Carrie Mae Weems: Painting the Town

Concurrently with American Photography, Carrie Mae Weems’s 2021 series Painting the Town will be on show in the Rijksmuseum’s photography gallery. At first glance Weems’ large and powerful works resemble abstract paintings. During the Black Lives Matter protests, campaigners wrote texts on the panels that shopkeepers had used to board up their windows as a precautionary measure. The authorities then rendered the slogans illegible by covering them with large patches of paint. The unintended result of this act of censorship was a series of painterly compositions. Weems uses her work to explore what it means to be a witness to history, through themes such as racism, sexism and discrimination.