Black Art Project

Select Art Exhibitions: Highlights for 2012

2012-01-17T14:02:00.053-05:00

This begins the ninth year that the Black Art Project has presented on a national scale art exhibitions of artists of African descent. This post will simply highlight a few of those exhibitions that will have an opening date during the first quarter of 2012. Quarterly posts will follow, featuring subsequent exhibitions, as they approach their opening dates. These quarterly posts will assure a freshness and currency of information for the exhibition aficionado. Because this post is simply a highlight, look to the right sidebar of the blog for a more comprehensive feature of exhibitions in 2012. This sidebar is updated on a weekly basis by either adding newly discovered exhibitions or removing those that are closely approaching their expiration date.

A number of important traveling exhibitions from the previous year are still on tour in 2012. Although they are not featured in these highlights, they are accessible from the sidebar.

Black Art Project (BAP) welcomes any information or leads that you might have relating to Black art exhibitions, particularly regional exhibitions that are not traditionally marketed on a national scale. BAP will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Thank you for any assistance that you provide.

Atlanta, Georgia

High Museum of Art

Bill Traylor, Untitled, ca 1939 - 1942,
Poster paint and pencil on cardboard,
11¾" x 7¾", High Museum of Art, Purchase
with funds from Mrs. Lindsay Hopkins, Jr.,
Edith G. and Philip Rhodes,
and the Members Guild

This traveling exhibition, Bill Traylor: Drawings from the Collections of the High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, premieres at the High Museum of Art on February 5, 2012 and will be on view through May 13, 2012. The exhibition, featuring more than 60 works drawn from both collections, highlights some of the best examples of Traylor's work that is rarely seen outside of the southeastern United States. Bill Traylor "features representative works from Traylor's various genres, including human and animal figures and depictions of his memories of plantation life."

William Traylor was born into slavery sometime between 1852 and 1856, and he died in 1949. The artist began drawing when he was eighty-five years old, and produced more than 1,200 drawings within the next decade of his life. Traylor’s work has been represented in at least 30 solo exhibitions and 85 group shows since the late 1970s.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ackland Art Museum

Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper is on view March 30 - July 1, 2012 at the Ackland Art Museum. Thornton Dial's drawings are his most prolific body of work, and this exhibition features 50 of his earliest drawings from 1990-1991 which is defined as a pivotal moment in his artistic career. "The works in the exhibition - characterized by flowing lines, color washes, and images of women, fish, and tigers - provide a touchstone of Dial's creative process."

Thornton Dial is most recognized for his large scale, multi-media assemblages, as was reflected in two recent exhibitions: Thornton Dial: Disaster Areas (Bill Lowe Gallery, 2011) and Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial (Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2011). This current exhibition, at the Ackland Museum of Art, provides an opportunity for the viewer to explore the drawings, which are a lesser known but important portion of Dial's oeuvre.

A fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Harvey B. Gantt Center for

African-American Arts and Culture

James Phillips, jitterbug Waltz Series: CT,
Acrylic on paper, 30" x 40"

Rhythm-A-Ning: James Phillips, Charles Searles and Frank Smith is on view through June 30, 2012 at the Harvey B. Gantt Center. Works by the three artists featured in this exhibition "visually reflect the qualities and characteristics of jazz. Each artist - in his own way - has improvised with color , rhythm, patterns, and forms to abstractly produce work which can soar and challenge...."

Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

Mose Tolliver (Mose T), Model T with creature,
Acrylic on plywood

Paintings by Mose Tolliver will be on view through March 4, 2012 at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition includes a selection of the twenty-six paintings from the 1970s to the 1990s that are owned by the Museum.

Mose Tolliver, who is usually referred to Mose T, was one of Montgomery’s most prolific and best-known self-taught artists. "The subjects of Tolliver’s paintings were largely established by the early 1980s, and included first birds, then animals, people, and fantastic creatures that were products of his vivid imagination. Unable to stand without crutches due to an industrial accident in the 1960s, he usually painted small works that could be supported on his lap, or laid flat on the floor."

Newark, Delaware
University of Delaware

University Museums

Mechanical Hall

Barkley L. Hendricks, Iconic Dexter,
2008/9, Archival pigment inkjet, 60" x 42",
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery,
New York

Magical Visions: Ten Contemporary African American Artists is on view February 1 - June 29, 2012 in Mechanical Hall at the University of Delaware / University Museums. This exhibition brings together the work "of artists who have pioneered significant changes in media, including assemblage, fiber, painting, photography, printmaking, quiltmaking, and sculpture to video with performance." The following artists are included in Magical Visions...: Terry Adkins, Sonya Clark, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, Barkley L. Hendricks, Kalup Linzy, Odili Odata, Karen Olivier, Faith Ringgold, and Williams T. Williams.

There will be an opening reception with Guest Curator Keith Morrison on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 from 5 – 6:30 pm. Please RSVP at universitymuseums@udel.edu or 302/ 831-8037.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA)

Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building

Fisher Brooks Gallery

Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit is on view January 28 - April 15, 2012 in the Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building, Fisher Brooks Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. This much anticipated and long awaited exhibition will elevate Tanner's reputation through scholarship and bring his works together for the first time in a generation.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Seine, Looking
Toward Notre Dame, 1896, Oil on canvas,
14 7/8" x 20 1/8", Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld
Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Henry Ossawa Tanner... focuses on the career and life of the artist that includes "the pioneering African-American artist’s upbringing in Philadelphia in the years after the Civil War; the artist’s success as an American expatriate artist at the highest levels of the international art world at the turn of the 20th century; Tanner’s role as a leader of an artist’s colony in rural France and his unique contributions in aid of American servicemen to the Red Cross efforts in WWI France; his modernist invigoration of religious painting deeply rooted in his own faith; Tanner’s depictions of the Holy Land and North Africa interpreted through comparison with contemporary French orientalist painting and photography; and the scientific and technical innovations of the artist’s oeuvre."

A catalogue accompanies this traveling exhibition. See gallery images and letters from the PAFA Archives; and Henry Ossawa Papers at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Archives.

For information regarding the reception and ticket(s) to view the exhibition, see: event

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building

Annenberg and Tuttleman Galleries

After Henry Tanner: African American Artists since 1940 is on view January 28 - April 15, 2012. This exhibition is a permanent collection installation drawn from PAFA's examples of work by African American artists. After Henry Tanner complements the Tanner retrospective and speaks to Tanner's enduring legacy for artists working today.

NOTE: Take a look at the right sidebar of the BAP blog for a more comprehensive listing of exhibitions in 2012; over 60 exhibitions are currently featured. Enjoy!

Artist Visit: Don Griffin

2011-12-31T02:07:00.018-05:00

On a rainy, windy, and overall dreary day, I boarded a MARC train a couple of weeks ago for an undeterred, scheduled visit to Baltimore to meet with artist, Don Griffin and his representative, Diana Harris. The resulting visit in the artist's home/studio was a complete contrast to the weather; his space was filled with art, art supplies, warmth, and infused with jazz and lively conversation. This physical background was the perfect setting for spirited, stimulating, and engaging dialogue in which the three of us spent hours viewing and discussing some of the series of works that Don created over the past few years. The conversation vacillated between discussing the artist's creations, including interpreting and analyzing his art, to extended discussions about the art world with a focused interest on the art market. Expansive territory was covered as we pulled back the layers on the artistic process, marketing, galleries, collectors, museums, auctions, and the like.

Don Griffin, Paperworks 6.10 Vol 2 Plate 14,
2010, Mixed media collage on paper,
18" x 18"

Don Griffin studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland. He has an extremely large body of work that falls into the category of abstraction. If he has to be categorized, he considers himself a "third generation" Abstract Expressionist. However, there were a number of works viewed that were figurative abstractions which happen to be productions created during his "off time," meaning that time that he is not engaged in his primary discipline, Abstract Expressionism.

Don's mixed media works incorporate found objects in many formats; there is a strong sense of recycling or green art. His works span the spectrum of subdued blacks, browns, and whites to his most recent incorporation of vibrant colors all guided by and in support of the theme of the series on which he is working. The recycled items include newspapers, pages from books, corrugated boxes, and peeled labels that serve as a substrate and background field of the work. According to Don, "a common thread between all the works are the Tracks or Ladders which are seen as sometimes subtle and other times predominant. Viewers see the icons as both Tracks and Ladders. In either case, whatever is seen represents a journey in some sense. To me, the Tracks represent a horizontal passage being connected to the earth, while the Ladder represents a vertical journey and more of a spiritual upward journey."

Don Griffin, Night Fall in Brazil
(Nyte Life Series), 2011,
Mixed media on paper, 11" x 15"

The Nyte Life series is comprised of 10 mixed media works on paper, featuring the "Black Suited Man" as derived from the Passport to Equinox audio visual installation. In the words of the artist, "In Passport to Equinox, three black men were faceless with their backs towards the viewer and seeking knowledge through life's journeys. They ponder the vicissitudes of the black man, the isolated artist, creating and living in the real world, interacting and functioning productively despite conflict." The "Black Suited Man" experiences all phases of the Nyte Life. The variant colors represent the environs of the imagination with "the Man" being the constant... as he perseveres.

Don Griffin, Nights on Broadway (Nyte Life Series), 2011
Mixed media on paper, 11" x 15"

Don Griffin, Concierto de Aranjuez
(Public Notice Series), 2011,
Mixed media collage on paper, 22" x 30"

Another featured series, Public Notice, is the visual experiences of various techniques that the artist has explored. In this series, there is a predominant use of commercial labels from corrugated boxes, accentuating the artist's use of found and recycled materials that have been thrown away. According to Griffin, "The red line, featured in the series, is the continuity or the interconnectedness of all the pieces. Some of the works in the series are imagery inspired by visual artists like Basquiat or Twombly whose work I've studied in the past and others by my current contemporaries. Along with the artists, there are musicians and rhythm and blues vocalists' influences found throughout the series. The very first work evolved from a jazz composition entitled Concierto de Aranjuez, and it set the stage for the balance of the works to follow."

Don Griffin, Acts of Dispensation (Public Notice Series),
2011, Mixed media collage on paper, 22" x 30"

Additional samples of Don Griffin's most current series of art work may be seen with accompanying descriptions at Baker Artist Awards. If you are interested in seeing more of Don Griffin's works or having specific questions answered, contact him at Donrgriff@aol.com.

ADDENDUM: African American Collections in Select Museums

2011-12-30T10:25:00.000-05:00

Several additional museums, Akron Art Museum, Columbus Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Chrysler Museum of Art, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art, have been added to the Museum Collections page; the additional collections are listed under ADDENDUM: Museum Collections. To access, simply click on the page section, Museum Collections and scroll down to the ADDENDUM.

The museums listed on this page, Museum Collections, were selected from a list of accredited art museums affiliated with the American Association of Museums. The list features those museums that include a searchable database that provides online access to their collections using the search term, "African American" as a descriptor. Enjoy!

African American Collections within Select Museums

2011-11-14T10:08:00.004-05:00

This is a short post to introduce a new page, Museum Collections, to the Black Art Project blog. Museum Collections will be continually updated to reflect collections with an African American art focus that have been identified in Galleries and Museums across the country. These institutions represent simply a few that are committed to showcasing the works by Black artists who are included in their overall collections.

The goal of Museum Collections is to make these images accessible to students, scholars, and the general public in order to encourage research and discussion on aspects of Black art and artists. This list in not comprehensive and is a work in progress that will expand as other institutions with online access to their collections have been identified. Not only is accessibility a key factor, but being able to search the collection with African American as a descriptor is crucial.

The following link is a sample of what is included on Museum Collections:

Savannah, Georgia

SCAD Museum of Art

The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art

(Under the list of selected works at the Website, click "Load more" to see other works of art.)

Jacob Lawrence, Library Series, The Schomburg,
Gouache on paper, 26" x 20"

The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art
(Under the list of selected works at the Website,
click "Load more" to see other works of art.)

Swann Galleries: African-American Fine Art, Sale 2255

2011-10-13T17:19:00.121-04:00

Swann Auction Galleries' African-American Fine Art Sale 2255 on October 06, 2011 was the most successful auction over the past three years (February 2009 to present), bringing in $1,789,989 with Buyer's Premium, and selling approximately 75% of the lots. According to Nigel Freeman, Director of African-American Fine Art at Swann Galleries, “We are very pleased by the results of yesterday’s sale. We saw strong prices that reflect the quality and importance of the pieces featured in this auction, and a handful of new auction records for artists including Joseph Delaney and Loïs Mailou Jones.”

I was particularly pleased to see that Loïs Jones' "Marché de Kenscoff, Haiti", oil on canvas, 1962 which sold for $32,400, exceeding its high estimate of $18,000 set an auction record for the artist. This is an accomplishment that has been long overdue. Sale 2255 featured five paintings and watercolors from the estate of Loïs Mailou Jones, marking the first time works have been available at auction directly from her personal collection.

Also, it is worth noting that four lots in this Sale surpassed their high estimate and hit the six figure mark: Charles White, Work (Lot 61, crayon and charcoal on board, 1953, $306,00); Robert S. Duncanson, Untitled Landscape (Lot 1, oil on canvas, late 1850's, $120,000); Jacob Lawrence, two Untitled gouache paintings of Card Players, (Lot 30, panels from a folding screen, circa 1941-42, $108,000); and Hughie Lee-Smith, Desert Forms, (Lot 65, oil on masonite, 1957, $102,00). The price quotes reflect the buyer's premium. Images of these four lots follow:

Charles White, Work

Robert S. Duncanson, Untitled (Landscape)

Jacob Lawrence, Untitled (gouache paintings)

Hughie Lee-Smith, Desert Forms

Although Sale 2255 was the most successful auction over the past three years, historically it has not been the largest nor the highest earning auction over the period that Swann has sponsored the African American Fine Art Sale. Both in size of lots and earnings, the February 6, 2007 (Sale 2102) and February 19, 2008 (Sale 2136) were larger.

As I reflect on these Sales over the years, I am thankful that works by African American artists are more visible on the auction scene. This visibility has raised the awareness of African American artists to a larger audience in the artworld. Although some of the lots sold for prices below pre-sale estimates, offering buyers an opportunity of great deals, I wonder what impact the low selling prices will have on an artist's career? Even more so, what impact will a "no sale" have on the career of the contemporary artist? What are the factors that make the African American artists' works at auction seem to hover in the five figure range or lower when their contemporaries (non-African Americans) can more consistently command six figures and millions? If the aesthetic quality and content of a work between two artists are comparable, how much does patronage or curatorial sanction play in auction prices? What impact does low auction prices have on works of artists in existing private collections? How is African American art fitting into the larger auction-market trend? What are the lessons that collectors, artists, art historians, and art critics drawing from the current auction-market trends? The long and short of my queries focus on a value judgment; ...simply stated what makes an artwork valuable?

Markets, and the art market is not an exception, are cyclical in nature and are determined by a number of variables, including prevailing public taste, supply and demand, quality, and the like. I remain optimistic that the monetary value of the work of African American artists will be realized over time; particularly, as they become documented in major texts through comprehensive scholarship, become better known by curators and offered more opportunities for exhibitions in top-tier museums, and are included in more galleries that focus on representing and promoting their careers rather than simply selling their art.

The artwork in these Sales are by important artists whose works are of immense value, even if that value is not consistently reflected in the realized prices at auction.

Adrian Piper: Artist Talk

2011-10-02T18:31:00.004-04:00

This post focuses on Cornered, an art installation, by conceptual artist Adrian Piper. For the purist, traditionally an art installation may not fit the definition of an artist talk; however, Cornered proves an exception to the rule, and fits appropriately into BAP's on-going series of "Artist Talks."

As a conceptual artist, Adrian Piper introduces her ideas of race in Cornered which is presented here in two parts of approximately 16 minutes. As Piper directly addresses viewers from a video monitor, many of them will probably begin to examine their values and behaviors relating to race. This examination may result in either self-defense or confession, questioning or affirming, agreeing or disagreeing, and etc with the ideas presented.

"In conceptual art the idea or the concept is the most important aspect of the work...all planning and the decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes the machine that makes the art." Sol LeWitt

Further Readings on Conceptual Art:

Select Art Exhibitions: Highlights for Fall/Winter 2011

2011-09-07T12:47:00.003-04:00

This post is part of a continuing series highlighting a few current and upcoming African American art exhibitions on view for the coming months. It is not a comprehensive feature, but does present an excellent overview of the depth, quality, and diversity of African American exhibitions that are on view around the country. For a more comprehensive list of exhibitions on view, see the right sidebar in this blog, featuring Select Art Exhibitions in 2011. This list currently includes over 40 exhibitions with an African American focus, and it is updated on a regular basis by either removing those exhibitions that have ended or adding new ones as they are identified.

As a follower or reader to this blog, you are invited to recommend exhibitions that you are aware of that are not included.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Mint Museum Uptown

Romare Bearden: Southern Recollections is on view through January 8, 2012. This exhibition celebrates the Charlotte born artist's centennial birth, and will include nearly 100 works of art, including collages, paintings, watercolors, and prints that span Bearden's career.

Romare Bearden, Carolina Morning,

Mixed media collage on board,

30" x 22", 1974. In Memory of Elaine Lebenbom

and Dr. Miriam Mansour. Photography Courtesy

Franklin Riehlman Art © Romare Bearden

Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

The exhibition and subsequent national tour will underscore not only Bearden’s artistic mastery, particularly in the technique of collage, but also his development of narrative and thematic explorations of his native South. Southern Recollections "examines how the South served as a source of inspiration throughout his career. This important theme has never before been explored in any previous exhibition or writings on the artist."

