In my doctoral dissertation, I used the concept of pentimento to help organize and understand my data. It is an image adapted from Lillian Hellman's memoir of that name, best conveyed in this opening passage:
Old paint on canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter "repented," changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again.
This blog proposes a metaphor in which the primary under-layer of our social "canvas" consists of unresolved American biases (such as racism and anti-Semitism). Since the 1960s, this layer has been slowly covered over by images and institutions identified as either "color blind" at best or "incompetent" at worst. In either case, they prevent us seeing the layer below. However, over time and under constant irritation this top layer has been flaking away, revealing the old unaddressed problems. This image provides the basis for many of the ideas that will be presented in this blog.
[citation: Hellman, L. (1974). Pentimento. New York, NY: Signet; page 1.]
[images: Caravaggio, Lute Player: Foreground, 1596, The Metropolitan Museum, New York
Background, 1595, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.]
