Art

Pruitt’s charcoal drawings depict African American subjects adorned with a mix of accessories sourced from the worlds of science fiction, cartoons, hip-hop, and African art. Here, a Dogon figure from Mali—a Dyongou Serou—is connected by wires to a hat that, in the artist’s conception, captures brain waves. This futuristic headdress thus allows a direct, mental connection with the past for its wearer. The composition is also thus a microcosm of the issues that occupy this talented young artist—the "back to Africa" movement, Sun Ra and Afrofuturism, the cultural history of the African diaspora, and astronomy and space exploration.

The particular Dyongou Serou that Pruitt depicts in this drawing was at one time in the collection of Lester Wunderman and was illustrated in The Met’s 1988 exhibition catalogue "Art of the Dogon: Selections from the Lester Wunderman Collection," which is the artist’s likely source for this drawing. While the figure’s face-covering gesture is quite common in Dogon works, the interpretation of its significance is still debated and could range from introspection or shame to despair or mourning.

-The Met