The Black Cowboys Whitewashed from American History

The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Black Cowboy seeks to rectify the whitewashed identity of an American archetype. The cowboy — a historical figure, a way of life and livelihood, a symbol of Manifest Destiny, an advertising trope, an idealized version of manhood, and a tragic loner — is no simple symbol.

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There are a number of photographs in Black Cowboy that allude to the subject in a less complex way than Lawson’s. Four images by Ron Tarver show cowboys riding through urban or semi-urban environments. These works are evocative visual juxtapositions, particularly one in which a man in a cowboy hat rides past a mural of Malcolm X — two disparate symbols of independence meeting for a moment. Three portraits by Brad Trent depict cowboys posing with props: lassos, western saddles, and hay bales. But neither Tarver’s nor Trent’s images are wrestling with cowboy identity in depth.