The picture has generated lots of conversation on social media<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you are familiar with Michelangelo\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cThe Creation of Adam\u201d, you would agree that it is one of the most famous works of art ever created.<\/p>\n
But when an Afro-Cuban, Chicago-based painter, Harmonia Rosales, painted her own version of Michelangelo\u2019s work in 2017, reimagining God and the First Man as black women, she received a lot of backlash.<\/p>\n
Rosales\u2019s work, \u201cThe Creation of God\u201d, \u201criffs on Michelangelo\u2019s portrayal of God\u2019s creation of Earth\u2019s first human, Adam<\/p>\n
\u201cBut her version depicts the deity not as a white-haired white man, but as a black woman, reaching out to touch another, younger black woman,\u201d reported the New York Post.<\/p>\n
When she posted the iconic painting online, it attracted thousands of likes on social media \u2013 Twitter and Instagram \u2013 but it also sparked controversy. Critics described Rosales\u2019 artwork as \u201cdisgusting\u201d, a \u201ccultural appropriation\u201d, and a \u201cdesecration of an artistic masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n
For someone who wants to see her identity as a woman of colour represented in art, Rosales at the time said: \u201cI wanted to take a significant painting, a widely recognised painting that subconsciously or consciously conditions us to see white male figures as powerful and authoritative and flip the script, establish a counter-narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhite figures are a staple in classic art featured in major museums. They are the \u201cmasters\u201d of the masterpieces. Why should that continue?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you consider that all human life came out of Africa, the Garden of Eden and all, then it only makes sense to paint God as a black woman, sparking life in her own image,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the idea of a black female God got many angry, with some even demanding why she had based her painting on Michelangelo\u2019s work rather than coming up with something new.<\/p>\n
Growing up, Rosales, who calls herself a self-taught artist, took classes and got herself admitted to the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts.<\/p>\n
She said people were never sure of her ethnicity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d ask, \u2018Are you part Asian? Where did you come from?\u2019 \u2026 I was like, \u2018Well, I\u2019m Cuban and I\u2019m Black too.\u2019 I always had to figure out what I say to people,\u201d she told OZY in an interview.<\/p>\n
This formed the basis for her kind of painting, with the sole aim to clear all doubts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI paint my subjects darker because I don\u2019t want you to mistake them for anything other than this pure form of where we came from,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rosales had her first solo show, Black Imaginary to Counter Hegemony (B.I.T.C.H.), at Los Angeles\u2019 Simard Bilodeau Contemporary in September 2017. It featured seven pieces, including the controversial The Creation of God, and sold out in a week.<\/p>\n
Rosales had earlier thought of backing down following the racist comments that followed her 2017 The Creation of God, but her mother talked her out of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving never really felt that unfiltered racism, I thought about stopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I became really sad about the comments, my mother said, \u2018That\u2019s going to make you an artist. The controversy. I was waiting for that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mother, Melodye Benson Rosales, was an artist herself, who had dared to write and illustrate Twas the Night B\u2019fore Christmas, featuring a Black Santa Claus in 1996. She had done same for Leola and the Honeybears:An African-American Retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears in 1999, according to OZY.<\/p>\n
Rosales, who had never thought about the importance of issues of colour, had a change of mind when she had her first daughter. Till date, the 34-year-old mother of two said her children are the reason she is a painter as they make her focused. She has also learnt to deal with negative responses to her work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s inspiring because whether the comments are negative or positive it creates dialogue and provokes thought. I learn from the comments. We are all still learning who we are and how we define ourselves. I gain wisdom from everything,\u201d she told Dazed in an interview.<\/p>\n
To critics of her 2017 The Creation of God, the Chicago-native said:<\/p>\n
\u201cA woman is a woman: Black, white or any colour,\u201d she told BET.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been taught that God created \u2018man\u2019 in his own image. [But] in fact, we have created God in our own image. So \u2018God\u2019 is whoever we want God to be, a representation of the ideal, of the divine, of wisdom and love and pure creativity. Let\u2019s face it, creativity, starting with the womb, is a female attribute,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"General News of Saturday, 6 April 2019 Source: face2faceafrica.com 2019-04-06 The picture has generated lots of conversation on social media If you are familiar with Michelangelo\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cThe Creation of Adam\u201d, you would agree that it is one of the most famous works of art ever created. But when an Afro-Cuban, Chicago-based painter, Harmonia Rosales, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":605530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"God](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/04\/83215531.295.jpg\" "\\"God")
The picture has generated lots of conversation on social media<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n