Artist Replaces Characters of The Creation of Adam with Black Women
Chicago-based artist Harmonia Rosales published her version of Michelangelo’s fresco The Creation of Adam, where she replaced the original characters with black women. The photograph of her painting called The Creation of God quickly went viral and had thousands of likes and shares on social networks.
‘White patriarchy’ has always dominated classical art — this approach has no right to live in the modern world, the artist thinks: “I wanted to take a significant painting, a widely recognized painting that subconsciously or consciously conditions us to see white male figures as powerful and authoritative and flip the script, establish a counter narrative.”
“Replacing the white male figures — the most represented— with people I believe have been the least represented can begin to recondition our minds to accept new concepts of human value,” the artist says. “If I can touch even a small group of people and empower them through the power of art, then I’ve succeeded in helping to change the way we see the world.”