Read more about the exhibition and view additional images, at the Mint Museum.

There is a full schedule of exhibition programs, including gallery tours, performance of jazz compositions written by Bearden, lectures, prose and poetry readings, and classes. See public programs.

A fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies Southern Recollections.

College Park, Maryland

University of Maryland
The David C. Driskell Center

Creative Spirit: The Art of David C. Driskell features 60 works completed from the late 1950s - 2010, representing Driskell's transition through a multiplicity of media in his artwork. The exhibition opens on September 15, 2011 and will be on view through December 16, 2011.

David C. Driskell, Woman with Flowers, 1972,
Oil and collage on canvas, 37.5" x 38.5". Courtesy of the
Artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York. Photography
by Greg Staley. © David C. Driskell, 2011.

Creative Spirit "reveals the totality of Driskell’s artistic practice, celebrating a life lived in the service of what he often refers to as his 'priestly calling.' The exhibition highlights and explores seminal themes: Americana, Africana, nature, self-portrait as memoir, celestial music, and the figure."

An opening reception is scheduled for September 15, 2011 from 5 - 7 pm. In addition, there will be a program that includes an hour long conversation between Professor Driskell and artist, Carrie Mae Weems. For more extensive information, visit the Press Release and Exhibition Checklist/Images sections at The Driskell Center.

A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.

Culver City, California 

Roberts and Tilton Gallery

Betye Saar: Red Time is on view at Roberts and Tilton Gallery from September 10 through December 17, 2011. Red Time, which is a site-specific retrospective installation, is Betye Saar's first solo gallery show in Los Angeles since 1998, and her first with the Roberts and Tilton Gallery.

Red Time examines Saar's past, present and future with those three categories expressed as In the Beginning, Migration and Transformation and Beyond Memory. As stated in the Gallery release, "In the Beginning includes works from 1960-1970, exhibiting Saar’s interest in metaphysics, the occult and magic. These works incorporate Euro-centric concepts of palmistry, phrenology and astrology in addition to Afro-centric concepts of voodoo and shamanism."

"Migration and Transformation (1970- 2010) focuses on works of strong social and political content. Subjects such as the Diaspora, slavery, racism, revolution and feminism are explored in varying mixed media Assemblages.... Works from Migration and Transformation are combative— these works are Saar’s own forceful yet thoughtful counter attack on racism in America—past and present."

“Beyond Memory, selection of recent work from 2010-2011, highlights Saar’s quest for a new creative expression through the reinterpretation of language, objects and materials." Read more.

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 6 - 8 pm. Roberts and Tilton is located at 5801 Washington Boulevard; phone: 323/ 549-0223. More information at Roberts and Tilton.

Hartford, Connecticut

The Amistad Center for Art and Culture

at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

The Amistad Center's exhibition, War Prizes: The Cultural Legacy of Slavery and the Civil War, "follows the Civil War's impact on performers, the arts, and humanities through the 20th century. Objects from The Amistad Center for Art and Culture's collection of 19th century prints, photographs, and ephemera will introduce slavery and the Civil War. The Amistad Center's documentation of the Lincoln presidency, Frederick Douglass-related objects, the Center's tintype and ambrotype series, and Harpers' Weekly newspapers will introduce the War and the reasons behind it.

Ellington, Waters, Koehler Arlen Mills Music,
Stormy Weather, 1933, Sheet music, The
Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Inc.;
Simpson Collection

The exhibition follows the trajectory of activists, religious leaders, entertainers, and others who committed themselves to tackling and transforming segregation, inaccurate depictions in popular culture, economic inequities and other difficult legacies of the Civil War.

A final section presents mid-late 20th century photographs and fine art emphasizing the relationship between art, celebrity, and the modern civil rights movement." Read a full overview of the exhibition from the Wadsworth Atheneum.

War Prizes is on view from September 10, 2011 through February 2012.

Manassas, Virginia

Caton Merchant Family Gallery

Center for the Arts

Terry Dixon, Accusation diptych, Mixed media,
24" x 24" each

Terry Dixon: Re-Enslavement Revisited is on view at the Center for the Arts, September 8 through October 26, 2011. Dixon's research and subsequent body of work was inspired by Douglas Blackmon's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Slavery by Another Name, focusing on re-enslavement and segregation. The book sparked the creative genius of the artist as he undertook an aspect of historical documentation and interpreted it in the language of visual art.

Terry Dixon, a native of Washington, DC and currently living in Chicago, Illinois, "presents a body of work depicting African-Americans being forced to work for free from 1865 to 1945. His work is created through abstract digital images with acrylics, oil pastels and inks."

View select images from Re-enslavement. Visit Center for the Arts.

Raleigh, North Carolina

North Carolina Museum of Art

North Carolina Gallery

Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver is the latest in a series of exhibitions dedicated to the art and artists of North Carolina. Reflections celebrates the last decade of McIver's work, and will be on view December 11, 2011 through June 24, 2012.

McIver, a native of North Carolina, "is renowned for her expression-filled, emotive canvases that commemorate her life and the lives of those closest to her—in particular, her mother, Ethel, who passed away in 2004, and her sister, Renee, who is mentally disabled. The exhibition highlights these two subjects in McIver’s work, focusing solely on her self-portraits and on portraits of Renee and other family members." Read more about Reflections.

A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.

Washington, D C

Corcoran Gallery of Art and

College of Art + Design

Hank Willis Thomas: Strange Fruit is on view October 1, 2011 through January 16, 2012. This exhibition presents approximately 12 new photographs and video works by artist, Hank Willis Thomas. In this exhibition, Thomas "explores how the concepts of spectacle and display relate to notions of African-American identity."

Strange Fruit "examines two forms of spectacle – the historic culture of lynchings and the commodification that surrounds professional sports – and analyzes their impact on the presentation and the perception of the black body."

Strange Fruit is shown concurrently with the special traveling exhibition, 30 Americans, which highlights the work of 31 contemporary African American artists in the Rubell Family Collection.

30 Americans "consists of 75 works of art and includes painting, drawing, photography, video, sculpture, and mixed-media installations. The exhibition features both established and emerging artists and illustrates how a previous generation of African American artists has influenced the current generation."

30 Americans is on view through February 12, 2012. See a full schedule of related programs, including lectures, workshops, and classes designed to enhance and expand upon the themes presented in 30 Americans.

National Black Arts Festival 2011: Visual Arts Highlights

2011-08-08T15:49:00.000-04:00

The official dates of the National Black Arts Festival (NBAF) in Atlanta, Georgia were July 07-17, 2011; however, some activities preceded those dates and others, such as art exhibitions, will last much longer. I always find the NBAF an exhilarating time because of the opportunity it provides to reunite with old friends and to meet new friends and acquaintances who have a deep passion and love for the black visual and performing arts. Having this opportunity to engage with like minds and to view and discuss the arts is the greatest benefit.

The strength of the 2011 Festival, as it relates to the visual arts, rested on a vast array of black focused exhibitions that were featured in and around Atlanta. The venues included museums, private and commercial galleries, and institutional galleries. This post will simply highlight four of those exhibitions.

Bill Lowe Gallery

Thornton Dial: Disaster Areas

The Souls Grown Deep Foundation and the Bill Lowe Gallery present Thornton Dial: Disaster Areas - "an epic look at destruction and regenerative forces of nature and how they impact our lives." The exhibition is a tribute to survivorship and the resiliency of the human spirit.

Thornton Dial, Jesus Christ in the Coal Mine,
2008, Mixed media on canvas, 105" x 76" x 8"

This exhibition "examines works made by Dial over the past four years dealing with various disasters, natural and man-made. From the wreckage and rubble of destruction Dial constructs complex and beautiful assemblages that illustrate the fragility of the human condition but affirm the profound belief that we are all in this together." Dial's assemblages of found objects are monumental in structure and breathtaking as artistic documentation of tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, coal mining catastrophes, and terrorist attacks. The disasters and the resulting emotional impact featured in this body of work are not only local, but national and international in scope.

As mentioned in the Gallery overview statement for the exhibition, "the inevitable visual imprints left by these images are re-worked by Dial into compositions that tell the more complex stories of individual lives affected, the unequal hardships that the poor are forced to endure, and the role of the artist as documentarian."

Thornton Dial, Disaster Area, 2011,
Mixed media on canvas, 72" x 92" x 8"

Thornton Dial, Louisiana, 2011,
Mixed media on panel, 72" x 74" x 6"

Thornton Dial, Japan, Mixed media on canvas,
108" x 79" x 9"

Thornton Dial: Disaster Areas is on view through August 27, 2011. Read more on Thornton Dial, and visit Bill Lowe Gallery.

High Museum of Art
Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine

Radcliffe Bailey, Windward Coast, 2009-2011,
Piano keys, plaster bust, and glitter,
Dimensions vary, Courtesy of
Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine, which is the most comprehensive exhibition of art by Bailey to date, is organized by the High Museum of Art, and is on view through September 11, 2011. The exhibition includes 37 works, ranging from intimate scale to heroic, that represent an array of media: installations, paintings, sculptures, mixed media, photos, and works on paper.

Memory as Medicine is organized around three underlying themes: Water, Blues, and Blood. "Water invokes the Black Atlantic Passage as a site of historical trauma as it highlights the fluidity of culture and traces Bailey's own artistic and spiritual journey. Blues includes works that point to the importance of music as a transcendent art form. Blood focuses on ideas related to ancestry, race, memory, struggle, and sacrifice."

A brief explanation on the High Museum's Website speaks to the meaning behind Windward Coast (image above.) See HIGHLIGHT

Although I missed the artist talk, I was able to attend an enlightening and informative lecture by the curator, Carol Thompson. Listen to Carol and Radcliffe in this video which is the first of a four-part series that will be released throughout the run of the exhibition. A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.

ACA Gallery of SCAD

Woodruff Arts Center

Trenton Doyle Hancock: We Done All

We Could And None Of It's Good

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) presents a solo exhibition, Trenton Doyle Hancock: We Done All We Could and None of It's Good.

Trenton Doyle Hancock, Torpedo Boy and
Heiren Hazo, 2010, Mixed media on paper,
10" x 6¼"

"Hancock is best known for his ongoing narrative and theatrical installations that draw the viewer into his personal, idiosyncratic, dynamic and at times, heretical weave of words, characters and images. We Done All We Could And None Of It's Good signals a new chapter in Hancock's ongoing fictitious narrative that follows the lives of Vegans and Mounds, two species locked in an epic ideological struggle."

This exhibition will be on view at its current location through August 28, 2011, and will move to the SCAD Gutstein Gallery (Savannah, GA) on September 15 - November 15, 2011. For further information, see SCAD. To view other works by Trenton Doyle Hancock, see James Cohan Gallery.

AVISCA Fine Art Gallery

Freddie Styles and Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier:

Naturally

Naturally, an exhibition featuring Freddie Styles and Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, opened July 16, 2011 at Avisca Fine Art Gallery in Marietta, Georgia. It was exciting to be present and part of this well-attended opening reception. In addition to Freddie and Lynn, the reception guests included a number of other artists, both locally and from across the country, as well as an equal number of collectors.

The exhibition, Freddie Styles and Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier:

Naturally, presents current and recent works on paper by the two Atlanta artists. It "highlights the primacy of nature and the natural environment in the work of both artists, each working within different aesthetics and traditions."

Both artists will be featured in an Artists Talk on Sunday, August 28, 2011, 4 - 6 pm. View the online catalogue. For further information, call: 770/ 977-2732 or visit Avisca Gallery.

Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art Auction: An Upcoming Highlight

2011-07-04T11:54:00.002-04:00

Charles W. White, "Work,"
Drawing, 1953

This exceptional piece, Work, will be featured in Swann's October 6, 2011 sale of African-American Fine Art; and is the first large-scale drawing from Charles White's important 1950s period to come to auction.

Charles White created Work during the height of his New York career. The drawing is an excellent example of how, in the early 1950s, White gave a new beauty and dignity to his social realist subjects. White now depicted working men and women on a grand scale with an attention to natural gestures turning his subjects into heroic figures.

Charles White was featured in Ebony magazine's July 1967 issue in which Louie Robinson's story: Charles White: Portrayer of Black Dignity speaks to the artist's achievement and fame with works on black themes. Work was one of the featured images in that story; Robinson states that this drawing "typifies the way in which he captures underlying profundity embodied in the simple." Quoting White from the Ebony 1967 article, "My work strives to take shape around images and ideas centered within the vortex of a Negro's life experience." White further elaborates, "I have a total commitment to people, to art, and particularly my people. ...I take pride in the fact that being black gives me an identity and a source to draw upon. I'm never without something to say. I think it is because of the kind of relationship I have with people. My antennae are constantly out." To read the full Ebony article by Louie Robinson, visit Google Books.

A full list of auction highlights, including fine paintings by Charles Alston, Barkley Hendricks, Norman Lewis, Hughie Lee-Smith and Hale Woodruff, will be available later in July.

Betye Saar: Artist Talk

2011-06-22T16:12:00.002-04:00

The theme of this post is the iconic image of Aunt Jemima in the work of Betye Saar. The first interview focuses on Saar's signature piece, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972) which is in the collection of the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California at Berkeley; and the second focuses on The Resurrection of Aunt Jemima. The full series, from which these interviews are taken, speak to other topical interests that highlight the depth, scope, and coverage of the artist's work; her professional relationships; and an overall reflection of a life in art. The other interviews in the series include: The Watts Riot, The Influence of the African Diaspora, Artistic Style, and the Impact of No Art in Schools.

Derogatory Images Stereotypes Collages Puns

Assemblages Symbolism Black Power

Heroes Protest Recycle

Select Art Exhibitions: Highlights for Coming Months

2011-05-30T11:04:00.224-04:00

This post simply highlights a few of the current and upcoming African American art exhibitions that have been planned for the next coming months. Although it is not comprehensive in scope, it does present the quality, depth, and diversity of exhibitions that are on the scene. For a more comprehensive national view of exhibitions on view, see the right sidebar, Select Art Exhibitions in 2011; that list includes over 30 exhibitions with an African American focus. Bear in mind that the exhibitions listed in the right sidebar are updated on a regular basis by either removing those that have ended or adding new ones as they are identified. As a follower, you are invited to recommend exhibitions that you are aware of that are not included on either of these lists.

Atlanta, Georgia

Auburn Avenue Research Library on

African American Culture and History (AARL)

Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History (AARL) is a special library of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. AARL presents Charting the Course: African American Achievers in the 20th Century, a photographic exhibit featuring the work of donor and photographer, Raymond Wilson. Mr. Wilson is a Washington, DC native and retired military officer who donated his collection to AARL. His clients have included the following: National Association for Equal Opportunity in Education, National Urban League, Congressional Black Caucus, and the Executive Leadership Council.

Charting the Course is on view through June 24, 2011 at the Cary-McPheeters Gallery of AARL. An opening event is scheduled for Saturday, May 21, 2011 (4:00 - 6:00 pm) and will include a conversation between Raymond Wilson; Sheila Turner, curator of the exhibition; and guest photographers, Doris Derby and Jim Alexander. The Library is located at 101 Auburn Avenue; for additional information call AARL at 404/ 730-4001, ext. 100 or see events.

Baltimore, Maryland
Galerie Myrtis: Contemporary Fine Art Gallery

Abstraction: The Syncopation of Light, Color and Form, an exhibition, is on view at Galerie Myrtis through August 13, 2011. Drawing from their intuitions and imaginations, the six artists featured in Abstraction "form rhythmic patterns employing light and color to explore social issues, and the metaphysical and spiritual realm." For related activities and to view works form the six artists featured in the exhibition, visit the Gallery.

Jeffrey Kent, HeLa #34 Progression,
Acrylic on canvas

Jeffrey Kent, one of the featured artists, states "the idea for his series of paintings was sparked by the history of Henrietta Lacks and her cells, now known as HeLa cells. I was drawn to this story because of the parallel between her cells and the legacy of artists: just as HeLa cells have lived outside their original source for so long, artwork lives on long after the artist’s death."

Chicago, Illinois
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Mark Bradford, Scorched Earth, 2006
Collection of Dennis and Debra Scholl,
Photo: Bruce M. White

The exhibition, Mark Bradford, will be on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago through September 18, 2011. Organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, "This exhibition is the first survey of the artist's work to date. Spanning the years 2001 to 2010, it examines Bradford's work in all media, beginning with early sculptural projects, and culminating in a number of new commissions."

Admission is free for MCA members; there is a $20.00 fee for nonmembers. For further information and related programs, visit: MCA. A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.

Greensboro, North Carolina
Weatherspoon Art Museum

Kara Walker, Savant, 2010, Etching
with aquatint, sugar-lift, spit-bite
and dry-point, 27" x 17"

Weatherspoon Art Museum presents Race and Representation: The African American Presence in American Art in its Gregory D. Ivy Gallery on August 20 - November 20, 2011. To express its theme, artworks in Race and Representation have been drawn from the Weatherspoon’s permanent collection, and they represent different media and time periods. The featured artwork "will explore and affirm the fundamental interconnection of the African American presence in American visual culture."

