The Hyppolite Painting Symbol Analysis

The painting of a nude Black woman by the famous Haitian painter Hyppolite represents how Black culture has its own proud aesthetic traditions of beauty and how academia focusing on the work of white men doesn’t have a monopoly on the concept of beauty. The professors Howard and Monty spend so much time arguing over the relative merit of the white painter Rembrandt that neither of them ever considers the possibility that a Black painter like Hyppolite could equal or even surpass Rembrandt. Their wives, Kiki and Carlene, may lack academic training, but their open-mindedness helps them see the value in Hyppolite’s painting. Kiki herself knows what it’s like for Black female beauty to go unappreciated, since she is used to people like Warren “flirting” with her because they believe she’s too old or unattractive (in their view) to actually have sex.

The fact that Kiki and Carlene bond over a mutual appreciation of a nude Black woman may also be a sign of a repressed queer romance between them that neither has a chance to act on. Kiki entertained the thought of having a female partner back when she was younger, and Carlene seems to express regret at the fact that she never imagined any life for herself other than one in which she is married to a man. Kiki and Carlene keep their admiration of the Hyppolite painting secret, just as they repress many other elements of their lives in order to be the type of women their families expect them to be.