Gallery, Spirit Square Arts Center, Charlotte, NC (February 13-April 7, 1985).
* Robert Colescott: A Retrospective, 1975-1986. San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA (organizer) (April 5-May 31, 1987); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH (September 11-November 7, 1987); The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (January 12-February 28, 1988); Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (March 18-May 8, 1988); Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (June 18-August 14, 1988); Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (September 10-November 5, 1988); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX (December 3, 1988-January 28, 1989); The New Museum, New York (February 25-April 22, 1989); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (May 20-July 15, 1989).
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PROVENANCE
Collection of the artist
date:
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Private Collection, New York.
date:
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The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 2017-
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fun fact:
Tea for Two features representations of artworks by Roy Lichtenstein, Barnett Newman, David Smith, and Frank Stella, among other artists.
digital description:
In the ironic work of Colescott, where contradictions abound, nothing is as it first appears. Colescott is well known for his figurative genre paintings that critique contemporary American culture from an African American perspective. Using garish colors, expressive gesture, and visual puns, he presents scathing race and gender stereotypes—images used to debunk stereotypical views and expose the delusion and denial deeply engrained in American culture and society. As viewers are drawn to the formal vigor and bitter humor of his paintings, they are caught in layers of questions, ultimately finding themselves personally implicated in the problematic social and cultural constructions in his paintings.
wall description:
Characteristic of Robert Colescott’s interests, Tea for Two (The Collector) satirizes racial and sexual stereotypes through raw imagery, garish colors, and expressive gestures. As opposed to the history in Western art of depicting white patrons and black servants, Colescott’s protagonist is a black art collector who is waited on by a server of ambiguous race and gender. The collector is surrounded by the artworks he owns—all high-priced works by white artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, David Smith, and Frank Stella.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Richard, Paul. “Robert Colescott’s Perspectives on Black and White.” The Washington Post (January 20, 1988).
page number: mentioned
url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/01/20/robert-colescotts-perspectives-on-black-and-white/029378fe-b793-40aa-83b9-d6d92a706a2b/?utm_term=.39c49b974c79
Sims, Lowery Stokes, Robert Colescott, and Mitchell Douglas Kahan. Robert Colescott, a Retrospective, 1975-1986. San Jose, Calif: The Museum, 1987.
page number: Reproduced p. 25, Fig. 30; mentioned p. 26.
url:
Colescott, Robert, Ann Shengold, and Terry Maxon Miller, eds. Robert Colescott: Another Judgement. Exh. Cat. Charlotte, NC: Knight Gallery, Spirit Square Arts Center, 1985.
page number: Reproduced p. 17.
url:
Kahan, Mitchell. “Robert Colescott: Pride and Prejudice.” Art Papers 9, no. 3 (May/June 1985): 22-23
page number: Mentioned p. 23
url:
Platow, Raphaela, et al. Art and race matters: the career of Robert Colescott. New York, New York : Rizzoli Electa ; Cincinnati, Ohio : In association with Contempoary Arts Center, 2019.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 129-130, fig. 30
url:
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IMAGES