The exhibition is organized around the recent acquisition of two works by eminent, contemporary artists Kara Walker and Leonardo Drew. "In the contrasting languages of figuration and abstraction, both artists speak to an understanding of the world forged by an African American identity and heritage. Complementing Walker’s An Unpeopled Land in Unchartered Waters (2010, edition 5/30) and Drew’s Number 119D (2009) is a range of works from the museum’s permanent collection that provides a broad cultural landscape within which to gauge Walker and Drew’s achievements."

For further information, call336/ 334-5770 or visit Weatherspoon.

New York, New York

June Kelly Gallery

James Little: Ex Pluribus Unum, an exhibition of new abstract paintings, consisting of "large, horizontal canvases covered with narrow vertical bands in a variety of geometric configurations and in unusual but harmonious combinations of brilliant color" will be on view at June Kelly Gallery through June 21, 2011.

James Little, Difference between Then and Now,
2010, Oil and wax on canvas, 72" x 94"

Mario Naves, the art writer, has written an essay in the exhibition's invitation. To read excerpts from that essay and to view more images, see: Ex Pluribus Unum.

June Kelly Gallery is located at 166 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince Streets). For further information, call 212/ 226-1660 or visit the Gallery.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sande Webster Gallery

Anthony Liggins, Purple Haze, Mixed media on canvas,
36" x 36", 2011

Sande Webster Gallery currently has two exhibitions, Anthony Liggins: While We Sleep the Sky Dances in the Main Gallery and Alonzo Davis: It's About the Climb in the Salon Gallery, on view through June 25, 2011.

Anthony Liggins' journey "continues to take people on a visual expression through art. I love to captivate, motivate, and inspire others. One transcends through a spiritual oasis in time through color, technique, and stimulating visuals." To read more, see Liggins.

The works featured by Alonzo Davis are from two series, Passageways and Sky Ladders. The following description of each series is in the words of the artist.

The Passageways series grew out of Davis' fascination by the "carved doors of the Dogon people of Mali." According to the artist, "My doors...are painted and embellished with fetishes or found objects rather than carved. Each door is framed with lengths of bamboo."

Sky Ladders represent the artist's "goal-oriented approach to life," and first appeared in a scroll-like painting he did in 1984. Over time, Davis learned that "the ladder had symbolic significance in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, India, Oceania, and pre-Columbia. It can represent transcendence, union between heaven and earth, and ancestral reunion."

For additional information, visit the Gallery.

Roseville, California

22 South Grant Street Gallery

Milton 510 Bowens,
Afro-classical series (John Coltrane),
Mixed media

22 South Grant Street Gallery presents Milton 510 Bowens: The Time Harlem Came to Roseville from June 4 - 30, 2011. This solo, contemporary fine art exhibition will feature new original paintings from Bowens' "Afro-classical volume 3 collection." In addition to the visual arts, this exhibition will highlight poetry and music.

Accompanying programs follow:

Special Collector's Champagne Reception with the artist on June 4, 2011 from 6:00 - 9:00 pm.
Gallery grand opening reception celebration with live bee-bop and swing music, featuring live poetry recitals on June 11, 2011.
Artist Talk featuring Milton Bowens: "Harlem's Influence and Impact on the Arts" on June 18, 2011. A special silent auction will be held during this event.

For more information, contact Kevin L. Santos-Coy at 916/ 613-4244 or via email at KLSCSTUDIO@yahoo.com.

Washington, DC

International Visions Gallery

International Visions Gallery presents Preston Sampson: Common Threads from June 9 - July 23, 2011. Sampson describes Common Threads as “a body of work that is about the universal dialogue of relationships, strength, dignity and aspirations of people to live, love and learn.” Central to this exhibit is selections from the ongoing Working Man series, which gives homage to the “blue collar hard working man who is the underpinning of all of our effete cosmopolitan yearnings.”

Preston Sampson,
Working Man 1, Mixed media,
24" x 36"

Drawing inspiration from past work, Sampson explores new techniques of mixed media compositions with textiles and pulp painting. “My time working alongside a quilter on a project prompted me to more aggressively dig into textiles and patterns. My love of portraiture ...evolved into merging textiles with them to create the Working Man series, which finds itself a continuation of thematic constant in my work.”

For additional information, contact Tim Davis at 202/ 234-5112. Visit International Visions at the Gallery.

Black Art Project (BAP) Booklist 3

2011-04-18T10:08:00.039-04:00

This third list, in a continuing series, highlights recently published books that have an African American art focus. As stated in earlier releases, June 9, 2010 and September 24, 2010, identifying titles as they are recently published or in pre-publication status is crucial for those building a library that has some focus on African American art because of the small print runs in which these titles are published. With this publishing trend in mind, it is advisable to purchase them shortly after they have been published to assure yourself that the titles that you are interested in have not gone out of print. When a title does go out of print, the secondary market becomes a viable option; however, you must then weigh cost and condition differences among the few dealers that may have a copy for sell.

The following post and the addendum of recent publications are simply a few new titles that have been released since the last Booklist:

Clearwater, Bonnie. Shinique Smith: Menagerie. North Miami, Florida: Museum of Contemporary Art and Madison, Wisconsin: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 2010.

This is a catalogue for Shinique Smith: Menagerie, an exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami from September 16 -November 19, 2010, and at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, January 22 - May 8, 2011. The exhibition was made possible by the MOCA Knight Exhibition Endowment. In her first large-scale museum exhibition, multimedia artist Shinique Smith "builds on previous museum installations to present a major exhibition that includes works on paper, paintings, and three-dimensional works from the breadth of her career."

Color Exploration: Simplicity in the Art of McArthur Binion. Adelphi, Maryland: University of Maryland University College, 2010.

This exhibition catalogue that accompanied the exhibition, Color Exploration in the Art of McArthur Binion, illustrates the artist's quest to make his medium a recognizable art form. As it relates to an art movement defining the artist's work, Binion states "The movement where art historians would classify my work would be abstract expressionism. However, I don't think that is the movement for me. For me, the movement has not been named."

Binion use of crayons grew from his desire to break tradition; it became important to him to do something different. Hear his full story in the insightful conversation between the artist, McArthur Binion and Eric Key, the Director of the Arts Program, University of Maryland University College in the exhibition catalogue. Included in the 24-page catalogue is an Exhibition Checklist, as well as approximately 29 selected color plate images of art included in the exhibition.

See Art images from the exhibition and catalogue that appear in Color Exploration in the Art of McArthur Binion. For more information on acquiring the catalogue, please call: 301-985-7937.

Lewis, Sarah E. Romare Bearden: Idea to Realization. New York: D C Moore Gallery, 2011.

The catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition, Romare Bearden: Idea to Realization, which was on view at the D C Moore Gallery from February 3 - March 12, 2011. The exhibition featured a rare and vibrant group of maquettes for murals, mosaics, book jackets, and other projects. Most of them were presented for the first time. Ralph Sessions' discussion of the maquettes that blend paint, abstracted cut-paper elements, and photographic images in the customary Bearden style is accompanied with images.

Romare Bearden, Bessie, Duke, and Louis, c .1981,
Collage on fiberboard, 12¼" x 43"

The front cover of the exhibition catalogue features the right corner image of Louis Armstrong that appears in the "Bessie, Duke, and Louis" collage; the back cover features the image of Bessie Smith. The full collage is featured as a foldout inside the catalogue.

Protégé: Sam Gilliam and Kevin Cole. Charlotte, North Carolina: Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture, 2010.
This exhibition catalogue, consisting of 40 pages, highlights the works of the two featured artists, capturing their creative spirit and artistic relationship both as individuals and collaborators. The works featured not only celebrate the relationship of mentor and protégé, but demonstrates the importance of the mentoring process for both individuals. The catalogue includes color illustrations throughout, as well as sections devoted to Plates and the Exhibition Checklist.

To secure a copy of this title, contact the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Art and Culture (Charlotte, North Carolina) inquire at 704/ 547-3700 or by email to info@ganttcenter.org.

Lisa Farrington: Art Historian Talk

2011-04-11T10:54:00.000-04:00

Lisa Farrington & African American Women's Art from Lauren Mucciolo on Vimeo.

Black Women Artists        Limited Resources

Racism and Myths       Visual Stereotypes

Positive Propaganda      Political Tool

Further Readings:
The Black Arts Movement
The Feminist Movement in Art
Andy Warhol Foundation: Arts Writers...Program (Lisa Farrington, 2009 Grantee for book, Emma Amos: Art as Lagacy)

Select News Announcements, Upcoming Programs and Activities

2011-03-26T22:38:00.055-04:00

College Park, Maryland

Joseph Holston, Young Fisherman,
1989, Etching, 6" x 4½"

The Tenth Annual David C. Driskell Distinguished Lecture in the Visual Arts, featuring Jock Reynolds, will be held at the Driskell Center on Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 6:30 pm. The topic of this year's lecture is "Afro-American Presence in American Art: From the Battle of Bunker Hill to Now." The lecture will follow the opening reception for the exhibition: Limited Editions: Joseph Holston Prints, 1974 - 2010, A Retrospective at the Driskell Center's Gallery from 5 - 6:30 pm. The exhibition will be on view through June 17, 2011.

The David C. Driskell Center is located in the Cole Student Activities Building, University of Maryland. For more information, see lecture and exhibition.

Indianapolis, Indiana

Hard Truths: A Forum on Art and the Politics of Difference is sponsored by the Indianapolis Museum of Art as an affiliate program to the current Thornton Dial exhibition on view through September 18, 2011. This one-day public forum, "using the life and art of Thornton Dial as a point of departure, will explore the status of African American artists within the mainstream contemporary art world, an examination that reflects broader social, economic, and political ‘hard truths’ within society at large. It explores the relevance of black creative expression to issues of social justice across racial boundaries."

The forum is scheduled for Friday, April 8, 2011 from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Speakers include: Julian Bond, Joanne Cubbs, Theaster Gates, Fred Moten, Franklin Sirmans, and Greg Tate. For more details, see forum.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

The Phillips Museum of Art presents an Artist Forum, As Seen in Print: African American Modernists Consider Their Reception. Professor Kellie Jones of Columbia University will frame this discussion within the context of her landmark scholarship on this topic, and includes a conversation with the following vanguard abstract artists: Ed Clark, Mel Edwards, James Little, Howardena Pindell, Jack Whitten and William T. Williams.

The Forum is held at Franklin and Marshall College, Stahr Auditorium, Stager Hall on Saturday, April 2, 2011, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Admission is free, but reservations are required. RSVP to: Jessica.jackson@fandm.edu.

Northampton, Massachusetts

Whitfield Lovell

Whitfield Lovell, contemporary artist, will deliver the Eighth Annual Dulcy Blume Miller Lecture in Art on Thursday, March 31 at Smith College (Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall) at 7:00 pm. Lovell, who is known for creating emotionally moving artworks, is a recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007. He creates "meticulously-drawn portraits of African-Americans based on vintage photographs, juxtaposing these images with resonant objects." More Than You Know: Works by Whitfield Lovell is on view at the Smith College Museum of Art through May 1, 2011.

"The Miller Lecture in Art and Art History is an endowed program established in memory of Dulcy Blume Miller, class of 1946, that annually brings a leading artist or art historian to campus to give a public lecture and to take part in class sessions." For details, call 413/585-2777.

Washington, DC

International Visions Gallery presents an artist talk, featuring Stan Squirewell, on Saturday, April 16, 2011 from 2:00 - 5:00 pm. The Gallery's current exhibition, Stan Squirewell: Interconnected is on view through April 23, 2011. In Squirewell's collection of recent work, "the artist explores conditions revolving around the empowered and the powerless: institutions/identity, categories/boundaries, and assimilation/transformation. The very sharpness of digital media amplifies his confrontational imagery."

International Visions Gallery is located at 2629 Connecticut Avenue, NW. For further information, visit The Gallery.

Elders Learning Through the Arts (ELTA) Project presents ELTA-STAR Awards Ceremony on April 27, from 5:30 - 8:30 pm at the Kennedy Recreation Center (1401 7th Street, NW). This ceremony is one of the activities to celebrate the Third Annual ELTA Student-Faculty Exhibition which is on view April 27 - May 2, 2011 at the Kennedy Recreation Center. For further information, contact: 202/ 671-4794.

This project is supported by the D C Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Friends of Kennedy Playground Foundation in partnership with the D C Parks and Recreation, Senior Services Division.

Seniors Textile Arts Renaissance (STAR) will present a Wearable Art Fashion Show in the Great Hall of the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives (1201 17th Street, NW) on April 14, 2011 from 6:30 - 8:00 pm. This is an affiliate program to STAR's Second Annual Student-Faculty Textile Arts Exhibition which is on view April 14 through May 20, 2011 at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives.

This project is supported by private donations, a grant from the Friends of Kennedy Foundation, and the D C Department of Parks and Recreation, Senior Services Program. The Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives graciously hosts this event.

Yonkers, New York

Hudson River Museum's Art Talk presents Alona Wilson, in its lecture series, discussing "Interpreting and Preserving African-American Arts" on April 27, 2011 at 6:30 pm. *Alona Wilson is the Curator and Assistant Director of the Amistad Center for Art and Culture, an institution that "owns a vital collection of 7,000 items including art, artifacts and popular culture objects that document the experiences, expressions and history of people of African American heritage." Learn more about The Amistad Center. *CANCELED

Bartholomew Bland, Hudson River Museum Curator of Exhibitions, will give an illustrated lecture on Chemistry of Color: The Sorgenti Collection of Contemporary African-American Art on April 13, 2011 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. Chemistry of Color is on view through May 8, 2011.

Swann Galleries: Printed and Manuscript African Americana, Sale 2239

2011-03-14T11:00:00.000-04:00

Swann Galleries, 16th annual Printed and Manuscript African Americana sale, consisting of approximately 507 lots, was held on March 10, 2011. The sale was divided into a number of broad subject areas that included the following divisions: Slavery and Abolition; Art; Black Memorabilia; Black Panthers; Business, Civil Rights; Marcus Garvey; Literature and Poetry; Military; Music, Sports, and etc. The success of Sale 2239 can be summed up in the words of Wyatt Houston Day, Swann African Americana specialist, "This is unquestionably the most successful sale of African Americana we have had in 16 years of sales at Swann--for two very important reasons: a diversity of fine, and in many cases unique material, and most important to any auction, a number of very knowledgeable and aggressive bidders, in almost every area."

Items, such as those included in Swann Galleries' Printed and Manuscript African Americana, allow historians and the general public an opportunity to explore and discover documents of the past. These items, including photographs and posters; published and unpublished writings in the form of rare books, correspondence, pamphlets, diaries, brochures, and ephemera; as well as, artifacts or other concrete items, document the cultural heritage of people of African descent. They are crucial pieces that may be used to explain, clarify, and interpret the role of blacks in American and world history.

For years, collectors, bibliophiles, and individuals have played a significant role in the conservation and preservation of papers and other material culture items. The items may be a part of large collections or simply individual pieces, but their existence is a part of history, continually unfolding. As these items are sold, it is hoped that they find homes in institutions of higher education (libraries, repositories, archives, and special collections), historical societies, museums, research organizations, and other cultural agencies, where they might be used by the general public, researchers, scholars, and the like to meaningfully and accurately incorporate the black experience into the larger picture of American and world history.

Sample items from Charles Harris
Wesley Archive; Sale 2239, Lot 281

The top lot that sold for $43,200 was Charles Harris Wesley's archive of approximately 35 cartons of material, covering the period from 1927-1982. Wesley was a noted historian, scholar, educator, minister, and writer, a graduate of Fisk University who earned his Masters degree from Yale, his PhD from Harvard, and went on to teach at Howard University among other esteemed institutions. The archive was acquired by an institution.

Father Divine (banner); Sale 2239, Lot 465

The second top lot was a "large handmade banner, 54x53 inches, heavy purple felt with white, quilted letters sewn around an image of a dove on top of the world" associated with Father Divine's International Peace Mission. The banner had a high estimate of $1,000; it greatly surpassed that estimate when it successfully sold for $36,000 to an institution. Father Divine "founded the International Peace Mission movement in 1936, formulated its doctrine, and oversaw its growth from a small and predominantly black congregation into a multiracial and international church."

Huey P. Newton poster;
Sale 2239, Lot 192

There was active bidding in the Black Panther section of the auction with a number of items exceeding their high bid, including the Huey Newton poster: "The racist dog policeman must withdraw immediately from our communities" (1968). This classic image depicting Huey P. Newton, Panther Minister of Defense, seated in a large fan-back wicker chair, holding a rifle in one hand and a spear in the other had a high estimate of $2,500. It sold for $19,200, capturing a record price.

For the full scope of the Printed and Manuscript African Americana sale, see images in the catalogue, and the final prices inclusive of Buyer's Premium at results.

Richard Mayhew: Artist Talk

2011-02-28T20:38:00.001-05:00

The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoDA) in San Francisco hosted an exhibition of paintings by Richard Mayhew. The MoAD exhibit, The Art of Richard Mayhew, ended March 7, 2010. Read more at MoAD. A catalogue accompanied this exhibition.

Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective, an exhibition currently on view at the Birmingham Museum of Art, features works by Richard Mayhew. This exhibit ends April 17, 2011. See an earlier post: SPIRAL.

