Jessye Norman as Gorée

Many of Joseph Norman’s prints come face to face with our global history of violence, slavery, and the struggle for human rights. Drawing wide inspiration from Kafka to Billie Holiday to Picasso, Norman’s childhood in a Chicago ghetto profoundly affects his work. Norman’s sister gave him a set of pastels in 1968, and he began making family portraits. The artist described, “There is always pain in the portraits, but more definitely, there is strength.” This lithograph transforms the soprano’s face into the island in Sierra Leone known for being a center of slave trade. Sharp lines cut through her floating head. With closed mouth and heavy eyes, the singer’s face seems to be consumed by the vegetation and algae-like material that have overtaken her face. Jessye Norman as Gorée probes our relationship to history, ancestry, nature, and permanence and transience. (“This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection” cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 – April 12, 2015)