This is one of those tweets that we initially thought couldn’t be true; someone was just digging for more dirt on transracial academic Rachel Dolezal and misinterpreted an innocent mistake. But no — tweeter Jolie Adams has convincingly outed Dolezal as a plagiarist as well.
For sure, Dolezal, who allegedly holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Howard University, seems to have heavily based her painting “The Shape of Our Kind” on J.M.W. Turner’s “The Slave Ship.”
Rachel Dolezal's painting The Shape of Our Kind is a near duplicate of J.M.W. Turner's 1840 The Slave Ship. pic.twitter.com/DGC7GkkPiu
— Jolie Adams (@Jolieishere) June 15, 2015
@Jolieishere @deray She appropriates such a variety of things!
— Sarah Gioia (@sarah_gioia) June 15, 2015
@Jolieishere @deray ……..oh, this just keeps getting worse…….
— Christine McNichol (@Fieryreddragon) June 15, 2015
https://twitter.com/markablessing/status/610291081926672384
@Jolieishere @heyprofbow It's almost like she has some issues with authenticity.
— Ms. Rosenberg (@Miz_Rosenberg) June 15, 2015
There must be an explanation. Surely it’s a deliberate copy that was part of her art education.
@Jolieishere @deray Copyist, is what we call this in art school.
— Maria Quitéria™ – USA Has Concentration Camps ? (@RaceForTheWH) June 15, 2015
Recommended
https://twitter.com/JeremyOkelley/status/610304817047732224
@JeremyOkelley @Jolieishere @deray It can be, but then one would never exhibit the work as original nor offer it for sale.
— Maria Quitéria™ – USA Has Concentration Camps ? (@RaceForTheWH) June 15, 2015
Offered for sale? As Adams has found out, Dolezal is selling “her” painting “The Shape of Our Kind” on the site ArtPal, where you can snag the original painting for $5,100 or a coffee mug for $14.
@Jolieishere What is WONG with her? Obviously talented but where is her self esteem , always copying?
— crimsonboudoir (@crimsonboudoir) June 15, 2015
.@Jolieishere Fake Indian Ward Churchill used to copy paintings and pass them off as his own, too. The word 'fraud' comes to mind.
— Mike a.k.a. Proof ?? (@ProofBlog) June 15, 2015
@Jolieishere Wow. Just like Ward Churchill's "art."
— Rational Gun (@RationalGun) June 15, 2015
Yep. That’s what makes this case so interesting. Remember fake Native American Ward Churchill, once a celebrated professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder? Churchill plagiarized a large number of authentic Native American artworks and was blocked from selling art marketed as “Indian art” under a federal law in 1990. A committee at the university found he had also copied at least three written works and claimed them as his own.
https://twitter.com/Monkeysaturday/status/610293876671299584
@Jolieishere there is no bottom to this story.
— PJingle ☃️ (@mspammajamma) June 15, 2015
The really scary revelation: in her ArtPal biography, Dolezal reveals her “interest in the medical field” and says she “has begun Pre-Medical studies, working toward an MD and a residency in trauma surgery.” How is she going to fake that?
* * *
Related:
Native American writer Sherman Alexie on Rachel Dolezal: ‘Ain’t nothing new’ to us
Join the conversation as a VIP Member