In 2015, artist Vincent Valdez released his imposingly large painting The City I. The controversy that swiftly ignited upon its release had long been brewing even as Valdez was painting it. The 30ft black and white work shows over a dozen hooded Klansmen gathering rather portentously in the middle of the night. The painting, which many initially critiqued for unnecessarily referencing a long-past chapter in American race relations, quickly showed its relevancy – as it was arriving into the world, Klansman David Duke himself gave then candidate Donald Trump a presidential endorsement, and the four years of the first Trump presidency would embolden exactly the racial animus that Valdez had portrayed.
Now, the first major museum survey of Valdez’s prodigious output is released on the eve of a second Trump presidency, when signs of the racism this second term is likely to unleash are already evident in the form of revolting text messages being sent to Black Americans. The City I is joined by works attesting to the sweep of Valdez’s artistic vision, showing it as not an isolated example of artistic prophecy but rather as a part of the uncannily accurate, unerring vision that Valdez has demonstrated as a painter.
