Overview
Keith Duncan’s Battle of the Bands celebrates the vibrant tradition of HBCU marching bands. This exhibition includes 45 mixed-media paintings of fifteen Southern HBCU bands and their drum majors. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is proud to present Battle of the Bands, Keith Duncan’s most recent body of work that celebrates the vibrant tradition of Historically Black College and University marching bands. This exhibition includes large-scale fabric paintings of fifteen HBCU bands, human-scale fabric paintings and smaller works on paper of each band’s drum major.
Keith Duncan is a contemporary artist and educator based in New Orleans, Louisiana. A visual storyteller, Duncan draws inspiration from personal narrative, community engagement, news media, art history, Black culture and the traditions of New Orleans. While his studio practice is firmly rooted in painting and drawing, his process is expansive, adroitly incorporating paper collage and textile art. Duncan’s layered integration of wallpaper and textiles is deliberate, drawn from the influences of ancestral heritage, Southern tradition, and contemporary aesthetics of material exploration. While referencing African textile traditions and Southern traditions in handcrafts (especially the quilters of Gee’s Bend) – his formal practice is informed by the material exploration of artists including Faith Ringgold and Mickalene Thomas, while his gestural figuration and painterly style can be compared to artists such as Willie Birch and Robert Colescott. At its core, though, Duncan’s practice is narrative, and his voice is wholly his own.
With Battle of the Bands, Keith Duncan displays his full formal acumen and narrative prowess as a painter. Like all of Duncan’s work, it is figurative, personal and rooted in the celebration of his community. Through telling this story, he focuses the viewer’s attention on the cultural significance of the HBCU marching band tradition. It also opens dialogue around the rich history of the South’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and the increasingly important role they play at this moment in American history.
Above (left to right): Keith Duncan (b.1964), Southern University Marching Band, acrylic, marker and fabric on unstretched canvas, 74.5 x 108 inches. © Keith Duncan. Courtesy of the artist and Fort Gansevoort, New York; Keith Duncan (b.1964), Alabama State University Drum Major, acrylic, marker and fabric on unstretched canvas, 62 x 49 inches. © Keith Duncan. Courtesy of the artist and Fort Gansevoort, New York.
“HBCU histories are not just Black history but American history. And the culture, you know, it’s a community, the marching band culture. It’s a whole family.”
– Keith Duncan
Organizer
Keith Duncan: Battle of the Bands, The HBCU Marching Bands Series is organized by the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. This exhibition was curated by Bradley Sumrall, Curator of the Collection, Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
Sponsor
Generous support for the national tour is provided by Art Bridges, Inc.