Swann Galleries: African-American Fine Art, Sale 2237

2011-02-20T22:00:00.001-05:00

Swann Auction Galleries' recent (February 17, 2011) African-American Fine Art Sale was successful in selling 78% of the 148 lots offered. According to Nigel Freeman, Director of African- American Fine Art at Swann Galleries, "As the art market rebounds, we are seeing a surge in collectors seeking African-American fine art - especially scarce and important works. The sale began with intense competition for 19th century paintings by Duncanson and Porter, and the momentum was sustained all the way to the final section, a celebration of Romare Bearden's centennial year, where two of his collages from the early 1970s sold in the high five figures." Freeman's statement is substantiated by the fact that the top five selling lots were bought by collectors.

Elizabeth Catlett, Untitled (Standing
African-American Woman)
Cast bronze with dark brown patina,
1967, 47" x 20" x 8" (without the
base)

The sale's top lot was Elizabeth Catlett's Untitled (Standing Africa-American Woman), a cast bronze sculpture from 1967 that sold for $108,000, which is the highest prize ever for an Elizabeth Catlett bronze sculpture. As stated in the catalogue, "This stunning bronze figure is a wonderful discovery from Mexico--this is the first time this important sculpture by Elizabeth Catlett has been exhibited in the United States. ...This is one of the largest bronze works by the artist that is not a public commission...." More images and discussion.

Vincent Smith, The Voices are Stilled,
Oil on masonite, 1965,

47½” x 45½”

Vincent Smith's The Voices are Stilled (Lot 70) was also an artist record at $21,600. "The Voices Are Stilled is a striking and important early painting by Vincent Smith, and the first significant work by the artist to come to auction. With intense nocturnal colors, Smith captures the light of an evening street populated by his typically quirky and expressive figures. This Brooklyn street scene also includes the small Bedford-Stuyvesant storefront office of the Congress of Racial Equality (or C.O.R.E.)." In the case of both Catlett and Smith, the art works did not reach their high auction estimates of $180,000 and $25,000, respectively. It is hoped that with continued exposure and knowledge of the value and importance of these works by African American artists that the auction prices will consistently approach or toppled the upper estimates.

In addition to Catlett's Standing African-American Woman bronze sculpture, the top five lots included these four additional pieces: Romare Bearden's Tidings, a circa 1973 collage, $96.000; Le Balayeur, a 1958 oil on canvas by Beauford Delaney that also sold for $96,000; Bearden's The Stubborn Old Lady, a 1971 collage, $72,000; and Robert Scott Duncanson's Untitled (Landscape), a circa 1860-1865 oil on board, $45,600. Bearden's Tidings and Duncanson's Landscape both exceeded their high estimates. The prices quoted are inclusive of Buyer's Premium.

Select Art Exhibitions During Black History Month

2011-02-05T18:56:00.002-05:00

Brentwood, Maryland

Gateway Arts Center

The Brentwood Arts Exchange and the Prince George's African American Museum and Cultural Center present Resonant Forms: Alonzo Davis, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Frank Smith. The exhibition, Resonant Forms, will be on view at the Gateway Arts Center (1st floor, 3901 Rhode Island Avenue) until April 9, 2011.

Resonant Forms "is intensely visually rich. Its works frame a spectrum of artistic modes that range between expressing through pure color and speaking directly through the conceptual weight of material. Both means are important in each artist's work, while each artist approaches them in different ways."

There is an Opening Reception on Friday, February 11, 2011 from 5 - 8 pm. In addition there are a series of related programs:

Artist Talk with Alonzo Davis, Martha Jackson-Jarvis and Frank Smith Saturday, February 12, 2011, 2 - 4 pm
Message in the Bottle: A Discussion with Martha Jackson-Jarvis and A.M. Weaver, Saturday, March 19, 2011, 2 - 4 pm
Alonzo Davis and The Bamboo Muse, a book of Davis’ artwork paired with the poetry and prose of twelve writers inspired by his work, Saturday, April 2, 2011, 2 - 4 pm

Chicago, Illinois

G. R. N'Namdi Gallery

Charles White, Jubilee, Oil on Board,
39" x 31½"

Charles White: The Shaping of Black America will be on view at the G. R. N'Namdi Gallery until March 5, 2011. This exhibition consists of twelve pieces originally commissioned and acquired by the Johnson Publication Company in 1974 that tell the story of enslavement to liberation. To read more and view additional images of works from the exhibition, see: N'Namdi Gallery.

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Willie Cole, Pressed Iron Blossom No. 3,
2005, Lithograph on two sheets
of Somerset paper, 35⅞" x 47¾"

Deep Impression: Willie Cole Works on Paper is on view February 12 - May 8, 2011 at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

This exhibition of over 30 prints, drawings, and photographs by Willie Cole encompasses works from 1979 to 2010. "Although best known as a sculptor, ...Cole has created a series of works on paper that incorporate his characteristic subjects: ironing boards, hairdryers, and shoes, among other manufactured products. He manipulates and reproduces these objects, imbuing them with several levels of meaning that address personal as well as economic, racial, and political issues. For example, he uses irons—some of which he found and some that were given to him by his grandmother, who was a domestic worker—to scorch patterns into paper." Read more at Brooks.

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is located at 1934 Poplar Avenue; phone: 901/ 544-6200.

New York, New York

D C Moore Gallery

D C Moore Gallery presents Romare Bearden: Idea to Realization as one of its inaugural shows at the gallery's new location at 535 West 22nd Street. Romare Bearden is on view through March 12, 2011. An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

"This focused show features a rare and vibrant group of original artworks that blend paint, photographic images, and abstracted cut-paper elements. Created as maquettes for murals, mosaics, book jackets, and other projects, most of them are being exhibited for the first time." For additional information, see Bearden. View other images at the gallery.

Romare Bearden, Bessie, Duke, and Louis, c. 1981,
Collage on fiberboard, 12 ¼" x 43", D C Moore Gallery

Sacramento, California

Evolve the Gallery

Kamal Mansour, Hammerin' Hank,
Digital, fabric, found objects,
mixed media collage on canvas,
44" x 44"

Evolve the Gallery, in collaboration with the California Legislative Black Caucus, presents Made in America: An African-American Fine Art Perspective on February 10 -26, 2011. Evolve the Gallery is located at 2907 35th Street, Historic Oak Park.

The exhibition will include over 30 artists from across the country, including Richard Mayhew, Charles Bibbs, Gilbert Young, Kevin O'Keith, Charly Palmer, Alonzo Adams, Cindy Cephus, Kamal Mansour, Kelvin Curry, Kevin Cole, Marcella Muhammad, Milton Bowens, Rosalind McGary, Tamara Natalie Madden, Warren Goodson, and others.

Related Programs:

Art Premiere and Artist Reception, Thursday, February 10, 2011, 6 - 9 pm
Opening Reception, Saturday, February 12, 2011, 6 - 9 pm
Art Talk and Discussion will be held at The Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street, Historic Oak Park, Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 6 - 8 pm. This program will be moderated by Milton 510 Bowens and will include the following speakers: Senator Curren D. Price, Jr., Assemblyman Mike Davis, Bryan Keith Thomas, Akinsanya Kambon, and Elaine O'Brien.

For contact and more information, see Evolve the Gallery.

Sacramento, California

40 Acres Art Gallery

Milton 510 Bowens, American as Sweet Potato Pie,
Mixed media on canvas, 40" x 40", (Studio shot)

Milton 510 Bowens presents The Encyclopedia Blacktannica: A Contemporary Art Anthology of the African American Experience at the 40 Acres Art Gallery from February 10 - April 9, 2011. The Encyclopedia Blacktannica, consisting of a collection of 105 contemporary fine art paintings, navigates the interior landscape of the African American culture. "Bowens with his unique brand of Abstract Pop influenced mixed media paintings envelop the viewer as witness, participant, and long lost relative. This exhibition conjures reflections on history, family, struggle, perseverance and cultural pride."

Related Programs:

Special Preview / Reception: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 5 - 9 pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 12, 2011, 5 - 9 pm
Black Face: An Art Talk with Milton 510 Bowens (The artist will be discussing the value of controlling our cultural image): Saturday, February 19, 2011, 3 - 6 pm
Portrait of Post Racial America (panel discussion focused on the state of race relations in America today): Saturday, February 26, 2011, 3 - 6 pm

40 Acres Art Gallery is located at 3434 Broadway, Sacramento, California. For more information contact: Gail Williams, 510/ 417-1500, (gwilliams1918@comcast.net) or Michael Craft, 916/ 670-2932, (michael@aegbiz.com).

Savannah, Georgia

The King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation

Rik Freeman, Moses Train, 2008,
Oil on canvas, 60 " x 72"

The King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation presents an exhibition, Rik Freeman: The Chittlin Circuit Review on view February 6 - May 28, 2011. This series of paintings that the artist began in 1994 is based on the origin and roots of Blues music. The exhibit will feature 20 or more oil on canvas works. The underlying objective of the works is "to portray the reality of circumstances that birthed the musical genre, including but not limited to socio-political and cultural aspects of the African American lifestyle in the Deep South...."

The Chittlin Circuit Review represents a collaboration between the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation and the Savannah Black Heritage Festival. The Opening Reception and Artist Talk are scheduled for Sunday, February 6, 2011, 3 - 5 pm at The Beach Institute which is located at 502 East Harris Street; phone: 912/ 234-8000. Follow this link to read more about the exhibition.

Sterling, Virginia

The Waddell Art Gallery

The Waddell Art Gallery, on the Loudoun Campus of Northern Virginia Community College, presents Claudia Gibson Hunter's Suspicious Activities from February 21 - March 25, 2011.

Claudia Gibson-Hunter,
Code Red: Insurgent, 2008,
Bleach, colored pencil, acrylics,
30" x 22"

Suspicious Activities is a series of over 40 works produced during the Bush administration that explores the contradictions of terrorism, occupation, and war during that administration. According to Gibson-Hunter, "The damage language can induce not only to the originator of the speech, but to the speaker, the subject of the words and the society the words are spoken in is the subject of these pieces. Bone, muscles, blood sweat, tears, hearts and even souls, are rendered exempt null, void, through words spoken or left unsaid, by the military, the journalist, the scholar and the everyday American citizen."

The Waddell Gallery is located on the 1st floor of the Waddell Building, 1000 Harry Flood Byrd Highway. For additional information, contact: Don Depuydt, 703/ 450-2627.

Washington, DC

The Charles Sumner School, Museum and Archives

Black Artists of DC present The Black Exhibition at The Charles Sumner School, Museum and Archives through March 31, 2011. The Black Exhibition includes the following artists: Cedric Baker, Anne Bouie, James Brown, Jr., T. H. Gomillion, Bruce McNeil, Daniel T. Brooking, Adjoa J. Burrowes, Carlton Wilkinson, Michael B. Platt, Amber Robles-Gordon, John Earl Cooper, Alec Simpson, Kristen Hayes, Gloria C. Kirk, Carol A. Beane, Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter, Willard G. Taylor, Viola Burley Leak, and Jacqueline Lee.

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 6:30 - 8:30 pm. The Charles Sumner School, Museum and Archives is located at 1201 17th Street, NW.

Washington, DC
International Visions - The Gallery

International Visions - The Gallery presents its Annual Small Works Show from February 10 - March 12, 2011. Thirty-eight artists will be featured including David C. Driskell, Wadsworth Jarrell, April Harrison, Annie Bouie, Kevin Cole, Tim Davis, Verna Hart, Helen Zughaib, Betty Press, Sam Gilliam, James Phillips, and others. For a full list of artists and additional information, visit: International Visions Gallery.

Reception: Saturday, February 12, 2011, 6:30 - 9:00 pm. International Visions Gallery is located at 2629 Connecticut Avenue, NW.

Select News Announcements, Upcoming Programs and Activities

2011-02-02T06:30:00.003-05:00

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria Black History Museum presents genealogist Char McCargo Bah discussing In Search of Parker and Gray: Two African American Education Icons, an illustrated lecture on how she researched two noted Alexandria educators. "Ms. Bah will share her research into John F. Parker and Sarah A. Gray, early African American educators in Alexandria for whom the Parker-Gray School was named during segregation. Despite recognition of their names today, little was known about Parker or Gray. Through genealogical research, Char has uncovered previously unknown history about both of them and she will reveal her successful research techniques. Participants will learn the importance of collateral lines, how to distinguish among people with the same name, and other tips that will help them document their family’s history."

The program is schedule for Saturday, February 19, 2011 from 11 am - 1 pm at the Alexandria Black History Museum, 902 Wythe Street. For more information or to register, call 703/ 746-4356 or visit http://www.alexblackhistory.org/.

Atlanta, Georgia

Spelman College Summer Art Colony, founded in 1997 by Dr. Arturo Lindsay, A Panamanian born artist and Professor of Art and Art History at Spelman College "to provide students from colleges and universities throughout the United States with an opportunity to live, work and study in an idyllic Caribbean setting." The Art Colony is housed at Taller Portobelo, an artist cooperative, in the village of Portobelo on the Caribbean coast of the Republic of Panama. The experience provides participants an opportunity to spend three weeks of uninterrupted communion with their muse.

Dates: May 15 - June 5, 2011. For further information or to apply, see: Art Colony or contact Dr. Arturo Lindsay at 404-270-5452; email: arturo.lindsay@gmail.com.

Gaithersburg, Maryland

The National Black Memorabilia, Art, Doll and Collectible Show, celebrating it 27th year, will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 16 - 17, 2011 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Plans have been well underway and are led by Lindsey B. Johnson of L. Johnson Promotions, Ltd. Johnson indicates "the show is now 2 days and in addition to black memorabilia, we are highlighting black fine art and African American dolls."

Read previous post for more details: National Black Memorabilia...Show.

Los Angeles

February 15, 2011 is the deadline for receiving entries for the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (LACDA) 2011 International Juried Competition. All styles of artwork and photography where digital processes of any kind were integral to the creation of the images are acceptable. Los Angeles Center For Digital Art is dedicated "to the propagation of all forms of digital art, supporting local, international, emerging and established artists." They have an ongoing schedule of exhibits and competitions, and produce editions of wide format archival prints.

Winners announced: February 21, 2011; Exhibit dates: March 10 - April 2, 2011

Direct link to more details and registration: LACDA.

New York, New York

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center located on the campus of the Borough of Manhattan Community College will serve as host for Dialogues in the Visual Arts, a panel discussion focusing on the Hatch-Billops Archives: A Celebration of 30 Years of Documentation. The program curator is Susan Fleminger. James V. Hatch will be the moderator and the following individuals will serve as panelists: Camille Billops, Robin Holder, and Dorothy Thigpen.

The Hatch-Billops Collection "began in 1975 while Camille Billops, an artist and filmmaker, and James Hatch, a theater historian, were teaching art and literature at the City College of New York. They realized that very little had been published about Black American art, drama, literature and music and began collecting materials for their students." For further discovery and exploration about the Hatch-Billops Collection, view this previous BAP blog post.

Dialogues in the Visual Arts panel discussion will be held on Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 7 pm at 199 Chambers Street, #S110c, New York, New York. The admission to this program is $5.00 and a reception follows. For those interested in attending the Dialogues in the Visual Arts panel discussion, see: Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

College Art Association (CAA) has announced the recipients of the 2011 Awards for Distinction, which honor the outstanding achievements and accomplishments of individual artists, art historians, authors, conservators, curators, and critics whose efforts transcend their individual disciplines and contribute to the profession as a whole and to the world at large. The recipients will be formally recognized at a special ceremony to be held during the 99th Annual Conference in New York, February 10, 2011 (Thursday) from 6:00–7:30 pm at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Faith Rinngold will be honored as the recipients of the CAA 2011 Distinguished Feminist Award. Other categories and winners may be viewed at CAA Awards.

SWANN Auction Galleries presents African-American Fine Art auction with a special section in honor of Romare Bearden's centennial on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 2:30 pm. The illustrated catalogue for this African-American Fine Art, Sale #2237 is available for $35.00 at order catalogue. View the online catalogue. Swann Galleries is located at 104 East 25th Street, New York, New York 10010 (telephone: 212/ 254-4710).

Savannah, Georgia

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art 27 million dollar expansion will provide a permanent home for the Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies. "The Evans Center will provide a permanent home for the Evans Collection as well as an interdisciplinary facility devoted to the study of African-American art, literature and culture that will include classrooms, exhibition space, event space and a theater. The center will also create the opportunity for SCAD to develop more educational programs and relationships with public and private schools in Savannah and the Southeast."

For more information, read SCAD expansion.

Tougaloo, Mississippi

Tougaloo Art Colony celebrates its 15th year as a retreat for nationally acclaimed artists, emerging artists, art educators, art students, and interested adult learners "to engage in dialogue and to create works that help extend the multicultural dimensions of America's visual arts culture." Past instructors include David Driskell, David R. MacDonald, John McDaniel, Akemi Nakana Cohn, Moe Booker, Jamaal Sheats, Jerre Allen, Kevin Cole, Gail Shaw-Clemons, and Hyun Chong Kim.

The 15th Annual Retreat is scheduled for July 17 - 22, 2011. For additional information and contacts, visit Tougaloo Art Colony.

Washington, D C

Center for Advance Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), National Gallery of Art, presents a program celebrating the publication: Romare Bearden, American Modernist on March 14, 2011 (Monday) at 4:30 pm in the East Building Auditorium. See announcement for complete program.

