Unapologetic Authenticity: Decoding Barbara Walker's Self Portrait

24 January 2024 AFR 370 Response to Barbara Walker’s Self Portrait Gazing into Barbara Walker’s self portrait, I see layers of historical and cultural resistance coupled with a myriad of artistic techniques that created a tangible piece of artwork that tells a story. This self portrait brought me perspective on how an accurate visualization of oneself is significant, respective to societal culture. Moreover, in a society where dark skin is associated with uncleanliness and many negative connotations, Barbara excels to be confident in who she is by creating a work of art that captures the authentic essence of her features through varied brush strokes. At first glance, I did not realize the importance of her self portrait as it seems to not have a message, rather a simple, but beautiful painting of herself. Nonetheless, after careful examination, I was enlightened about the importance of painting her features accurately as she is unapologetic about painting her face authentically in a society where european centric features are the beauty standard. The first aspect of the portrait I noticed was the various brush strokes she used which aid to add dimensions and humanistic elements to the painting. Moreover, there are many areas of lighter and darker shades of brown, similar to real skin, where skin color is not necessarily uniform throughout the face. Moreover, there is a lot of detail around her lips, eyes, and nose, indicating that she wanted to depict these features as accurately as possible. Barbara has absolute control in the way she depicts herself, especially when she could blur or potentially lighten her skin, but when Walker depicts her facial features with great detail and accuracy she pushes back on the notion that dark skin color is dirty. Moreover, lighter skin is associated with higher intellect, so by intentionally painting her skin darker, she is not conforming to that beauty standard, rather she is confronting the world about her identity unapologetically. Another aspect of the portrait I noticed was the way she depicted her hair. Walker added immense dimension and detail to her hair so that she could portray it accurately. Moreover, the depiction of her hair is very important because of how society normalizes and praises straight hair. For instance, many hair product companies associate a ‘good result’ to be straight hair, pushing the narrative that textured hair is unpleasant. Thus, similar to the portrayal of her skin, she is pushing back on eurocentric ideals and presenting herself as confident and proud of who she is. In society, it is very easy to conform to societal expectations especially when there is so much discourse over color and bodily features. With that being said, portraying herself authentically she is aware of potential criticism, but is unapologetic. In a painting that one might initially interpret as simple, because it is a portrait of a woman with a neutral face in ordinary clothes, there are layers of resilience and noncompliance against eurocentrism . The eurocentric worldview has lasted centuries and has created deep rooted expectations and cultural norms. With that being said, Black people are considered dirty as their skin color is darker. This social norm can be seen in a Dove advertisement where the soap was presented in a way that the soap can wash away dark skin, implying that dark skin is dirty. Therefore, in a society where colorism is profound, Walker voluntarily chose to visualize herself with dark skin and textured hair. This visualization implies that she is not drawn back or scared of a society with far reaching notions of colorism. Barbara Walker’s portrayal of herself is very empowering in a society where Black women are considered less beautiful than White women. She signifies that she will continue to be known, seen, and heard despite the color of her skin, which is a remarkable trait.