Emmett Till Painting At The Whitney Museum Sparks Protests

WEST VILLAGE, NY — A painting in the newly-opened Whitney Biennial exhibit has drawn sharp criticism and demands for removal from observers who fault the white artist's depiction of Emmett Till, the black teenager murdered in one of the nation's most notorious lynchings.

The painting, titled "Open Casket," is inspired by the photographs from the 14-year-old's open-casket funeral in 1955. The images of Emmett's mutilated body shocked the nation. White artists Dana Schutz has been criticized for the painting, and some observers have said that Schutz doesn't have the right to speak for the black community.

"I feel like she doesn’t have the privilege to speak for black people as a whole or for Emmett Till’s family," said Parker Bright, an African-American artist who has staged peaceful protests in front of the painting.

A group of non-white artists have called for "Open Casket" to be removed from the collection in an open letter written to the exhibit's curators.

The painting remains in the Biennial exhibit as of Thursday morning. Multiple news outlets incorrectly reported that Schutz had asked for the painting to be removed in the wake of the criticism, but a spokeswoman for the Whitney confirmed that letter from someone purporting to be Schutz was fake and that painting was still on display in the museum.

The curators of the Whitney Biennial released a statement to Artnet News about the paintings place in the collection: "By exhibiting the painting we wanted to acknowledge the importance of this extremely consequential and solemn image in American and African American history and the history of race relations in this country. As curators of this exhibition we believe in providing a museum platform for artists to explore these critical issues," the curators said in the statement.

Lead image via Patch.