Creative Voices D C, a panel discussion, represents a collaboration between Millennium Arts Salon and The Phillips Collection, and is sponsored by the D C Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The panelist will explore the topic of Washington artists, with a special focus on African American artists and their contributions to the creative milieu of DC. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Richard Long (cultural historian), panelists include Judy Greenberg (director, the Kreeger Museum), Claudia Rousseau (art historian and critic), Adrienne Child (art historian), Lisa Gold (director, Washington Project of the Arts), and Billy Colbert (artist). Reservations are required (by donation): The Phillips Collection. Creative Voices D C will be held on February 7, 2011 (Monday) from 6 - 8:30 pm at The Phillips Collection.

Chakaia Booker: Artist Talk

2011-01-31T12:08:00.002-05:00

Green Art Recycling Artistic Exploration Race

Retreads Public Art Work Artistic Voice

Communication Sculpting Self Experimentation

Wearable Pieces Automobile Tires

"A penchant for scavenged rubber, Chakaia Booker began a career assembling the strips and shreds of discarded Goodyears and Firestones into intricate, elaborate, widely acclaimed sculpture. Her work has a fully organic presence. For a NASA-commissioned memorial project, she disassembled a tire once used by the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia. Booker's work communicates her need to utilize her skills as a means of experimentation and exploration."

Artist and Influence Interviews at Hatch-Billops Collection

2011-01-26T14:39:00.043-05:00

The Artist and Influence Spring 2011 interviews are scheduled for Sundays at 2:00 pm at the Hatch-Billops Collection, Inc. which is located at 491 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, New York. The admission is free; however, no one is allowed after 2:30 pm.

Spring 2011 Schedule:

David Fludd, Visual Artist, February 6
Javaka Steptoe, Author-Illustrator, February 13
Ann Tanksley, Visual Artist, March 6
Michael Cummings, Visual Artist, March 20
David Henderson, Poet, April 3
Jimmy Owens, Musician, April 10
Michael Simon, Visual Artist, May 15

According to James Hatch, "the 2010 Artist and Influence (volume 29) annual serial will be ready for release by the end of February." If you are interested in receiving a copy, please remit $15.00 to the Hatch-Billops Collection at 491 Broadway, 7th floor, New York, New York 10012. For those individuals wishing to build or supplement their personal collections of Artist and Influence, the following issues are out of print: volumes I, II, III, IV, VIII, X, XI, XII, XIV, XXI and XXV; however, other older issues may be ordered directly from Hatch-Billops, Inc. It is my understanding that volume 30 (2011) will be the last issue.

Artist and Influence interviews can be "read on-line through the libraries...of subscribers via Alexander Street Press." The interviews are included in Alexander Street's Black Thought and Culture database. For BAP readers who are interested in reading the interviews, Meg Keller, Director of Marketing at Alexander Street Press has allowed me to share a user name and password to access them through March 2011. For access, follow this link: http://bltc.alexanderstreet.com/, and then insert the user name: trial and password: alexander when prompted. This is a great opportunity to share the Black Thought and Culture database with readers and I heartily thank the staff of Alexander Street Press for making this a reality.

The Black Thought and Culture database "is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders..., covering 250 years of history. ...It presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trail transcripts."

For further reading about the Hatch-Billops Collection, Inc., see: Emory University. As time permits, search the finding aid to the archival collection at Emory MARBL to discover a variety of materials relating to African American culture and art.

Swann Galleries: Upcoming African-American Fine Art Auction

2011-01-10T10:17:00.001-05:00

In February 2007, Swann launched a new department devoted to African-American Fine Art; and to date, they are still the only major auction house to conduct regular sales of this material. In the last sale on October 7, 2010, two items were among record prices. The top lot was Robert Colescott's A Legend Dimly Told that sold for $132,000 inclusive of buyer's premium; and Sargent Johnson's Mask that set an artist record when it sold for $67,200 inclusive of buyer's premium. Images and a write-up of this Sale appeared in a previous BAP post.

The upcoming Swann Galleries African-American Fine Art sale is scheduled for Thursday, February 17, 2011, and some of the highlights follow in this post. According to Rebecca Weiss, Media Relations at Swann Galleries, "The auction begins with early 20th-century African-American artists, including Charles Ethan Porter's Sunflowers, oil on wood panel, circa early 1880s; Archibald J. Motley, Jr.'s Harbor Bound, oil on masonite, circa 1914-20; and paintings by Edward Bannister, Robert Duncanson and Hale Woodruff."

As we move into mid-century, highlights include three artists of note. There is a "very scarce four-foot high bronze sculpture of a Standing African-American Woman, 1967, by Elizabeth Catlett; Crossing, oil on canvas, 1948, from Norman Lewis's first solo exhibition at Willard Gallery; and Beauford Delaney's Le Bayaleur, oil on canvas, 1968."

Finally, the sale concludes with a special section in honor of Romare Bearden's centennial, "featuring two iconic collages from the early 1970s, and his life-long experimental work on paper in photostat projections, monotypes, collotypes, watercolor and innovative printmaking."

There will be an online catalogue, as well as a print edition. If you are either building an African American related visual art library, collecting art, or in need of a reference source relating to this area of fine art, consider adding the print catalogue to your collection of books. Historically, many of the original pieces of art in the auction have been in private collections; consequently, the catalogue may be the only documentation of their existence available to the general public.

As more information becomes available, BAP will share.

Swann Galleries: Upcoming Printed and Manuscript African-Americana Auction

2011-01-07T07:33:00.014-05:00

Eve Kahn's recent (December 23, 2010) Antiques column in the New York Times states, "In February [2010] Porter’s family sold his archive for $50,400 at Swann Galleries in New York to Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library in Atlanta, which is now sifting through 17 boxes and planning exhibitions." For those who have been keeping up with the latest auction prices and trends relating to African American items at auction, the Porter archive was an extensive collection that included thousands of items, consisting of photographs, correspondence, exhibit catalogues, art books, and etc.

Over the years, I have found the Printed and Manuscript African-Americana auction at Swann Galleries to have an array of interesting and unusual items for the casual or seasoned collector, consisting of items suitable for both private and institutional collections. The catalogue, accompanying this auction, serves as a very useful reference resource.

The upcoming Printed and Manuscript African-Americana auction at Swann Galleries, which is its 16th annual auction, will be held on Thursday, March 10, 2011. As usual, the auction will offer a wide-ranging array of unique and unusual items, such as "a lengthy handwritten statement of purpose by Marcus Garvey on a sheet with a fine pen-and-ink portrait of him, 1922."

Black Art Project (BAP) reports that this auction is especially strong in the following sections: slavery and abolition, the Civil War, and music. According to Rebecca Weiss, Media Relations at Swann Galleries, “Featured items include a very unusual ballast stone that was recovered in 1992 from the wreck of a 16th-century English slave ship off Little Bahama Banks, whose hard surface is incised with a depiction of an elephant’s face that is similar to masks made by the Guro people of West Africa.”

Slavery and Abolition:
There are a number of items pertaining to Frederick Douglass, including “three 1859 issues of Frederick Douglass’ Paper reporting the aftermath of John Brown’s unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry, and a scarce copy of the 1848 printing of Frederick Douglass’ Narrative, bound and published by Douglass in Rochester.”

The Civil War:
This section features “55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry soldier David Spears’s NCO parade saber in its original leather scabbard; and a September 1865 letter from William Traill, one of three African-American brothers who were soldiers, detailing the hardships of service in the final days of the war.”

Music:
Two items of particular note are highlighted in this section, including an “autograph music manuscript by John Coltrane, 1950s-60s; and a series of original acetate masters from 1956 containing 33 Billie Holiday classics.”

As more information becomes available, particularly archival and primary sources relating to the visual arts, BAP will share. The catalogue, accompanying each of these auctions, is always a recommended source to add to your personal library.

Curator Discusses Exhibition: "Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective"

2010-12-29T15:46:00.000-05:00

Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective is currently on view at the Birmingham Museum of Art through March 6, 2011, and features work by Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Charles Alston, Hale Woodruff, Reginald Gammon, Richard Mayhew, and Emma Amos.

Spiral was a diverse group of African American artists, originally consisting of 12 members, who met in 1963 seeking to find the Black aesthetic and the extent of their commitment in the struggle for Civil Rights. As an African American collective, the group presented an exhibition, First Group Showing: Works in Black and White, on May 14 - June 4 [1965] with an aesthetic limitation of restricting its palette to the colors black and white. With confidence, it can be stated that the use of this color palette carried some symbolic overtures. The exhibit reflected the different identities and views of the artists included in the group, yet it was unified by its common theme. It was during this period, of the Spiral Group, that Romare Bearden, as one of its founding members, developed his technique of collage.

Further readings.

Select List of African American Art Collections

2010-12-24T13:00:00.019-05:00

After releasing the Reading Scene 1, focusing on The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect, I begin to explore what other "personal collections" were documented in a published catalogue. This exploration and discovery led to the compilation of the following list, African American Art Collections, in WorldCat. It includes, to the best of my knowledge, art collections that were personally developed by individuals or families. The list does not include collections that had their origin as an institutional, organizational, or corporate collection; catalogues of many of those collections exist, but they are not the focus of this list. Over time, as other "private" (personal, individual, family) collections are identified, and catalogues exist, they will be added. Suggestions for inclusion are welcome and may be sent via comments.

Select Art Exhibitions in 2011

2010-12-23T19:38:00.001-05:00

Notice the Updated Right Sidebar

The right sidebar has been updated to include Select Art Exhibitions in 2011. This list only includes those exhibitions that are currently on view until they close in January or those that have an opening date either in January or February. Other exhibitions will be added to the sidebar throughout 2011 as they approach their opening dates.

Black Art Project welcomes any information or leads that you might have relating to black (African American) art exhibitions, particularly regional exhibitions that are not traditionally marketed on a national scale. The Project will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Thank you for any assistance that you provide.

Reading Scene 1

2010-12-20T06:18:00.001-05:00

Kinsey, Bernard and Shirley Kinsey. The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect. Los Angeles: The Bernard and Shirley Kinsey Foundation for Arts and Education, 2009.

This 154 page catalogue, The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect, accompanies an exhibition with the same name. It presents, in historical perspective, the story of the African American experience from 1632 - present; the story speaks through original art, historical artifacts, and documents. Because it presents stories of African American achievement and contributions through art, documents, memorabilia, as well as other ephemera, it makes an excellent teaching tool, gift, or resource for personal discovery and inspiration. The Foreword, written by Douglas A. Blackmon, author of Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, presented a wonderful back story of how Blackmon and Kinsey were connected through a 1903 letter featured in Blackmon's book. The letter was from Carrie Kinsey to President Theodore Roosevelt, describing how her 14-year-old brother had been kidnapped and sold into slavery.

The catalogue is divided into sections, focusing on aspects of the African American experience. Each section is highlighted with appropriate documents, artifacts, ephemera, and art to tell its story. Some of the sections featured include: Slavery, African Americans and War, Forging Freedom, The Birth of an Aesthetic, A New Generation of Masters, and etc.

This family's story, which is told through their collection and the essays written by each family member (Bernard, Shirley, and Khalil), reflects a rich cultural and historical heritage that the family is preserving for future generations.

The exhibition, The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, Where Art and History Intersect, will be on display in National Museum of African American History and Culture's gallery at the National Museum of American History (Washington, DC) through May 1, 2011. To purchase a copy of the catalogue, visit the museum store or order here.

Reading Scene

2010-12-19T19:35:00.013-05:00

This post simply introduces BAP readers to a new feature, Reading Scene, which has been added to the BAP blog.

The Reading Scene does not replace the BAP Booklist, but simply serves as yet another means of sharing information regarding reading material that may be of interest or helpful to BAP readers. Unlike the BAP Booklist that focuses on books and exhibition catalogues directly focused on African American art and only includes materials published in the current year, Reading Scene will highlight materials, including books, exhibition catalogues, magazine and journal articles, electronic links of a broader art interest, as well as those with an African American art focus regardless of the year of publication. Because of the writer's interest in collecting historical materials, this new feature allows the flexibility to introduce historical titles that may assist in framing African American art in a historical context within the fine arts, and highlighting African American contributions to note their inclusion. As a combined reading source, these lists should prove beneficial to the artist, collector, art historian, gallerist, or anyone with a keen interest in the fine arts. The logistics for these lists are in an evolving stage and are subject to change based on interests, publishing patterns, and the over-all availability of interesting and exciting materials to share. BAP welcomes comments and any suggestions that you would like to share.

Baltimore Museum of Art: The Director Shares the African American Art Collection

2010-12-01T08:37:00.006-05:00

This tour with Doreen Bolger, Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), features highlights from BMA's African American art collection which began in 1939. The Baltimore Museum of Art played an early role in exhibiting African American art. The museum's first exhibition, Contemporary Negro Art, with an exclusive African American art focus, was held from February 13 - 19, 1939. There was a 24-page catalogue, with introductory words from Alain Locke, accompanying this exhibition. This 1939 catalogue is a rare find today, existing in approximately sixteen libraries, on an international scale. See if there is a library near you that owns a copy: Libraries.

The 1939 Contemporary Negro Art exhibition presented paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings from a large number of artists, including Charles Alston, Henry Wilmer Bannarn, Richmond Barthé, Robert Blackburn, Samuel Joseph Brown, Aaron Douglas, Elton Clay Fax, Sollace J. Glenn, Rex Goreleigh, Palmer C. Hayden, William Hayden, Louise E. Jefferson, Wilmer Jennings, Malvin Gray Johnson, Sargent Johnson, Lois M. Jones, Ronald Joseph, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Richard Lindsey, Ronald Moody, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Robert Neal, Frederick Perry, Florence V. Purviance, Roland St. John, Albert Alexander Smith, James Lesesne Wells, and Hale Woodruff.

Updated 12/08/10: Thanks to Linda Tompkins-Baldwin, Library Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, I can now share the full 1939 exhibition catalogue of Contemporary Negro Art.

E-FLASH 2: Black Art Exhibitions in 2010

2010-11-14T22:00:00.029-05:00

A few more exhibitions have been discovered since the first E-FLASH of 2010 was released on August 29, 2010. Bear in mind that this post will not include any exhibitions at venues that have been previously featured in either the Guide to Black Art Exhibitions in 2010, the quarterly E-List Updates, or the first 2010 E-Flash.

Black Art Project (BAP) welcomes any information or leads that you might have relating to Black art exhibitions, particularly regional exhibitions that are not traditionally marketed on a national scale. The Project will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Also, keep in mind that a select number of exhibitions and links to information regarding those exhibitions are always available in the right sidebar of the blog under Selected Art Exhibitions.... Through visiting and reading about these exhibitions and other art related issues, enjoy the exploration and discovery of African American art.

Follow on this journey as we discover and support African American art exhibitions. The following are a few samples of exhibitions that are available around the country.

EXHIBITIONS

Albany, New York

Ed Clark, Louisiana Series, 1978,
Acrylic / canvas, 56” x 68 ½”

African American Abstract Masters is the current exhibition on view through December 12, 2010 at The Opalka Gallery, the site for public exhibitions for The Sage Colleges, located on the campus of Sage College of Albany. This exhibition features 14 artists, Robert Blackburn, Betty Blayton, Frank Bowling, Ed Clark, Herbert Gentry, Bill Hutson, Harlan Jackson, Norman Lewis, Sam Middleton, Joe Overstreet, Thomas Sills, Merton Simpson, Alma Thomas, Frank Wimberley, who have "enlisted a variety of approaches and aesthetic influences over the span of six decades. They invoke through abstraction an art of light, color, materials, gesture, sweep and space. All originally felt the aesthetic influence of Abstract Expressionism."

The exhibit is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue. The Opalka Gallery is located at 140 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, New York. For further information either call: 518/292-7742 or visit Opalka Gallery. Read Art in America review.

Adelphi, Maryland

University of Maryland University College (UMUC) presents Color Exploration: Simplicity in the Art of McArthur Binion through February 28, 2011 in the Arts Program Gallery,UMUC Inn and Conference Center, Lower Level. A Meet the Artist Reception will be held on Thursday, November 18, 2010 from 6:00–8:00 p.m.

"McArthur Binion has been creating colorful works of art and exploring the medium of crayons for approximately 37 years. Some of his works bring to life his family’s transition from tenant farmers in the south to factory workers in the north; others are explorations of color with crayons and, most recently, inks. His art is both simple and complex, geometrical and abstract, and colorful and historical."

To request additional information, please call 301-985-7937.

Atlanta, Georgia

Kendell Carter, It Is What It Is, But It Isn't, Trois Gallery (SCAD Atlanta),
installation view, 2010. Photograph by SCAD visual media department

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) exhibitions department presents It Is What It Is, But It Isn't, a solo exhibition by artist Kendell Carter. The exhibit will be on view through December 08, 2010 at Trois Gallery located at 1600 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia.

Kendell Carter, native of New Orleans and currently residing in Los Angeles, combines a design-based sensibility with a hybridization of cultural styles and references—from Baroque to hip-hop— creating installations that offer unique observations about form and function.

Trois Gallery (SCAD Atlanta) is located at 1600 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia. For more information visit SCAD.

