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The Arts Intel Report

Henry Taylor: Disappeared, But a Tiger Showed Up, Later

July 1 – Aug 1, 2021
9 Main St, Southampton, NY 11968, United Kingdom

In 2018, the Los Angeles-based artist Henry Taylor started painting a number of works that are referred to as his “Jockeys and Caddies.” Taylor took inspiration from archival photographs from the late 1800s to the 1920s, which document the high-profile positions that Blacks once held in sports where white privilege reigned. “I remember when there were a lot of Black caddies,” Taylor says. “Different people disappear. Jockeys disappeared. The caddies disappeared. That was enough reason for me to paint them.” There’s a beautiful translucence to these paintings, a quality of history returning, sieved through time before our eyes. And who, do you think, is the Tiger?! —L.J.

Henry Taylor, Untitled, 2018 © Henry Taylor. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Ken Adlard.