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Henry Taylor, "The Times Thay Aint a Changing Fast Enough!" and Dana Schutz, "Open Casket" Left: Henry Taylor, “The Times Thay Aint a Changing Fast Enough!” (2016); Right: Dana Schutz, “Open Casket” (2017); courtesy of the Whitney Museum
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Who Owns History?

When the artist Dana Schutz depicted the murdered teenager Emmett Till’s brutalized body lying in an open casket, she did so in solidarity with the mothers of young African-American men killed by police officers in recent years. The subsequent attack on Schutz and her alleged act of cultural appropriation reflects the decadence of a once-valuable discourse.

NEW YORK – Take a look at the two paintings above. Both draw on iconic photographic images from the ugly and fraught history of race relations in the United States, and both are among the most discussed works featured at the current Whitney Biennial at New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art.

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