College Park, Maryland

The David Driskell Center presents Jacob Lawrence: Prints, 1963 - 2000, A Comprehensive Survey. Jacob Lawrence. The exhibition features over 70 prints, and will be on view until December 17, 2010. Organized by the DC Moore Gallery in New York City, the works presented in the exhibition depict the life of African Americans, addressing "the themes of joy, suffering, equality, and struggle, as well as justice, hope, and aspiration."

Jacob Lawrence, General Toussaint L'Overture,

1986, Silk screen on Bainbridge 2-ply paper;

Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation,

Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Of particular note, works from three of Lawrence's major print series, The Legend of John Brown, Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis, and General Toussaint L'Overture, are included in the exhibition. These series highlight the importance of narrative in Lawrence's body of work.

For further information, please call: 301/ 314-2615 or visit Driskell Center.

Coral Gables, Florida

Ernest T. Crichlow, Anyone's Date,
1940, Gouache on paper, 9" x 7"

The University of Miami Lowe Art Museum presents The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper through January 16, 2011. "Selections from one of the premier collections of African American art provide a rare opportunity for the public to view master graphics spanning three centuries. The sixty-nine works in the exhibition include drawings, etchings, lithographs, watercolors, pastels, acrylics, gouaches, and screen prints by such noted artists as Henry Ossawa Tanner, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, and Alison Saar."

The Lowe Art Museum will also feature a selection of works by African American artists from its permanent collection to complement the Kelley Collection exhibition.

The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California.

The Lowe Art Museum is located at 1301 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables, Florida; for further information, call: 305/ 284-3535 or visit: Lowe Museum.

Memphis, Tennessee

Richmond Barthé,
Josephine Baker,

12 ½” x 6” x 9 ½”

Richmond Barthé: Harlem Renaissance Sculptor takes a contemplative look back at this artist's extraordinary career by examining over 25 of his most important sculptures. The exhibition will be on view at The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee through January 2, 2011.

Samella Lewis, Barthé's biographer and curator of this exhibition, makes the following statement regarding the artist's works: "In Barthe's sculptures, we are aware of his passion and vigor, which exceed the boundaries of his figures. An examination of The Boxer (1942), Inner Music (1956) and Julius (1942) will attest to his ability to bridge the gap between realism and abstract form. Although the artist's sculptures on the surface appear to be traditional figurative forms, upon closer examination, many works are expressionistic, with elongated and uniquely distorted characteristics."

Richmond Barthé: Harlem Renaissance Sculptor is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, California.

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens is located at 4339 Park Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee; for further information, call: 901/ 761-5250 or visit: Dixon Gallery.

New York, New York

Philemona Williamson, Dusty Afternoon,
2010, Oil on linen, 48" x 60"

June Kelly Gallery presents Philemona Williamson: Fractured Tales, a series of new paintings on view until December 14, 2010. In the Gallery's statement, "Williamson's paintings recognize the searching, the alienation, and the commonplace tempests encountered in the growth to maturity. Her (Williamson) new work - spirited in its imagery, color, movement, and brushwork - demonstrates her understanding of the critical reality that life by design at any stage has unpredictable fractures."

June Kelly Gallery is located at 166 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince Streets), New York, New York. For further information either contact by phone: 212/ 226-1660 or visit the site: June Kelly Gallery.

Two exhibitions, sponsored by the Studio Museum in Harlem, are featured in this post. Mark Bradford: Alphabet is the results of an ongoing merchant posters project in which Bradford canvasses his South Los Angeles neighborhood for advertisements and signs, and then "repurposes their message to comment on the needs and desires of not only his local community, but the world at large." This major new body of work, produced over the past year, includes twenty-six individual works on paper, each depicting a single alphabet. Mark Bradford: Alphabet is on view through March 13, 2011.

Dawoud Bey, A Man in a Bowler Hat,
1976, Silver print, Gift of the artist

The second highlighted exhibition is Dawoud Bey's Harlem, USA, representing a series of works that cover the time period, 1975 - 1979, in which Bey takes viewers on a journey through this historic neighborhood. Dawoud Bey's Harlem, USA is on view through January 2, 2011. For further reading, see the artist's blog statement: Dawoud Bey.

For a list of all current exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, view: Studio Museum. The museum is located at 144 West 125th Street, New York, New York, and its phone number: 212/ 864-4500.

North Miami, Florida

Museum of Contemporary Art's Knight Exhibition Series features Shinique Smith's first large-scale United States museum exhibition, Shinique Smith: Menagerie. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami in association with Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Shinique Smith: Menagerie will be on view through November 19, 2010.

Shinique Smith, Bale Variant No. 0017,
2009, Clothing, fabric, ink, twine,
ribbon and wood, 72' x 52"x 52",
Private Collection

Menagerie is an appropriate title for the assortment of paintings, drawings, videos, and three-dimensional work Smith has assembled. "Since bursting onto the scene in 2002, this young New York-based artist has produced works that combine complex social and cultural references with a broad array of art historical sources, including Abstract Expressionism, colorfield painting, minimal sculpture and Japanese calligraphy. Her sculpture and installations are composed of collections and accumulations of found objects and second-hand clothing, which she ties together to form minimal cubes or wraps into bulbous bundles. Urban life is suggested both in her sculptures as well as the graffiti-like gestures of her exuberant paintings."

Orangeburg, South Carolina

Frank Smith: Visualizing Jazz is an exhibit currently on display through November 29, 2010 at the Arthur Rose Museum, Claflin University (Orangeburg, South Carolina). According to Winston Kennedy, Chair of the Art Department, the experience of viewing the exhibit "will have you seeing jazz." Winston's plans are to play music from jazz legends to accompany the exhibit, inspiring "a visual statement about the work at the exhibit."

Claflin University Art Department Chair, Winston Kennedy discusses
the symbolism behind Frank Smith's mixed media piece, Other Voices.

Frank Smith, a Chicago native, was one of the artist who made a considerable contribution to the development of the AfriCobra (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) art movement. According to Smith, "the aesthetic philosophy of my work is to seek and explore visual equivalents of jazz." As demonstrated in the mixed-media art piece, in the image above, Smith colorfully illustrates the disjointed rhythms of jazz employing "a style of sewing various pieces together in a way that resembles the improvisation of a jazz composition." Frank Smith: Visualizing Jazz will travel to various sites in the Southeastern United States; that schedule is being finalized.

For additional information regarding Frank Smith: Visualizing Jazz, contact Prof. Kennedy at 803/ 535-5810.

Orlando, Florida

Against All Odds: The Art of the Highwaymen is an Orange County Regional History Center special 10th anniversary exhibit on view through January 2, 2011. Who were the Highwaymen? Stated quite simply, "the Highwaymen began as a group of African American artists who, against all odds, managed to prosper selling their paintings in the segregated South of the 1950s and ‘60s. One charismatic man dreamed big and developed a fast method of painting that he generously shared with 25 others, and they collectively produced more than 200,000 paintings over a 30-year period." This current exhibit includes paintings by all 26 Highwaymen.

The Orange County Regional History Center is located at 65 East Central Boulevard, Orlando, Florida, and their telephone number is: 407/ 836-8500. For details and accompanying programming, see: History Center.

For further selected readings on the Highwaymen, see this list at: WorldCat.org

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), an affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art, presents two compelling exhibitions. The exhibits, Shinique Smith: Every Brick, showcasing textile-based collage and Glenda Wharton: The Zo, consisting of hand-drawn animation will be on view from November 18, 2010 through February 13, 2011.

Both exhibitions were curated by SECCA's Curator of Contemporary Art, Steven Matijcio who explains: "Both of these artists create work that combines a wide variety of materials, media, and influences. Glenda Wharton breathes new life into the increasingly rare practice of hand-drawn animation, while Shinique Smith turns second hand clothing into sculpture that vibrates with lived energy. In different, but related ways, they trace a path from dark to light."

Shinique Smith: Every Brick

Shinique Smith, Open Secret, 2010

Image courtesy of the artist

Shinique Smith, as a Baltimore-born, Brooklyn-based artist, "confronts the iconic works, conventions, and legacies of art history with lyrical reconsiderations. Marrying influences of graffiti, collage, and fashion with performance, painting, and sculpture, her cross-disciplinary work bristles with lived energy. Across large-scale canvases, monuments cobbled from used textiles, and site-specific installations, she vividly translates the materials and aesthetics of urban life into agents of institutional reform. ...A selection of past works provide the context for a series of new works that map an abstract, yet intense passage from dark to light."

Glenda Wharton, Ribbon Child, Pencil,
ink, 2 overlapping hand-drawn
animation cels

Glenda Wharton: The Zo

The Zo, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, was Glenda Wharton's first feature-length animation. Wharton is a Winston-Salem artists and SECCA will be the first venue to present this film in Winston-Salem where it was created.

SECCA is located at 750 Marguerite Drive, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For further information, visit: SECCA."This exhibition sheds light on the pieces and processes of The Zo's making: highlighting Wharton's drawings and pencil tests, the haunting soundtrack of the film, and a behind the scenes video that takes us into the studio of the artist."

Art in Special Collections: Latino and African American Fine Art and Photography Collections...

2010-10-26T18:26:00.002-04:00

The following abstract was taken from Art Documentation which is the official bulletin of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 1982-present. Published twice a year (spring and fall) it includes articles and information relevant to art librarianship and visual resources curatorship. "Art in Special Collections: Latino and African American Fine Art and Photography Collections in Academic Institutions" by Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juárez was a featured article in the current issue.

Abstract

"Often university libraries or archive/special collections house large fine art and photographic collections by African American and Latino artists. These collections are frequently hidden due to inadequate funding to promote them, minimal exhibit space, insufficient staffing with requisite exhibition and curatorial expertise, and/or diminished cataloging or digital priority. This article seeks to address the concerns and issues that affect this lack of exposure within academic special collections in both large and small institutions. The intent is to highlight successful strategies that can be used by other repositories seeking to diversify their art and photography holdings."

I made a request through Rebecca Hankins to have some way to share this article with readers and followers of the blog. Through Rebecca's efforts, the editor of Art Documentation has given me a pdf of the article to share with others. SEE: http://www.scribd.com/doc/40184214?secret_password=2c80xn2yj0u5c970fb48

My thanks are extended to Rebecca and Miguel, as well as the editor and staff at Art Documentation.

Swann Galleries: African American Fine Art , Sale 2224

2010-10-14T15:11:00.001-04:00

Swann Galleries held its ninth African American Fine Art sale on October 7, 2010. This was the continuation of an on-going series of auctions devoted entirely to African-American fine art, beginning in February 2007. In comparison to American art, as a whole, African American art is still in its nascent stage as it relates to auctions. Because there has not been an extensive amount of African American art at auction, these works can still be acquired at very reasonable prices. Unfortunately, the art produced by African American artists is clearly undervalued by any standard of judgment. For the time being, many good to excellent works are affordable even for the beginning and mid-level private collector or smaller institutions that have included collecting works by African American artists as a part of their collection development policy goal.

This most recent auction of 140 lots had a success rate of selling 2/3 of the lots, leaving 42 lots unsold. Questions abound as to the why the 42 lots did not sell. Is the economy still at an unsettling stage for the average collector in this area of collecting? Is it fair to assume that the highs and lows of the general financial market is reflected in the art market? Have the "investor-collector" and the "speculative-collector" become less visible as in the housing market? Are the results from this current art sale simply an overall trend or pattern in the area of fine art auctions? Were the available items not of interest based on style, subject matter, artist representation? In spite of the many questions, the results from art auctions can have a positive impact on an artist's financial future. Simply stated, when an artist's prices rise at auction, then the prices on new works sold by the artist or their dealer will also rise.

Robert Colescott, A Legend Dimly Told, 1982,
Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 72 inches

Approximately 17 lots either met or exceeded their high expectations; however, two items were among record prices at Swann's African-American Fine Art auction. The top lot was Robert Colescott's A Legend Dimly Told, that sold for $132,000 inclusive of buyer's premium, setting an auction record for the artist. A Legend Dimly Told which is an acrylic on canvas (84 x 72 inches) and dated 1982 had an estimate of $50,000 - $75,000. According to the exhibition catalogue, it had been exhibited in "The Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1983; Robert Colescott: A Retrospective, 1975 -1986, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California; and a traveling exhibition, 1987 - 1989." For more information on Colescott, read Robert Colescott's obituary from the New York Times and his oral history interview from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Sargent Claude Johnson, Mask, 1933,
Copper repoussé with gilding,
12½ x 6½ x 2 inches

Sargent Johnson's Mask (lot 8), one of my personal favorites in the auction, also set an artist record when it sold for $67,200 inclusive of buyer's premium. Its pre-auction estimate was $30,000 - $50,000. As stated in the Swann auction catalogue, "Mask is an excellent example of Sargent Johnson's work in repoussé from the 1930s, and the first of its kind to come to auction. It is among the earliest examples of his sculpture incorporating African forms with modernist design." For further reading, see: Sargent Johnson, Retrospective (an exhibition catalogue from the exhibition curated by Evangeline J. Montgomery at the Oakland Museum, Art Division Special Gallery, February 23 to March 21, 1971.); Sargent Johnson : African American Modernist (an exhibition catalogue from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, March 13 to July 7, 1998; and Sargent Johnson (an article by E. J. Montgomery in the International Review of African American Art, vol. 6 (2) 1984, pages 4-17. Check your local library for these and other titles relating to African American art and artists. Also, see the Smithsonian Archives of American Art's oral history interview with Johnson which was conducted July 31, 1964.

As I indicated, lot 8 was one of my personal favorites; overall, I was drawn to the small sculptural pieces. Other favorites included Charles Alston's Untitled (lot 13, Head of a Man) which was one of the unsold pieces and Elizabeth Catlett's polished cast bronze (lot 98, Portrait) which did sell for its low estimate ($24,000 inclusive of buyer's premium). Also, Dox Thrash's Portrait of a Young Man (lot 18), Robert Pious' Joe Louis vs. Clarence "Red" Burman (lot 22), Lois Jones' Le Sacré-Cœur, Montmartre, Paris (lot 42), and Hale Woodruff's Returning Home (lot 9) were of special interest. I am now anxiously awaiting the next African-American Fine Art auction at Swann Galleries.

To view the results of the African American Fine Art Sale 2224, see: sale results and prices including buyer's premium.

National Black Memorabilia, Art, Doll and Collectible Show

2010-10-05T10:39:00.007-04:00

The National Black Memorabilia, Art, Doll and Collectible Show, celebrating it 27th year, will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 16 - 17, 2011 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Plans have been well underway and are led by Lindsey B. Johnson of L. Johnson Promotions, Ltd. Johnson indicates "the show is now 2 days and in addition to black memorabilia, we are highlighting black fine art and African American dolls."

Black Panther materials

Johnson further emphasizes that "the items included in the Show will be original black memorabilia and collectibles, and no reproductions." A short lists of categories of items included will feature: historical artifacts and documents, books, autographs, paintings, sports memorabilia, dolls, photographic items, figurines, coins, stamps, paper collectibles, quilts, jewelry, and etc.

Black Pipe detail

The National Black Memorabilia, Art, Doll and Collectible Show will not only provide a venue for the public to purchase, but to be educated on the African American experience. There will be educational exhibits, book signings, and celebrity autograph sessions. In addition, it will afford both vendors and customers an opportunity to meet black memorabilia collectors, black artists, black doll makers, and the like.

Mooress (figural)

Also, this is an opportunity for the visual artist who works in multi-media, collaged assemblages and the like to acquire original pieces of black memorabilia or ephemera to incorporate into their art, evoking a sense of memory, ancestry, and any common cultural connection between the past and the present.

There is still time to become a vendor for the National Black Memorabilia, Art, Doll and Collectible Show, so submit your application early. If there are any questions or you need additional information, please call 301/ 649-1915, view http://www.johnsonshows.com/ or send an email to Ljohnsonshows@aol.com.

Sanford Biggers: Artist Talk

2010-09-30T12:54:00.006-04:00

Sanford Biggers was commissioned to create a temporary public artwork as the Marshall S. Cogan Visiting Artist in the Public Art Program at Harvard. His work which was a fusion of meditative, historical, and contemporary concerns was on view November 6 - December 2, 2009. "The work included a performance on site—with vocalist Imani Uzuri, members of Harvard’s a cappella group KeyChange, and instrumentalist Sumie Kaneko—offering an imaginative mash up of Sufi poetry, Sun Ra, and black spirituals."

Interview: Whitehot Magazine

Further Readings:

Garcia, Miki, Sanford Biggers: Moon Medicine. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 2010.
ttp://www.sanfordbiggers.com/press.html

Black Art Project (BAP) Booklist 2

2010-09-24T07:05:00.007-04:00

This is a continuation of the inaugural Black Art Project (BAP) Booklist that was published on June 9, 2010. This continuing feature from BAP highlights recently published books that have an African American art focus. As stated in the earlier release, identifying titles as they are recently published or in pre-publication status is crucial for those building a library that has some focus on African American art because of the small print runs in which these titles are published.

African-American Fine Art (Public Auction 2224, October 7). New York: Swann Auction Galleries, 2010.

This sale includes 140 lots of works in various media from many sought-after African-American artists, ranging from rare early 20th Century paintings and sculptures through desirable contemporary pieces, including fine photographs. A short role call of artists included are as follows: Augusta Savage, Sargent Claude Johnson, William Edmondson, Charles Alston, Robert Savon Pious, Beauford Delaney, Bob Thompson, Al Loving, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff, Dox Thrash, William H. Johnson, Robert Colescott, David Hammons, John Biggers, William H. Johnson, Allan Rohan Crite, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Arthur P. Bedou, Chester Higgins, Jr., Dawoud Bey, and others. View the online catalogue.

