Dana Schutz’s Controversial Painting and the Implications of Different Identites' Fantasy Themes

Abstract: This brief study will look to examine the case of Dana Schutz’s controversial painting of Emmett Till and the immediate response it elicited from the African American community under the lens of Symbolic Convergence Theory. The study will breakdown the 2016 event, explain SCT thoroughly and apply its principles to better understand the events. To further the understanding of the theory itself, this study will also examine two adjacent studies conducted to further explore SCT and its applications. Between examinations of the two studies and the theory itself, this study will conclude SCT allows for a more thorough understanding of the response by the African American community to Dana Schutz’s painting, as well as the implications of the painting itself.

*** In 2016, artist Dana Schutz came under national fire, particularly from the African American community, for a controversial painting she displayed at an art showing. According to an article in The New Yorker (2017), written by Calvin Tomkins, the incident occurred at the Whitney Biennial in New York, an event that displays the popular, groundbreaking, or beautiful contemporary art by artists across the globe. Dana Schutz, who is a prominent, contemporary, white artist entered three pieces into the show, one of which was an abstracted depiction of Emmett Till in the casket his mother displayed him in, entitled “Open Casket”. Emmett Till is an incredibly poignant name for African Americans; he was a young black boy in the Jim Crow Era south who was accused of whistling at a white woman and subsequently kidnapped, beaten and murdered by a white mob. His story, and specifically the image of his mutilated face in an open casket as he was displayed at his funeral, has become somewhat of a symbol within the African American community of America’s injustice towards black people as well as the innocence of this community in the face of overwhelming hatred.

When Schutz, a white woman, chose to enter a painting of Emmett Till in his casket, the African American community in New York quickly banded together to show their displeasure at someone taking this symbol - one they felt belonged to the African American community - and using it for her work. A man showed up at the show and peacefully protested by standing in front of the painting with a shirt that said “Black Death Spectacle”. Numerous letters were written - people even picketed the show - and when Schutz had an art show in the ICA Boston there was poignant backlash from individuals in Boston despite “Open Casket” not being one of the works displayed.

To understand the underlying forces working behind this event and the responses by the African American community, one first must understand Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT). SCT was developed by theorist Ernest Bormann in 1982 and describes the process by which group members come together and “cooperatively create and sustain a shared consciousness” (Dainton and Zelley, 2015) In order to reach this state of group consciousness and synch there first must be a dramatizing message - defined as a message that references past or future events and in turn elicits a response. While this can be any communicated message such as an anecdote or a joke, in the case of Dana Schutz, the dramatizing message was her painting. When enough individuals have the same response to this message, a fantasy theme has been created. When this theme has been continually discussed, added on to and/or exaggerated, it becomes a fantasy chain. Fantasy chains, in turn, cause individuals to become a group; groups then have a “unified way of viewing the world”, they have a rhetorical vision (Dainton and Zelley, 2015). Rhetorical visions are why we see individuals all come together and have the same opinions seemingly without speaking, individuals begin to act and behave as a unit as opposed to many different people. In order to fully understand the scope of Symbolic Convergence Theory, examining studies that utilize the theory is necessary. One study that is vital to understanding Symbolic Convergence Theory, and by extension the Dana Schutz incident, was entitled “Extending Symbolic Convergence Theory”, written by Zanin, Hoelscher and Kramer in 2016, which aimed to examine the accuracies and inaccuracies of Symbolic Convergence Theory by studying a women’s rugby team. The team, which ranged in age, race and professional standing, was made of all volunteered members. Researchers wanted to study the group communication, how fantasy themes were created and sustained, and whether or not concurrent themes inhibited the group; they did this through collecting data from social media, interviews and stand-ins on several team meetings and events. Researchers concluded that while SCT does account for the group consciousness phenomena and the use of promoting fantasy chains through communication such as jokes, stories and interactions via social media, it doesn’t address the fact that fantasy themes do not necessarily promote group cohesion and that structural differences still are prevalent in most groups. For instance, the idea of hegemony is still present within this women’s rugby team as the group exists within the context of a modern Western society that is effected by factors such as race, sex, sexual orientation etc. And as seen in the case of Dana Schutz, race is an incredibly driving force in conflict and groups.

A second useful study to look at to understand SCT would be “Using Symbolic Convergence Theory to Discern and Segment Motives for Enrolling in Professional Master’s Degree Programs” by Stone from 2002. This study was prompted by a University whose graduate program was seeing a decrease in applications every year and aimed to see the prevalent fantasy themes among students enrolling/applying to graduate programs in order for the University to tailor dramatizing messages that would elicit these responses. Through primarily questionnaires sent to students researchers were able to see the array of themes students had. Students created and sustained different fantasy themes depending on what they wanted for themselves (i.e. career, future) and on what they believed they desired in a university (big university, small university). These themes were determined and categorized by researchers. Stone noticed that fantasy chains were important to students’ mindsets, even if they were unaware they seemed to be acting like a unified group. SCT was shown to have played a major part in the decision making for students.

In terms of Dana Schutz’s painting and the immediate backlash she faced, it is important to understand SCT. Many individuals who heard about this incident and the subsequent protest of Schutz’s work being displayed in the ICA almost a year later despite not even showing “Open Casket”, as talked about by Malcolm Gay in an article for the Boston Globe in 2017, would dismiss many of the protestors as individuals who simply “jumped on the bandwagon”. However, by understanding that this painting was such a negatively dramatizing message for the African American community as a whole, not only because of Emmett Till’s symbolism for Americans, but also because of Schutz’s race not having any connection with the struggles associated with being black in the United States, the reaction by protestors across the country makes sense. It also explains why many people had the same gut reaction; living life as an African American shaped so many individuals in similar ways that the painting elicited the same reaction and aligned their views of the world. In fact, the reactions by protesters, particularly African American protestors, was what created this fantasy chain, although different chains could have existed prior within the same community from other messages. It’s important, however, to consider the points learned from the two studies when examining this event and SCT. For example, we’ve seen that hegemony exist within most groups, even when the group is one as harshly defined by factors such as race. For example, factors such as one’s career and one’s upbringing are incredibly important when considering what a reaction will be to the same dramatizing message. Many white artists at the show felt similarly the Schutz’s message, but their standing within the art community and separation from the African American community did not allow them to share the same rhetorical vision. By “softening the edges” of SCT, one can more accurately apply the theory across the board, especially with situations such as Dana Schutz’s scandal.

References:

· Dainton, M. & Zelley, E. D. (2015). Applying communication theory for professional life: a practical dddddintroduction (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

· Gay, M. (2017). ICA faces controversy over painting that isn’t there. Retrieved from dddddhttps://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2017/07/26/ica-faces-controversy-over-painting-dddddthat-isn-there/pGXWkQ6ItURq4C6RhUrHrM/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article

· Stone, J. F. (2002). Using symbolic convergence theory to discern and segment motives for enrolling dddddin professional master’s degree programs. Communication Quarterly, 50(2), 227-243

· Tomkins, C. (2017). Why Dana Schutz painted Emmett Till. Retrieved from dddddhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/why-dana-schutz-painted-emmett-till

· Zanin, A. C., Hoelscher, C. S., & Kramer, M. W. (2016). Extending symbolic convergence theory. Small dddddResearch. 47(4), 438-472.