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Black Arts at Oxy

John Outterbridge in his Los Angeles Studio

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John Outterbridge Bio

John Outterbridge (b. 1933 Greenville, NC) is a Los Angeles based artist working primarily in assemblage sculpture. Outterbridge has been an influential educator, community activist, and participant in the Black Arts movement in Southern California throughout his ongoing career. He took up this role soon after moving to Los Angeles upon graduating from the Academy of Art in Chicago. Much of Outterbridge's work deals with oppressive realities the black community faced (and continues to face) in Los Angeles, including quickening impoverishment as a result of deindustrialization, police brutality, job discrimination, and a deficit of educational and artistic resources. The 1965 Watts Uprising greatly influenced Outterbridge particularly because of his relationship to Noah Purifoy whose work in the exhibition 66 Signs of Neon marked the beginning of a public commitment to community building and his assemblage work.

In the early 1970’s Outerbridge worked with the city officials to develop an arts education program at the already existing Compton Communicative Art Academy (CCAA) which received state and local funding to teach community classes in across all art disciplines. The Academy collapsed in 1975 due to inadequate funding after white flight from the area created an economic vacuum which made many public projects in Watts and Compton impossible.

In 1975 Outterbridge succeeded Noah Purifoy as art director of the Watts Towers Art Center. The Watts Towers Art Center held enormous sway in the black community in L.A. as an alternative form of self-governance and self-determination. Community involvement meant that Outterbridge was not far removed from black radicalism. Education was a contested arena as proven by the shooting of Southern California Black Panther Party president Alprentice Carter at UCLA by another black radical organization when he was helping coordinate leadership for a new Black Studies Program. When asked about his involvement in arts education programs in Compton and Watts, Outterbridge has said, “‘in a way, we were all panthers.’”

On one hand, Outterbridge’s work as an educator fit neatly within revolutionary black nationalist constructs of community organizing and empowerment; revolutionary nationalists focused on separatism and a somewhat uniform internal identity to achieve their goals. On the other hand, Outterbridge's actual work, with its African motifs and references to black mythology/spiritual practice, aligns more closely with cultural nationalism whose ideology rested largely in reconstructing a cultural and historic lineage which was stripped of black people during slavery. The division between revolutionary and cultural nationalism was a source of significant conflict and debate within the black community in L.A. and nationwide; however, the distinction between the two which put them at odds was somewhat artificial. Outterbridge assumes a unique place at the junction of revolutionary and cultural nationalism. His career and work reveal a symbiosis between these two branches of black activism during the Civil Rights era.

