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Mark Steven Greenfield
Cathay Williams

2023

$10,500
£7,811.15
€9,157.96
CA$14,685.58
A$16,396.88
CHF 8,603.27
MX$202,366.52
NOK 108,144.20
SEK 101,188.08
DKK 68,319.94
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About the Item

Halo presents an amazing cast of historical black figures, most of whom were legendary and mythic characters in their time, but have been nearly lost to the vagaries and biases of history as seen through a white lens. With Halo, Greenfield brings the stories of Black folk-saints, martyrs, freedom-fighters, survivors, magicians, and visionaries back into view. Many of the figures are from the 1400-1800s, a timeframe that corresponds with Europeans beginning to use racial distinction as a tool to justify slavery. Greenfield honors their simultaneously disturbing and astounding lives by bestowing them with halos, traditionally seen as reverential symbols of adoration and respect.“I am reimagining what a saint is,” Greenfield says. “Maybe in studying their stories, they can inform us on better ways to live.” Halo is a rich representation of the complexities of the historical Black identity. The figures in the paintings emerge from a variety of geographic locations, time periods, stages of life and levels of freedom - each representing a person who was nearly blotted out from written history despite their incredible feats of attributed miracles and accomplishments. This striking new series evolved as a natural progression from Greenfield’s previous exhibition, Black Madonna, which re-imagined the unique religious icons of a black Virgin Mary and baby Jesus in ways that spoke to the moment. They made their sensational debut at the gallery in the fall of 2020. Halo continues in the Byzantine style of the Black Madonna icons, presenting us with fascinating historical figures, rendered in rich detail and set in circular tondo’s. The lustrous gold leaf backgrounds, like the halos, seek to elevate the figures to a more hallowed stature.

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Letitia Munson
By Mark Steven Greenfield
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Halo presents an amazing cast of historical black figures, most of whom were legendary and mythic characters in their time, but have been nearly lost to the vagaries and biases of hi...
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2010s Byzantine Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Balthazar
By Mark Steven Greenfield
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Halo presents an amazing cast of historical black figures, most of whom were legendary and mythic characters in their time, but have been nearly lost to the vagaries and biases of hi...
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2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

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Balthazar
By Mark Steven Greenfield
Located in Santa Monica, CA
One of the three biblical ‘magi’ or ‘wise men,’ King Balthazar gave the highly prized gift of liquid myrrh to Jesus upon his birth. Balthazar was an African King...
Category

2010s Byzantine Portrait Paintings

Materials

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Consequences
By Mark Steven Greenfield
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Greenfield's versions are rendered in the Byzantine style of their art historical predecessors, with the black Virgin Mother and Baby Jesus as the central focus within circular compositions, or tondos. These tondos float amongst abstract discs, set within fields of lustrous, gold leaf. The Madonnas predominate before a variety of backgrounds, which were traditionally innocuous. Greenfield, however, presents these backdrops as various revenge fantasies, where white supremacists are cast in the role of victims, suffering the fates...
Category

2010s Medieval Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

The French Solution
By Mark Steven Greenfield
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Greenfield's versions are rendered in the Byzantine style of their art historical predecessors, with the black Virgin Mother and Baby Jesus as the central focus within circular compo...
Category

2010s Medieval Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Ain't yo' Mama, Make yo' own Goddamn Pancakes
By Mark Steven Greenfield
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Halo presents an amazing cast of historical black figures, most of whom were legendary and mythic characters in their time, but have been nearly lost to the vagaries and biases of hi...
Category

2010s Byzantine Portrait Paintings

Materials

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