Nikko Washington USA, b. 1993
Swing On 'Em, 2021
Oil on canvas
60 x 72 x 2 in
152.4 x 182.9 x 5.1 cm
152.4 x 182.9 x 5.1 cm
8327
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This painting of three blindfolded Black men wearing boxing gloves is a depiction of a so-called “battle royal,” a common racist spectacle in the Jim Crow South. White promoters would...
This painting of three blindfolded Black men wearing boxing gloves is a depiction of a so-called “battle royal,” a common racist spectacle in the Jim Crow South. White promoters would enlist young Black men to fight each other en masse, blindfolded, until only one fighter remained standing. That fighter would earn prize money, which he would immediately have to hand over to the promoter. Legendary boxer Jack Johnson got his start as a fighter participating in, and winning, a battle royale. Nikko Washington’s studio practice is deeply influenced by the fighting arts. He has used punching bags, boxing gloves, and riot shields as material elements in his work. Many of his paintings depict boxers, and Jack Johnson himself has appeared multiple times as a subject in Washington’s work. Washington’s practice is also informed by the less obvious mental aspects of the fighting arts, such as precision and discipline. “The push and pull of the physical and the mental, grappling in the studio with my work—boxing gave me mind and body control that is similar to the mental headspace of painting,” Washington says.
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