Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Photographer Unknown
Works of a quintessential artist and trailblazer for black women

by JACQUELINE McCLURE

It’s not everyday you see a woman, walking on her hands, upside down, contorted in ways you didn’t know a body could bend, but for the multi-talented Josephine Baker this was just one element of her profession. She was an artist in the truest form, fighting to become recognized in an era of oppression and racism during the 1920s.

Baker was a singer, actress, dancer, comedian, and muse to many of the greatest writers of the 20th century including Langston Hughes, E. E. Cummings and Ernest Hemingway. After seeing her perform, Hemingway described Baker as “the most sensational woman anybody ever saw. Or ever will. Tall, coffee skin, ebony eyes, legs of paradise, and a smile to end all smiles.”

At “Josephine Baker: Image and Icon,” the powerful, provocative, and sometimes sensual images from her Parisian days shine life to an exhibition of drawings, photos, prints, posters, videos, and memorabilia on display at the National Portrait Gallery until March 18.

Since its opening last November, the celebration of Baker’s contributions to African-American culture is visiting our nation’s capital from her hometown of St. Louis, where it was organized by the Sheldon Art Galleries.

Throughout the exhibit, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of her birth, Baker herself grows in complexity and beauty, aging like a fine wine and only getting better through her career.

Baker was born Freda MacDonald in St. Louis on June 3, 1906 to parents Carrie MacDonald and Eddie Carson. Her early life was one of humble beginnings: cleaning houses and babysitting for wealthy white families, who constantly reminded her that she was black. At the age of 13, Baker ran away to join a traveling road show to begin her pursuit of fame. Baker went on to perform in nightclubs, vaudeville, and finally on Broadway, but America didn’t realize her talents the way she desperately hoped.

“Every country is a new dance I want to do,” Baker once said of her travels. After she moved to Paris, Baker made sure her dance card was full every night. She introduced the Jazz Age to Europe at a time when Europeans thought America had no culture. The French quickly became fascinated with what they called “le tumulte noir,” a fascination with black culture and life. Baker’s dancing, which was fast, fierce and seductive, electrified the Parisians, who referred to her style as savage. She often danced topless.

Gallery visitor, Esther Brody, 68, from Ellicott City, Md., said she didn’t know the exhibit was in town, but is a frequent visitor to the gallery and has always been intrigued with Baker’s work. America never recognized her talent and because of that, Brody said, no one today knows who she is anymore.

Brody described Baker as an artist who projected a “je ne sais quoi” element that other performers lack today. “Most of them are American Idol material,” Brody said about today’s entertainers. “These people had a thirst for what they did. Today’s artists really aren’t worth spending your eight bucks on. These people you can watch over and over again,” Brody said as she motioned toward a video playing a Baker reel in one of the six exhibit rooms.

During World War II, Baker took part in the war showing her patriotic support to France, not America. She worked as an underground courier for the French Resistance, while on the side entertaining troops as a sub lieutenant in the women’s auxiliary of the Free French Forces. In 1961, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her service.

At the height of her career, Baker’s manager, Pepito Abatino, further advanced her image through a variety of products and promotions in Europe. One of the most successful was a line of hair and skin products featured in the exhibit called Bakerfix hair pomade and skin darkening lotion, so the women of Paris could achieve the iconic Baker look. Parisian designers also flocked to the androgynous icon trying to persuade her to wear their designs; everyone from Dior, Balmain, Rochas, Griffe, and Balenciaga wanted to dress her.

Her luminescent beauty glowed not only from the outside in bottled jars, but deep within. Baker never had children of her own, so she adopted children of many races, whom she called her “Rainbow Tribe.” Proving that children of different colors and nationalities could live and prosper together, Baker created a new definition of family.

Toward the end of her life, she was plagued with personal, financial and health problems but maintained her idealism and, with remarkable effort, continued to perform until the end of her life. “She had guts, an intestinal fortitude. No matter what kind of trials and tribulations, she got over them,” Brody said.

At 68, Baker premiered a retrospective of her 50-year career at the Bobino Theater in Paris with celebrities such as Princess Grace of Monaco and Sophia Loren. Days later, with rave reviews at her bedside, she slipped into a coma and later died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

To say Baker paved the way would be cliche, but coming from her, it is almost as eloquent as her performances. “I never took the easy path, always the rough one–I decided it made it a little easier for those who followed me,” Baker said in 1963.