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This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. And today my guest on this Juneteenth is contemporary painter, sculptor,

and installation artist Titus Kaffar. He's known for taking classical forms of art and deconstructing

them by cutting, crumbling, shredding, stitching, tarring, twisting, and binding, to reveal hidden

truths that challenge historical narratives. His art provokes,

forcing the viewer to confront the erasure of Black Americans from our historical narrative.

Take his 2014 painting, behind the myth of benevolence, a portrait of Thomas Jefferson,

peeling a way to reveal Sallymings, an enslaved woman

Jefferson owned. His 2020 Time magazine cover, analogous colors, depicted a mother holding the

silhouette of a child, which Kaffar created by cutting into the canvas. The image references

George Floyd calling out for his mother during his arrest

and final moments. Titus Kaffar received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, commonly known as the

Genius Award back in 2018. His paintings and art installations can be found at some of the world's

most prestigious museums. And last year, he took his vision

to the big screen, deconstructing his own life with his directorial debut, a raw and deeply

personal film titled Exhibiting Forgiveness. It's about a celebrated painter whose carefully

constructed world unravels when his estranged father, a recovering addict,

seeking redemption, suddenly reappears in his life. It's a searing exploration of forgiveness,

asking us who deserves it, who owes it, and at what cost? We spoke last year when the film came

out, and it's now available on Hulu and other streaming platforms.

Titus, welcome to Fresh Air.

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