Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Using parody, satire, and humor in his paintings, Robert Colescott addressed serious contemporary social issues. Lightening Lipstick reflects how the complex politics surrounding skin color in the Caribbean informs the identity of those descended from slaves. In the lower left, an enslaved black woman is pictured with a slave owner or trader. Her nudity signals the sexual power he holds over her. Above them, a rainbow of portraits, each featuring a different skin tone, comment on the result of mixed race relations between slaves and masters. The light-skinned woman at the lower right exclaims in Spanish “¡Soy latina!” (I am a Latina!), indicating her own cultural identification, while a darker figure—her reflection—challenges her with the response “Negrita!” (Black woman).