Barson, Tanya and Peter Gorschlüter (editors). Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic. London: Tate Liverspool in association with Tate Publishing, New York, 2010.

Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic is an exhibition that explored the impact of different black cultures from around the Atlantic on art from the early twentieth-century to today. This catalogue accompanied the exhibition. Taking its inspiration from Paul Gilroy's 1993 influential book, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, the exhibition featured over 140 works by more than 60 artists. Gilroy used the term The Black Atlantic "to describe the transmission of black cultures around the Atlantic, and the instances of cultural hybridity, that occurred as a result of transatlantic slavery and its legacy." Divided into seven chronological sections, the exhibition, charted "new forms of art arising from black culture and the work of black artists and intellectuals, it opens up an alternative, transatlantic reading of modernism and contemporary culture." The exhibition was on view at the Tate Liverpool (UK) from January 29 - April 25, 2010.

de Chassey, Eric, I Mutanti- Ellen Gallagher. Roma, Italy: Drago (SCB Distributors, North America), 2010.

I Mutanti is the exhibition catalogue for the Villa Medici exhibition of the same title. The catalog is made up of five volumes that correspond to the five artists participating in the show, representing some of the most controversial and thought-provoking artists of the 21st century. This 56-page volume features Ellen Gallagher and includes a "montage of over 25 full color images prepared by Gallagher and texts in three languages (French, Italian, and English) by Villa Medici director, Eric de Chassey. To view sample pages of images from the catalogue, visit Drago.

Garcia, Miki, Sanford Biggers: Moon Medicine. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 2010.

This catalogue was produced in conjunction with the exhibition Sanford Biggers: Moon Medicine and is the first publication entirely dedicated to his practice despite showing internationally and being the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and residencies. With this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, the Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF) succeeds in its mission "to support the most compelling artists of our time and to bring world-class programming to the Tri-Counties." The exhibition was featured at CAF from March 6 - May 2, 2010.

Gooding, Mel. Frank Bowling O.B.E., RA: Paintings 1974-2010. New York: Spanierman Modern.

This thirty-two-page catalogue with eleven full-page color plates, and color illustrations of the remaining works in the show accompanied an exhibition with the same title at Spanierman Modern. The exhibition is on view through October 16, 2010; to view the online exhibit, follow this link: Frank Bowling. The exhibition presents "twenty-three richly textured canvases in the abstract expressionist and color field mode by the first black artist in history to be elected to the Royal Academy, London. Born in British Guyana, Bowling studied in London, lived for ten years in New York, and now divides his time between the two cities. Honored in 2008 with the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for his service to art, Bowling has an international standing for his dedication to the modernist tradition."

Pegg, Thom. The Parkway Collection of Important 20th Century African-American Works of Art. Kansas City, Missouri: Parkway Galleries, LTD.

The Parkway Collection of Important 20th Century African-American Works of Art is presented through two gallery venues: Tyler Fine Art in St. Louis, Missouri and Ward and Ward Fine Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Many of the works in this exhibition were produced at the height of the artists' critical period of recognition.

As mentioned in the catalogue, accompanying The Parkway Collection... exhibition, "African-American art is at once both a subset of American art and an unprecedented blend of African and European influences: a new and uniquely American genre. It is a tremendous body of work that has been, for the most part, overlooked by collectors and museums alike for the first ninety years of the 20th century. There have been exceptions, and these individuals and institutions have enjoyed the freedom of assembling remarkable collections with very little competition." See the The Parkway Collection at Tyler Fine Art in St. Louis through September 28, 2010.

Schwab, Tess Sol and John Paul Driscoll. African Americans; Seeing and Seen, 1766 - 1916. New York: Babcock Galleries, 2010.

African Americans: Seeing and Seen, 1766 – 1916 is a 48 page catalogue that accompanied an exhibition, sharing the same title which was held at Babcock Galleries (New York from January 21 - April 2, 2010). The exhibition has been defined as “an incisive overview of refined and controversial fine art and popular culture images of African Americans as artists and subjects. Bitter brutality and cruel caricature alternate with respectful revelations and positive portrayals of the status of African Americans. It may be said that all portrayals become betrayals in revealing the motivations and prejudices of their creator, and the images in this exhibition offer telling insights into the prevailing notions of the period. Each work is not only a signpost of the complex nature of our cultural forebearers, but also a harbinger of the ongoing struggle for equal rights in the United States.”

Willis, Deborah (editor). Black Venus 2010: They Called Her "Hottenot". Philadelphia: Temple University, 2010.

Black Venus 2010 is an important book highlighting a revised visual history of black women in America and throughout the African diaspora. "As a young South African woman of about twenty, Saartjie Baartman, the so-called ‘Hottenot Venus,’ was brought to London and placed on exhibit in 1810. Clad in the Victorian equivalent of a body stocking, and paraded through the streets and on stage in a cage she became a human spectacle in London and Paris. Baartman’s distinctive physique became the object of ridicule, curiosity, scientific inquiry, and desire until and after her premature death. The figure of Sarah Baartman was reduced to her sexual parts."

An impressive list of cross-disciplinary contributors (approximately 40) present wide-ranging essays, poems, and images that "grapple with the enduring legacy of this young African woman (Saartjie Baartman) who forever remains a touchstone for black women.

Trenton Doyle Hancock: Artist Talk

2010-09-16T10:40:00.001-04:00

Vegans Mobile Underworld Experimentation

Storytelling Creatures Mythology Narrative

Mounds New Directions

Trenton Doyle Hancock: "For me the color pink is the binding element of all my work. I feel like it's the binding element to all humilities. If you strip away the skin, we're all pink. It's an innocent color...but it's also a suggestive color that could be considered very naughty."

For further exploration, also view the artist talk directly related to Hancock's new installation, A Better Promise, at the Seattle Art Museum in the Olympic Sculpture Park until March 4, 2012.

Interviews:

Smithsonian
PBS: art21

NEWS Announcements, Upcoming Programs and Activities

2010-09-04T22:53:00.042-04:00

Alexandria, Virginia

Genealogist Char McCargo Bah will conduct a workshop and illustrated lecture "showing how she successfully traced descendants of people buried at Freedmen's Cemetery (Alexandria, Virginia) and how these techniques can be applied to any family research." Ms. Bah will discuss her methods on Saturday, September 18, 2010 from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm at the Alexandria Black History Museum (902 Wythe Street, Alexandria, Virginia). Advance registration is required. For more information or to register, please call 703/ 746-4356 or visit http://www.alexblackhistory.org/.

Atlanta, Georgia

High Museum of Art features Kehinde Wiley, in its Conversations with Contemporary Artists series, on Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 7:00 pm in Rich Theater. Kehinde Wiley is known for his vibrant, larger-than-life reinterpretations of classical portraits featuring young African-American men. In his talk, "Wiley will discuss the influence of Old Master painting on his work, including artists such as Titian, David, and Memling."

Seating is limited; tickets are available through the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 404/733-5000 and http://www.high.org/.

Baltimore, Maryland

THINK TANK--2010 and Beyond: New Directions in African American Art - Transformative Aesthetic Curriculum Design will be hosted by The Center for Race and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). This conference will be held on November 11-14 in Baltimore at the school's Falvey Hall, Brown Center, 1301 W. Mount Royal Avenue. ..."THINK TANK will explore new directions in African American art and aesthetics, especially topics related to curriculum design for K-12 art education programs." For details, see: http://www.mica.edu/Events_and_Exhibitions/Transformations_-_New_Directions_in_Black_Art.html

Birmingham, Alabama

Sankofa Society: Friends of African-American and African Art (Birmingham Museum of Art) are sponsoring their 2nd Annual Soirée, SPIRAL: Moving Outward and Constantly Upward, celebrating African-American art and culture on Saturday, September 11, 2010 from 6:30 - 10:00 pm. Also, Sanfofa will present a lecture by artist Emma Amos on September 12 at 2:30 pm in Steiner Auditorium. Ms. Amos is the group's honored guest at the 2010 Soirée. For more information, visit: http://www.artsbma.org/membership/support-groups/the-sankofa-society

Chicago, Illinois

The Leadership Advisory Committee (LAC) of the Art Institute of Chicago honors Dr. Margaret Burroughs with the Legends and Legacy Award on October 22, 2010 from 6:30 - 10:00 pm. Reservations are required. For details and to purchase a ticket, SEE: http://www.artic.edu/aic/calendar/event?EventID=7918

LAC encourages you to send a tribute. Share your story via e-mail with LAC and tell them how Dr. Burroughs has inspired you by writing a tribute, then send it to the following address: legendsandlegacytributes@artic.edu.

DUSABLE MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY received a Terra Foundation Award ($37,000) to support educational programming and the 2011 exhibition Buried Treasures: Art in African American Museums, "drawn from the collections of 30 African American institutions around the country. The exhibition will display approximately 90 works of art by 19th- and 20th-century African American artists." Through its grant program, the Terra Foundation for American Art actively supports and initiates historical American art exhibitions, scholarship, and programs in Chicago, the United States, and throughout the world. See more on the Terra Foundation.

Cincinnati, Ohio

Duncanson Artist-in-Residence was established in 1986 by the Robert S. Duncanson Society of the Taft Museum of Art to honor the "relationship that was established between African-American painter Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872), who painted the murals in the Museum's foyer, and Cincinnati art patron Nicholas Longworth (1782-1863)." The Society annually recognizes the achievements of contemporary African American artists through the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence program. The recipient of the 2010 award is Nokuthula Nywenyama.

For two weeks, the artist is active "through public performances, workshops, and outreach to area schools, working with students in the classroom to broaden their horizons in the area of fine arts." Artist-in-Residence events will begin on Thursday, November 4, 2010 and extend through Sunday, November 14, 2010. To see a list of programs, see events.

For more information about the Duncanson Artist-In-Residence program, email: education@taftmuseum.org.

Detroit, Michigan

The grand opening of the N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art will be held Saturday and Sunday, October 9 and 10, 2010 at 52 East Forest, Detroit, Michigan 48201. The 24 hours of programming will include artist panel discussions, artist book signings, live music and theatrical performances, activities for children, and more. For further information call or visit: 313/ 831-8700; http://grnnamdi.com/.

New York, New York

Swann Auction Galleries next African-American Fine Art exhibition (Sale #2224) will be held on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 2:30 pm. As in the past, there will be an illustrated catalogue. As the date approaches, check the website for updates. Also, as auction schedules are occasionally subject to change, call 212/ 254-4710 for the most current information. Some of the highlights include mid-20th Century paintings by Beauford Delaney, Al Loving, David Hammons, and Norman Lewis. Sculpture pieces are represented by Sargent Johnson and William Edmondson. Look for the release of the print and online catalogue in the next few weeks.

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation has announced 30 recipients of the Foundation's 2009 Biennial Awards in painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, video and craft media. The Foundation recognizes "emerging American artists and craftspeople every two years by a series of monetary grants. "The awards go to the artists whose work shows promise, but who have not yet received widespread critical or commercial recognition." Among the awardees were: Derrick Adams and Dawolu Jabari Anderson. Read more about the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.

Sacramento, California

Call for Artists: Evolve the Gallery will present an exhibition, EMERGE: The Next Generation of Masters, November 11 - 28, 2010. EMERGE benefits Sacramento CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). This call is open to local artists only who are attending "UC Davis, Sacramento State University, Sacramento City College, American River College, Consumnes River College, Los Rios College, Sierra College, Art Institute of Design and Technology, or Art Institute." The following mediums will be included: painting, mixed media, photography and sculptures only. "All submissions include: (3) three JPEG with a minimum of 300 dpi resolution, title, medium, and year of creation, student's name and school. For 2D or 3D works - need at least two angles." The deadline for submissions is October 20, 2010; there is no entry fee. For more information visit: http://evolvethegallery.squarespace.com/call-for-artists/ or contact Brady at 916/ 572-5123. Email submissions: mailto:info@evolvethegallery.com

Call for Artists: Evolve the Gallery will host its 1st Annual A.I.D.S.: Artists Intent on Destroying Stereotypes, December 4, 2010 - January 2, 2011, to bring awareness to the damage stereotypes create in the fight against AIDS. This exhibition will benefit the Black AIDS Institute. This call is open to regional artists only and their creative works should be an expression of outcast, discrimination, survival, healing, loss, and etc. The following mediums will be included: painting, mixed media, photography and sculptures only. "All submissions include: (3) three JPEG with a minimum of 300 dpi resolution, title, medium, and year of creation, student's name and school. For 2D or 3D works - need at least two angles." The deadline for submissions is October 29, 2010; there is no entry fee. For more information visit: http://evolvethegallery.squarespace.com/call-for-artists/ or contact Brady at 916/ 572-5123. Email submissions: info@evolvethegallery.com.

Washington, DC

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund welcomes grant applications from visual artists aged 40 years or older, who live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C., and can demonstrate that they have the potential to benefit as artists from a grant. The Fund does not accept applications from filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists. Applications should be postmarked no later than September 15, 2010.

Grants may be used for any purposes relating to the recipients’ work as artists. For details, please see apply.

Winston-Salem

The Diggs Gallery at Winston-Salem State University (North Carolina) celebrates its 20th Anniversary. Save the date, Friday, October 15, 2010 and join in the celebration. Cocktails begin at 6:30 pm and the program starts at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $50.00 per person and include art, dinner, and jazz by Joe Robinson and James Funches. For more information call 336/ 750-2458 or email: diggsinfo@wsss.edu.

The current exhibit, Pride and Dignity from the Hill: A Celebration of the Historic Happy Hill Community at the Diggs Gallery is on view through February 26, 2011. For generations, residents have preserved the oral history of the Happy Hill neighborhood and its families. Pride and Dignity from the Hill documents "this important legacy through the art and testimony of community leaders...and includes architectural models of area homes embellished by local participants, paintings, photographs, video documentation of the community and a multi-media installation of a juke joint. The show also features works by celebrated artists Chandra Cox, Juan Logan, Larry Sass, Leon Woods and Willie Little."

E-FLASH: Black Art Exhibitions in 2010

2010-08-29T14:20:00.008-04:00

After releasing the 4th and final quarterly E-Update of the Guide to Black Art Exhibitions in 2010, readers brought to my attention a few exhibitions that were not covered, and as in the past, those exhibitions are now presented in this current E-FLASH. Black Art Project welcomes any information or leads that you might have relating to Black art exhibitions, particularly regional exhibitions that are not traditionally marketed on a national scale. The Project will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Also, keep in mind that a select number of exhibitions and links to information regarding those exhibitions are always available in the sidebar of the blog under Selected Art Exhibitions....

If you did not receive the 4th quarterly E-Update of the Guide to Black Art Exhibitions in 2010 and are interested in a copy, simply leave a comment or send a request to blackartproject@gmail.com.

EXHIBITIONS

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Romare Bearden, The Family, 1975,
Photoetching and aquatint, Courtesy of the
Thompson-Wilson Collection

Collecting Is a Legacy: The Thompson-Wilson Collection is currently on view through September 24, 2010 at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center. Dorothy Wilson’s long passion for learning and educating was the inspiration for curating Collecting is a Legacy. "Ms. Wilson, a retired Howard University professor, began collecting African American art in the 1980s. Realizing that there were a small percentage of individuals across the U.S that collected African American artwork, she decided to develop an educational outreach focusing on collecting art."

Collecting is a Legacy, which was co-curated by Dorothy Wilson’s son, Lamar Wilson, showcases the family’s collection of 48 works that include paintings, sculptures, and drawings from African American artists. Included are works by Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Joseph Holston, Paul Goodnight, John Riddle, Louis Delsarte, and etc. For additional information about this exhibit, call 423/ 266-8658.

Address: 200 East Martin Luther King Boulevard, Chattanooga 37403

Chicago, Illinois

Angelbert Metoyer, Story of a Goat, Mixed media

G.R. N'Namdi Gallery Chicago introduces the work of Texas bred, London-based Angelbert Metoyer to Chicago, Illinois. This exhibition, Angelbert Metoyer: Icon Execution, is part of Metoyer's War-Beau project - "a conceptual mother-load comprising thirteen exhibitions that seek to ask fundamental questions about what it means to be alive and considers the relationship between war and beauty." Angelbert Metoyer: Icon Execution "presents four drawings of equestrian monuments that create a profound statement about the spectre of racism at the heart of American Society. The largest piece in the show, Clouds, is made from earth's natural wastes and depicts the four horses of the Apocalypse, demonstrating that waste and decay can form beauty. Icon Execution will also present works from Metoyer's M-Window Series. ...Two short films will be presented depicting global footage of Metoyer's travels providing insight to his international experiences." The exhibition is on view September 10 - October 22, 2010.

Read more about the series and Metoyer at the G.R. N'Namdi Gallery Web site: http://www.grnnamdi.com/default.asp. Address: 110 North Peoria, Chicago 60607; 312/ 563-9240.

