Fabric of history: PVMA painting included in the Met’s ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ exhibition

As the national art and celebrity worlds coalesced at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Met Gala in early May, the exhibition coinciding with the event at the nation’s most-visited museum also featured several local ties.

As part of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the Met’s major exhibition for the summer, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA) has loaned out an untitled 1838 painting featuring caricatures of three Black men. The Met has also received items from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

PVMA Curator Ray Radigan was invited to the Met a few weeks ago – he did not, though, attend the Met Gala – for the official opening of the exhibition, which he said was a great recognition for PVMA and other museums like it.

“We do a fair amount of loans from our collection; this one is a particularly noteworthy one, obviously,” Radigan said, who noted PVMA and the Met both opened on 1880. “This isn’t our first time working with the Met, but it is a big honor because this is a really big exhibit for the Met.”

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” explores the “importance of style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora” through garments, accessories, paintings, photographs, decorative arts and other items from the 18th century to today. Items are organized into 12 sections, such as heritage, beauty or cosmopolitanism, which demonstrate “how one’s self-presentation is a mode of distinction and resistance,” according to the Met's website.

PVMA’s untitled painting, which Radigan said is “relatively prominently featured in the exhibit,” is likely a work from Greenfield artist George Washington Mark, a house painter who transitioned to fine art.

The painting features caricatures of three Black men in long coats, with the men in yellow and red jackets copied from a 1793 satirical print mocking an “Equality Ball” given by John Hancock in Boston. The man in the center of the painting, donning a long blue coat, is possibly is the first depiction of Long-Tail Blue, a popular blackface minstrel character introduced in 1827, who was named for his exaggerated and outdated fashionable dress, according to Radigan and the Met.

Radigan said PVMA has had the painting for about 20 to 25 years and initially didn’t understand much of its provenance. The museum eventually connected with Monica L. Miller, a professor at Barnard College, who was already aware of the painting’s existence and helped shed some light on it.

She also just happened to be one of the curators of “Superfine.”

Radigan added PVMA’s inclusion in the exhibit shows the importance of local historical institutions, as it is a fabric of museums and collections across the country that can help national cultural touchstones like the Met tell stories.

“To actually be contributing something of substance, it speaks to why we have local history collections,” Radigan said. “Many of these pieces in our collection can speak to national or international historical events and trends.”

“The Met has a collection of their own … but to have a network of these small institutions, we can collectively tell the story of Black fashion in America,” Radigan continued. “It’s great to be able to speak to Black history, specifically, because places like the Met are really trying to bring that to light. We’ve been heavily invested in both Black history and other diverse histories, so it’s great to be recognized for something that we’ve been focusing on for a long time.”

Other local items included in the exhibition include several letters and receipts from W.E.B. Du Bois from the UMass Amherst collection.

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” is on exhibition at the Met through Oct. 26 and it is included with general museum admission.

Chris Larabee can be reached at [email protected].