Outterbridge continues to live and work in L.A. and recently showed his exhibition called Rag Man the gallery Art + Practice in Leimert Park.
John Outterbridge: "Traditional Hang-Up" John Outterbridge's understanding of nationhood reflected a broad ideology which took into account the experiences of African Americans more holistically, but this understanding was complimented by personal experience of serving in the army at age 19 and seeing many neighbors and friends going off to serve the American military. Outterbridge recounts in an interview that the American flag was dubious because of its use in support of white supremacy, and also expresses pride in the flag’s role in his life. The many African-Americans to serve the military, many of whom died and then a flag was returned to the families who frequently hung them in windows to commemorate their loved one, were influential in his understanding of the American flag as something which could obscure reality, but also as a symbol which could be taken back. This nuance is reflected in “A Traditional Hang-Up.”
   Outterbridge was able to repurpose pre-existing materials and objects and transform their shapes and meanings into works of art, symbolic of ideas that are impactful to him in his life. Rooted in his heritage of African folklore and sculpture, his pieces offer a unique perspective on the traditions and struggles of the African American community, not only in Los Angeles, but also the United States as a whole.
   One of his first assemblage series was known as the Containment Series, comprised of pieces that dealt with the idea of containment – both literally and figuratively. Pieces from this collection dealt with hot topics that were not only prevalent but also personal, including his father’s profession and what it meant to be American born as an African American individual. One piece in particular from his Containment Series was put on display at Occidental College in October of 1971, known as "Traditional Hang Up."
   “Traditional Hang-Up” is unique in that it differs in it’s body from the others in the Containment Series. While some of the materials were alike, containing metal and salvaged materials, its shape did not resemble a similarity and it’s façade had a different appearance. While some of the ideas portrayed in this piece may be similar to that portrayed in “American Born”, it altogether has a distinctive and unique meaning.
As an African American in America, who had previously served in the United States army, the concept of his identity as an American and artist were being challenged. In addition to his feelings that began to stir after the Watts rebellion, there was a sense of injustice to the black community with religion and opportunity. All of these networks fueled and fed into the imagery Outterbridge portrayed in his particular piece.
Drawing on his own personal feelings about being an American, his arrangement of red, white, and blue stars and stripes gives a fragmented view of the American flag not exact imitation. The flag is a piece of steel, rather than the rag or cloth which Outterbridge used in later pieces, which strips it of all the lively animation a flag normally possesses. By changing the nature of the flag, he is able to comment on the representation of African Americans who are not given the opportunity to express themselves as individuals, capable and equal to the white majority.
   The base of Traditional Hang-Up is made from a carved and stained wood, ordained with figurines that resemble skulls all crammed and stacked upon one another, filling the space from the bottom to the top of the assemblage piece. These “skulls” allude to his African American heritage of his ancestor’s arrival and what that process may have looked and felt like. Not only does the base resemble this personal event, but its shape is intersecting with the top, resembling a crucifix, tying in Outterbridge’s feelings concerning his community and their relationship with Christianity.
   Overall, “Traditional Hang-Up” demonstrates the hypocrisy Outterbridge felt as an individual, as been good enough to serve the flag but not good enough to be a part of it, in addition to a commentary on the poor circumstances and situations faced by himself and his peers in the past and in everyday life.
John Outterbridge: "Traditional Hang Up" 1969 John Outterbridge uses everyday objects and materials and transforms them into works which are not predicated on notions of beauty, but on understanding his surroundings and other peoples' lives. Much of Outterbridge's work makes use of his exposure to African folklore and Gullah culture (the last group of people in North and South Carolina to speak creole and retain majority African traditions) over the course of his upbringing in the South. Outterbridge's assemblage pieces offer a unique perspective on the traditions and struggles within the African American community in part because of the convergence of black folk culture and city concerns and sensibilities in his sculptures.
The piece "Traditional Hang Up" was put on display at Occidental College in October of 1971. It is an assemblage allows Outterbridge to juxtapose diverse materials to achieve a patchwork effect. Disjuncture factors in heavily to any reading of "Traditional Hang-Up" because it sets the tone of irony and hypocrisy that appears in the individual elements of the sculpture. The piece was part of Outterbridge's first assemblage series called the Containment Series. Other works from the Containment Series deal with physical and psychological restriction; many are panels using metal and highlight industrialism. Among those works, "Traditional Hang Up" stands out for its unusual T-shape which resembles a partial crucifix and for its overt politics by incorporating an American flag.
The arrangement of the stars and stripes in the piece creates only a fragmented view of the American flag not an exact imitation. The flag is a piece of steel, rather than the rag or cloth which Outterbridge used in later pieces, which strips it of all the lively animation a flag normally possesses. By changing the nature of the flag, he comments on the representation of African Americans who are not given the opportunity to express themselves as individuals to the same extent as the white majority.
Similarly to the way he saw the flag operating as a tool of deception, Outterbridge viewed the relationship of African-Americans to Christianity as fraught with lies. While in many later works, spirituality is plays an affirmative role, in "Traditional Hang-Up" the crucifix-like shape speaks to Outterbridge's view that Christianity had done as much to justify violence against African-Americans as it had done to provide them spiritual support.
The bottom half of "Traditional Hang-Up" is made from a carved wood, which is filled with figurines that resemble skulls stacked one upon the other. These skulls allude to the mass murder of Africans on trans-Atlantic slave ships and the deaths of so many more black people by the hand of slave owners, lynching mobs, and governmental authorities after reaching American land. The name of the piece and its T-shaped composition extend the reference to murder: the name refers to hanging, and the shape hints at the shape of gallows.
John Outterbridge critiques nationhood and the American flag as false propaganda for a country which has from its genesis instituted governance and spirituality for the purpose of systematically killing and oppressing African Americans. Additionally, a flag left tattered is seen as a sign of disrespect, and this element of "Traditional Hang-Up" implies that murder of African-Americans has brought disgrace to the flag and to the country. This broader understanding of the flag's significance was complimented by Outterbridge's personal experiences with the flag. He enlisted in the army at age 19 and saw many neighbors and friends go serve the American military during his youth. Outterbridge recounts in an interview that he considered the American flag dubious because of its use in support of white supremacy; however, he also expresses pride in the flag’s role in his life and in the many African-Americans he knew to serve under the flag. It often decorated windows of homes in his childhood neighborhood to commemorate family members who died in military service. While "Traditional Hang Up" critiques the flag as a symbol which obscures reality, Outterbridge viewed it as a symbol which can be taken back.