In just a few deft strokes […] Julien synthesizes and distills a series of fraught and ongoing debates around European modernism, African art, colonialism and restitution. The editing and casting, the use of music, and Julien’s poetic imagery all imbue his heady themes with a rich humanity, reeling in lofty ideas, linking them to desiring bodies and credible psychologies. Sebastian Smee, The Washington Post Renowned for his multi-screen installations, Sir Isaac Julien is one of Britain’s most influential and critically acclaimed artists.
Julien’s latest work, Once Again... (Statues Never Die) (2022), is a mesmerising and immersive five-screen black-and-white installation film which explores the relationship and correspondence between art collector Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951) and prominent philosopher, educator and cultural leader Alain Locke (1885–1954).
Barnes, an early collector of African material culture in the US and founder of the Barnes Collection, and Locke, the first African-American Rhodes Scholar and a key figure of the 1920s–30s cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, animate discussions about African art and its place in global art histories.
Once Again (Statues Never Die) stars actor André Holland. (Moonlight and Passing) as Alain Locke, Danny Huston (Succession and Marlowe) as Dr. Barnes, rising star Devon Terrell as sculptor Richmond Barthé, and Sharlene Whyte (Small Axe and Lessons of the Hour) as the curator. It also features a special appearance by singer and songwriter Alice Smith.
Once Again... (Statues Never Die) examines the significant and often neglected place of African objects in numerous collections of western art museums. Using poetic reparation and historical archives – drawing on Julien’s extensive research into the archives of the Barnes Foundation – the film explores the reciprocal impact of Locke’s political philosophy and cultural organising activities on Dr. Barnes’s pioneering art collecting and his democratic, inclusive educational enterprise.
“ Isaac Julien’s masterful video […] remakes the dialogue between the Harlem Renaissance philosopher Alain Locke and the collector-philanthropist Albert C. Barnes, and there is an absorbing discussion of how Europeans and Americans viewed African sculpture — and the responses of Black versus white artists and collectors to such objects. Martha Schwendener “ Julien seems keenly aware that any encounter with the historical past is invariably a double-sided affair, with the present inevitably reinterpreting the past as much as the past might seek to guide the present. Andrew V. Uroskie, Artforum Curator Rebecca Ray