Thrift Store Art Gallery

Apparently this painting is a major statement for Romeo Taylor, as it's the only one of five I own that he gave a title (written on the back of the canvas), and the only one he signed with his full name. He gives the date as "2/11/18," but I assume he meant "81." The allegory of the painting is clear: a lone black man sits on the edge of a fountain in the midst of a landscape populated by statues representing the heroes of Western mythology: Theseus and the minotoaur, a Roman soldier, Mars, etc. Oddly enough, though the statues are white, the black man is rendered the same way as the rest of the painting, that is, in shades of white and blue, indicating he is indelibly a part of the landscape. A figure on the right kneels on a box marked with the Christian cross, its hands raised in prayer. Here, Christian religion seems another image or institution set in stone that opposes the black man...that he cannot change or find a place in. Details of the painting to follow.