Jonathan Harris is no stranger to high praise and international attention following his viral “Critical Race Theory” painting in 2021. But he wasn’t quite expecting to get a request from the Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain for a tour of his studio.
Yolanda Díaz Pérez, who is both the Second Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Labor and Social Economy of Spain, made a private visit to Harris’s studio on Tuesday with her delegation. Harris says the Spanish embassy emailed him saying Pérez wanted to meet and learn more about his work during a trip to the U.S. He actually missed the first email, but luckily they reached out to him a second time.
Pérez also took a private tour of the Detroit Institute of Arts, met with United Auto Workers union members, and met Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar in Washington, D.C.
“It was kind of surreal,” Harris says about Pérez coming to his studio. “It’s different for me now when I get on the internet or [am] just out in public. You never know who’s watching… I’m just glad that whatever they saw they liked and appreciated to say, ‘OK, I’m going to come out and see this guy and talk to him to see where his head is.’”
Ha sido un enorme placer haber conocido de cerca la experiencia sindicato estadounidense, su lucha por los derechos de los trabajadores y trabajadoras y su compromiso antirracista.
Una última visita a los murales del gran Diego Rivera y mañana volvemos a España llenas de ideas. pic.twitter.com/tFcIz3CkQK
— Yolanda Díaz (@Yolanda_Diaz_) February 28, 2024
Harris showed Pérez and her team several of his new paintings that he hasn’t exhibited before, along with some older, personal pieces. One of the new paintings, “Let It Burn,” is based on a photo of members of the Hitler Youth Movement in Nazi Germany burning a massive pile of books from 1933.
In Harris’s modern version, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis throws a copy of journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s The 1619 Project onto the steaming pile as the spirits of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman appear in the smoke.
In 2023 Florida banned Advance Placement African American studies courses from schools under DeSantis’s “Stop Woke Act.” The ban aligns with backlash from DeSantis and Donald Trump against The 1619 Project, which examines the lingering effects of slavery and segregation like voter disenfranchisement and the racial wealth gap. While the book-burning youth and the historical figures appear in black and white, Harris painted DeSantis in color.
“When I read about that story, I just felt like it’s very eerily similar to what Black people are dealing with today in America,” Harris says. “So I just wanted to create something to show how serious it is and how history repeats itself. If you look at what’s going on in Florida… things that [DeSantis] is allowing are going to be very detrimental to Black history in the future.”
Harris’s new piece echoes a similar message to his “Critical Race Theory” painting, which garnered national attention for showing a white man “erasing” historical Black figures with white paint. It’s hard not to compare Harris’s work to that groundbreaking piece. Though the painter tells us he’s “not into politics,” messages of social justice undeniably ring true in paintings like “Critical Race Theory” and “Let it Burn.”
During Pérez’s visit Harris gave a sneak peak at an untitled student protest painting commissioned by the University of Michigan. It doesn’t depict any specific cause and instead shows students making protest signs, holding candlelight vigils, and leading marches.
Around his studio, Harris also talks about personal paintings honoring his father.
“I wanted to sort of give him his flowers while he’s still here,” Harris says about a painting of his dad wearing a cape, titled “Hero.” Purple flowers fluttering across the painting are a tribute to Harris’s mother who has passed away.
In another new piece that he’s yet to exhibit called “Remember Who You Are,” Harris’s father directs him to look at a younger of himself in the mirror. The young Harris is holding red balloons while a monarch butterfly sits on the older version’s knee with remnants of the balloons at his side.
“My dad reminded me who I am, not to get caught up in certain worldly things and just to remember to be present,” he says. “The balloons represent childlike happiness and it’s like it’s forever gone, but now you have the wisdom, and the knowledge, and strength.”
Harris says he doesn’t have any upcoming exhibits in the works and while he appreciates opportunities to show his work, he “isn’t chasing” any galleries or museums at the moment.
“I’m not changing my subject matters and creating work to be praised. I’m working on pieces I feel in my soul and, hopefully, when people look at it they understand the sentiment,” he says. “At one point it was like, I really wanna be in a museum or I really wanna be in this gallery… and now I don’t know if I still want to do that. Right now, today, my mind is more so on impact. How can I create change? How can I improve the conditions for people around me?”
He adds, “I’m not into regular politics and I’m damn sure not about to get into art politics. If it happens, it happens but I don’t want to say that that’s my goal because it’s really not. I could literally just paint every day for a year and be satisfied because I’m happy.”
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Randiah Camille Green
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