Collection: Keith Duncan: Battle of the Bands

Ogden Museum of Southern Art is proud to present Battle of the Bands, Keith Duncan’s most recent body of work that celebrates the vibrant tradition of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) marching bands. The exhibition features large-scale fabric paintings of fifteen Southern HBCU bands, along with human-scale fabric paintings and smaller works on paper depicting each band’s drum major.

The HBCU marching band tradition, as we know it today, began in 1946 when Dr. William P. Foster incorporated dance steps, choreography and showmanship into Florida A&M’s The Marching 100 routines. Prior to Dr. Foster’s innovation, marching bands embraced a military tradition of staid carriage and marching precision. Dr. Foster revolutionized the performances through rapid tempos, dancing, choreography and showmanship. Soon, other Southern HBCU bands followed suit. The resulting tradition not only celebrates discipline, artistry, athleticism and unity, but also Black culture, Black joy and HBCU pride.

HBCU marching band performances during half-time shows have become the main attraction of many football games, often garnering more attention and crowd excitement than the game itself. The most famous of these performances is the Battle of the Bands, a two-part performance which occurs during Bayou Classic, an annual college football classic rival game. The classic, often referred to by fans as “the Black Super Bowl,” takes place in New Orleans during Thanksgiving weekend and is between Grambling State University’s Tigers and Southern University’s Jaguars (both are HBCUs).  The first part of Battle of the Bands begins on Friday night before the game with elaborate choreographed performances by both universities’ marching bands—Grambling’s “World Famed” Tiger Marching Band and Southern’s Human Jukebox. The second part is held during the football game’s halftime show on that following Saturday. Bayou Classic and the Battle of the Bands has become an event of cultural significance, as it brings upwards of 250,000 visitors to the City of New Orleans and is held at the city’s largest venue, Caesars Superdome.

While attending Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Duncan became familiar with Southern University’s Human Jukebox. Duncan explains,”While attending LSU for my undergrad, we would go over to Southern University at times to go check out the Greek shows to watch the step teams and watch the [football] game. But the main event wasn’t the game, it was the Battle of the Bands. Everybody wanted to see the bands go at each other, so that was something that was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to create a narrative about.”

Although Battle of the Bands has its roots in the Bayou Classic battle between Southern’s Human Jukebox and Grambling’s Tiger Marching Band, Duncan broadened the lens of his focus to include fifteen of the top Southern marching bands in the HBCU tradition. Duncan’s layered integration of wallpaper and textiles is deliberately drawn from the influences of ancestral heritage, Southern tradition and contemporary aesthetics of material exploration. His ancestral heritage is explored through allusion to African textile traditions, while Southern traditions in handcrafts (like the quilting traditions of Black folk artists, especially the quilters of Gee’s Bend) provide inspiration for the patchwork upon which he builds his paintings.

With Battle of the Bands, Keith Duncan displays his full formal acumen and narrative process as a painter. Like all of Duncan’s work, the body of work is figurative, personal and rooted in the celebration of his community. Through telling this story, Duncan not only focuses the viewer’s attention on the cultural significance of the HBCU marching band tradition, but also opens dialogue around the rich history of the South’s HBCUs, and the increasingly important role they play at this moment in American history.

 


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  • Keith Duncan: Battle of the Bands Catalog
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