Newark, Delaware

Margo Humphrey, The History
of Her Life Written Across Her
Face, 1991.Lithograph 30"x29.5"
Margo Humphrey 2009

The University of Delaware's University Museums present Her Story: Margo Humphrey Lithographs and Works on Paper in Mechanical Hall Gallery from September 8 - December 5, 2010. Her Story "highlights five decades of work by artist and printmaker Margo Humphrey. Bold and saturated color, animated figures, and syncopated rhythmic arrangements are hallmarks of Humphrey's oeuvre. Joyful, expressive and at times humorous, Humphrey's works offer artful commentary on American culture, including food ways, folkways, spirituality, love and loss. Though Humphrey labels her distinctive style ‘sophisticated naive,’ the narrative complexity and technical skill of her works attest to her artistic acuity."

One of the exhibit's accompanying programs is a conversation between artist Margo Humphrey and Troy Richards, University of Delaware, Department of Art. This program is scheduled for Thursday, September 16, 2010, at 5:00 pm in Mechanical Hall Gallery. Please RSVP at universitymuseums@udel.edu or 302/ 831-8037.

For other activities or details relating to Her Story, visit: http://www.udel.edu/museums/. Contact: universitymuseums@udel.edu; 302/ 831-8088.

Purchase, New York

Faith Ringgold, American People Series #18:
The Flag Is Bleeding, 1967, Oil on canvas,
72" x 96", Collection of the artist,
© Faith Ringgold,
Courtesy ACA Galleries,
New York

The Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase College State University of New York) has organized the first comprehensive survey of the important paintings created by Faith Ringgold during the 1960s. The exhibition, American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960s will be on view from September 11, 2010 through December 19, 2010. In addition to the landmark series, American People (1963-1967) and Black Light (1967-1971), are related murals and political posters. "These once influential paintings...with only a few notable exceptions, disappeared from view, and were omitted from critical, art historical discourse for more than forty years. Taken together, these works represent an unprecedented artistic exploration of the intersections of race, gender and class, made in direct response to the social upheavals of the 1960s."

American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960s is curated by former Neuberger Museum Director Thom Collins and Neuberger Museum Curator and Purchase College Assistant Professor Tracy Fitzpatrick, with students from the Spring 2010 Purchase College Art History Department’s Exhibition Seminar. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

For accompanying programs, call 914/ 251-6100 or view the events calendar by month: http://www.neuberger.org/events.php. Address: 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase 10577.

Sumter, South Carolina

Sumter County Gallery of Art presents two solo exhibitions: Tyrone Geter: Purgatory Ain't Nothin' But The Blues and Leo Twiggs: Explorations and Improvisations from September 2 through October 29, 2010.

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 2, 2010, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Tyrone Geter, The Shadows of Our Former
Selves 2

Tyrone Geter: Purgatory Ain't Nothin' But The Blues is a series of numerous large-scale assemblages, drawings, paintings and mixed media pieces that are rarely displayed as a whole due to space constraints. Geter observes that the body of work in the exhibition about Purgatory: "encompasses the need and desire of the human spirit to strive for perfection amidst a fast paced world of entanglement, discourse, globalization and contradictions of today’s society."

Geter further elaborates, "the use of paints, charcoal, wood, twigs, clay, metal, plastic, cloth and torn paper enabled me to also combine two dimensional with three dimensional, realism with abstractions to harmoniously engage the viewer in a visual dialogue. Hopefully, anyone who has had a personal dialogue with the blues, felt its overbearing weight and the cold, harsh embrace of its touch will be able to follow the parallel path to Purgatory. It is my hope that after the Purgatory walk in the gallery, the viewers will leave with the belief that there is always light at the end of the tunnel, and that inner peace begins with self, even in the midst of chaos."

Leo Twiggs, Targeted Man #2

Leo Twiggs: Explorations and Improvisations consist of new works from two of the artist's most recent series, as well as a large-scale 3-D installation. The new series, Targeted Man, comprises much of the Sumter exhibit, exploring the times in which we live. "Terrorism has changed how we view each other and blurred the line between the hunter and the hunted."

“Twiggs creates art using the ancient process of Batik. His paintings are the result of several years of experimentation and development of a unique and innovative technique using a traditional medium. Though the process is old, Twiggs’ subject matter is contemporary and challenging, ranging from historical-political themes, including his infamous Confederate flags, to the spiritual. ”

For further information call 803/ 775-0543 or visit: www.sumtergallery.org.

Address: 200 Hassel Street, Sumter 29150 (adjacent to Patriot Hall).

Washington, DC

Lois Mailou Jones, Street Vendors,
Port au Prince, Haiti,
Acrylic, 1978

The National Museum of Women in the Arts will present the exhibition, Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color from October 9, 2010 through January 9, 2011. The retrospective exhibition, A Life in Vibrant Color, features more than 70 paintings, textiles, and sketches from the pioneering African American artist's 75-year career. This exhibition was developed by the Mint Museum of Art and the Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust; and... "marks the first time the estate has released many of its major holdings for public presentation." A catalogue accompanies Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color.

For further information, call 202/ 783-500 or visit this link: www.nmwa.org/exhibition/. Address: 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005.

West Palm Beach

Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth will be on exhibit at the Norton Museum of Art from October 9, 2010 through January 9, 2011. Cave’s sculptures are called Soundsuits derived from the audible sound made by these colorful suits when they are worn. Meet Me at the Center of the Earth will feature over thirty examples of these mixed media sculptures along with videos and photographs of the sculptures in action.

Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2009, Human hair,
metal armature 99” h x 31” w x 27” d.
Courtesy of the artist
and Jack Shainman Gallery

Nick Cave’s Soundsuits are "multi-layered, mixed media, wearable sculptures designed to captivate visitors of all ages and bring together visual and performing arts for a unique museum experience. As reminiscent of African, Mardi Gras and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture, the Soundsuits explore ceremony, ritual, myth and identity through a subtle layering of references expressed through highly skilled techniques, varied traditions and an array of ordinary, scavenged yet seductive materials." Nick Cave finds the ordinary and discarded materials from our surroundings and re-contextualizes them into extraordinary and meaningful works of art. Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth is accompanied by a catalogue of the same name, published by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. For additional information, please call 561/ 832-5196 or visit http://www.norton.org/. Address: 1451 South Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach 33401.

Also, see and hear Nick Cave at the Black Art Project blog post: http://blackartproject.blogspot.com/2010/04/nick-cave-lecture-at-fowler-museum.html

Titus Kaphar: History in the Making / Artist Talk

2010-08-26T21:47:00.001-04:00

The Seattle Art Museum’s (SAM) Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Fellowship is awarded bi-annually to an early career black (not necessarily African-American) artist who has been producing mature work for less than 10 years. The selected artist is honored with a one-person exhibition in SAM’s Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Gallery and receives a $10,000 award to further his or her artistic practice.

Titus Kaphar is the first recipient of the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Fellowship and was featured in the first solo exhibition, History in the Making, on April 3 through September 6, 2009. "Contemporary artist Titus Kaphar makes oil-on-canvas copies of European and American portrait paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries and reconfigures them in strategic ways to create a dialogue about race, art and representation. His work is at once beautiful and halting as he dances between fictional narrative and history."

To learn more about the bi-annual fellowship, see: Seattle Art Museum.

Supporting African American Art and Artists: Museum Special Interest Groups

2010-08-13T09:00:00.077-04:00

There are a number of ways in which the general public can support and serve as advocates for African American art and artists. This series of posts on Supporting African American Art and Artists through institutional support will be divided into four distinct parts; the first focusing on the "traditional" museums; the second focusing on the African American Museums and Cultural Centers; the third on galleries and museums in the Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); and the fourth on African American artists groups. As other categories, distinct groups, and combinations of groups are uncovered, BAP will bring them to the attention of its readers.

One of the easiest and most recognized methods of directly supporting museums is through their Friends Groups. In some museums, there are affiliate categories within Friends Groups that have a direct interest in supporting African American art and artists, and a few of those groups will be highlighted in this blog post. These groups nurture their members' appreciation of the visual arts by providing access within the museum to art and artists. Also, the association with other members can develop art advocacy and collectors through educational and social programming. These affiliate groups offer an opportunity for members to have additional social and educational opportunities that are geared to a special interest, such as African American art and artists. The following are simply a few examples of African American support groups within the museum setting. As you hear of others, please share.

Art Institute of Chicago

The Leadership Advisory Committee (LAC) is an affiliate group of the Art Institute of Chicago; its membership is by invitation. LAC is comprised of African American community leaders with a mission "to promote and sustain diversity within the institution [Art Institute of Chicago]." As an advisory committee, LAC "provides counsel, new perspectives, and support to the museum on all matters relating to...African Americans in the life of the institution."

The Leadership Advisory Committee's success may be measured by the Art Institute's diversity in vision, collections, exhibitions, staffing, and audience. Their work and and accomplishments are exemplified through the many programs that they have sponsored over the past years. A chronology of those events may be viewed at this link: http://www.artic.edu/aic/members_donors/art_interest/LAC/past_events.html

LAC's planned event for 2010 is The Legend and Legacy Award which is scheduled for October 22, 2010. The Legend and Legacy Award is an honor bestowed to living African American artists who, through their lifelong accomplishments, have achieved national acclaim. Elizabeth Catlett received the first award in 2005; this year's recipient, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, will be the second artist honored with the award. For further details, see: http://www.artic.edu/aic/calendar/event?EventID=7918.

Detroit Institute of Art

Friends of African and African American Art (FAAAA) is one of the oldest auxiliaries of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). It originated in 1962 as the African Art Gallery Committee and by the 1980s its purview was expanded to include African American art. In 1992, the auxiliary group officially became the Friends of African and African American Art; and in that capacity, it is committed to developing an appreciation of African and African American art and supporting acquisitions in these areas.

Working closely with DIA's curatorial staff, FAAAA has planned some outstanding programs. Each year FAAAA, "honor individuals who have demonstrated dedication to the promotion and understanding of African American culture at our Alain L. Locke Awards program. The African Art Recognition Award is presented yearly to a distinguished scholar for his or her contributions to the study, collecting, and appreciation of African art." To date, the Friends of African and African American Art have contributed to the acquisition of over 60 works of art for the museum’s collection. View the Detroit Institute of Arts' collection of African American art at the following link: http://www.dia.org/auxiliaries/search-collection.aspx?keyword=African%20American

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art has an affiliate friends group, The Friends of African and African American Art, that promotes the appreciation and collection of work created by artists of the African diaspora. This affiliate group defines its mission as follows: "to increase public awareness of this art through educational opportunities, to encourage collecting of these works throughout the community, and to generate funds to acquire works for the museum."

Events planned by The Friends of African and African American Art include lectures, gallery talks, trips to other museums and galleries, and special receptions. For more information, visit: http://www.clevelandart.org/support.aspx?pid=%7B4A0CEA50-D780-4AB4-84DA-5518E4DEDC8F%7D&ItemId=%7B4A0CEA50-D780-4AB4-84DA-5518E4DEDC8F%7D&sidebar=Affiliate%20Groups

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) has nine specific interest or focus groups devoted to appreciating and acquiring art. One of those patron groups is the African American Art Advisory Association (Five-A) which was founded in 1993. Five-A supports the artistic accomplishments of African Americans while providing resources to increase the MFAH collection of African American art. The African American Art Advisory Association "supports the museum's collection of African American art and educates the community at large about the diverse body of artwork created by African Americans."

For further exploration, see: http://www.mfah.org/member.asp?par1=3&par2=21&par3=1&par4=1&par5=1&par6= 1&par7=&lgc=2&eid=&currentPage=

Birmingham Museum of Art

When originally founded in 2002, Sankofa Society: Friends of African-American and African Art provided a forum for the study, support, and appreciation of the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora. Six years later (2008), the group shifted its primary focus from African to African-American art. Membership dues support the annual acquisition of a major work of art for the Museum.

Some of the benefits afforded members included lectures, exhibition previews, collecting workshops, and meetings with artists and other professionals in the arts, as well as, opportunities for regional, national, and international travel.

There is a Sanfoka Newsletter, and a series of exciting and informative programs for the coming months that include lectures by artist Emma Amos, the 2nd Annual Sankofa Society Soiree, and a trip to New York city. For details of the planned upcoming activities, see: http://www.artsbma.org/membership/support-groups/the-sankofa-society.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Friends of African and African American Art (FOAAA) is one of the ten membership support groups of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This group is actively involved in supporting the museum's mission through adult and children's educational programs, acquisitions, and social events. As a member of this group there are opportunities to special Friends trips, lectures and events, tours of major art collectors’ homes, and information on collecting art and art related events at other museums and galleries. Seeking more information, visit: http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/Support/Membership/Support_Groups/Friends_of_African___African-American_Art.aspx

North Carolina Museum of Art

Organized in 2001, the Friends of African and African American Art (FAAAA) was organized "to encourage public participation in Museum programming and to assist the Museum in acquiring works by African and African American artists." In addition to hosting events and educational opportunities, FAAAA is involved with fundraising to acquire art, as well as participate in tours of exhibitions, seminars, day trips, and cultural performances at the Museum and other venues in the region. See the Friends of African and African American Art 2010 calendar of events: http://groups.google.com/group/friends-of-african--african-american-art/web

Saint Louis Art Museum (Added 08/17/10)

Collectors Circle is one of the membership categories of the Saint Louis Art Museum. The Collectors Circle, in addition to offering a wide range of opportunities, including lectures, guided tours, receptions, curator-led travel to private collections, museums, and galleries in the United States and abroad, their "programs provide funding for the purchase of works for the Museum's permanent collection." Friends of African American Art is one of the four Collector Circle groups at the museum.

As stated on the museum's web site: "The Friends of African American Art Collectors Circle (FAAA) bring together Museum members committed to developing appreciation of African American art and supporting varied programming, and acquisitions in this important area. The group helps to strengthen the Saint Louis Art Museum's presence in African-American communities and to increase community participation at the Museum." Visit the museum's site:
http://saintlouis.art.museum/index.aspx?id=384

This series, Supporting African American Art and Artists, will continue, in its next release, with a focus on a select number of support groups within African American Museums and Cultural Centers. The thrust will be on those institutions with a strong visual arts component. Here's hoping that you will join the efforts generated by these mentioned groups and institutions, as well as others, and support the documentation and celebration of African American visual arts.

Upcoming Programs/Activities: Mark Your Calendar

2010-08-05T08:50:00.000-04:00

Birmingham, Alabama

There will be a lecture by Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 12:00 noon in Steiner Auditorium of the Birmingham Museum of Art. Dr. Cole, Director, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and former President of Spelman College will lecture on “The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art Welcomes You Home!” This lecture will be followed by a private lunch with Sankofa Society members and Birmingham Museum of Art Director Gail Andrews. Sankofa Society are Friends of African-American and African Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. For more information and contact: http://www.artsbma.org/membership/support-groups/the-sankofa-society

College Park, Maryland

Performing Race in African American Visual Culture Symposium is organized by The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, and the Yale University Art Gallery. The dates for this conference are September 15 -16, 2010. "Based on the understanding that race is an ideology performed on a daily basis, this conference will investigate how and why performances of race, mainly African Americans, are manifested or subverted in American visual culture." Call 301/314-2615 or email: driskellcenter@umd.edu to register.

Read more about the conference: http://www.driskellcenter.umd.edu/conferences/YaleSymposium/index.php

Harlem (New York)

ArtCrawl Harlem™ is a guided trolley tour of local galleries. Participants will visit seven Harlem art galleries and receive a 20- 30 minute “tour within a tour” at each site. Each ArtCrawl Harlem™ tour culminates in a reception with food, wine, and music. The dates for the ArtCrawl Harlem™ are August 7 and 8, 2010 (Saturday and Sunday). The Saturday trolley tour in from 12 - 4 pm, reception following the tour and lasting until 6:00 pm. The Sunday trolley tour in from 1- 5 pm, reception following the tour and lasting until 7:00 pm.

For further information, including cost and to book in advance see:
http://www.artcrawlharlem.com/ or call 1/ 800 838-3006.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

New Narratives and Reinterpretation is the theme of an informal panel discussion that will explore the trend among African American artists to use historic text and images in their narratives, which examines new perspectives and utilizes new creative formats. The discussion will be led by professor Keith Morrison, Tyler School of Fine Art, and will include Tanya Murphy Dodd (Philadelphia), Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum (Baltimore), Letitia Huckaby (Ft. Worth) and Nsenga Knight (Brooklyn). Save the date August 7, 2010 (Saturday) at 7:00 pm in the The Glass Lobby Gallery at Brandywine Workshop Print Shop and Archive at 728 South Broad Street (between Bainbridge and Fitzwater Streets), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more details visit: http://www.brandywineworkshop.com/. If interested in attending, R.S.V.P. by email to prints@brandywineworkshop.com or call 215/546-3675.

Panel discussion: Click. Print. Collect: Creating and Collecting Contemporary Photography in the Digital Age at Sande Webster Gallery on August 12, 2010, 6:30 - 8:30 pm in the main gallery (2006 Walnut Street). For further details and contact information see: http://www.sandewebstergallery.com/.

Washington, DC

International Visions Gallery will have an Open House and INVENTORY SALE on Saturday, August 7 from 12-7 pm and Sunday, August 8 from 1-4 pm. The Gallery will be offering rare reductions (20-60%) on work by their top artists.

The inventory includes originals, prints, photography, sculpture and textiles. The sale will continue through August. The International Visions Gallery is located at 2629 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. For further details see: http://www.inter-visions.com/ or call 202/ 234-5112.