Telling Our Story: Community Conversations with Our Artists @ David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland

Telling Our Story: Community Conversations with Our Artists

David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park

September 9 - December 2, 2022

The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park, presents Telling Our Story: Community Conversations with Our Artists; the exhibition is the second in a series focused on telling the story of the David C. Driskell Center. The exhibition is curated by Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell, Associate Director of Outreach and Operations at American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center, assisted by Tamara Schlossenberg, Collections Manager at the David C. Driskell Center and Professor Curlee R. Holton, Director of the David C. Driskell Center. 

Telling Our Story: Community Conversations with Our Artists is a show focused on the art of dialogue—the dialogue between art, artists, and the viewer. The Center invited a group of guest selectors to view the Center’s collection of art online and select five works for possible inclusion in the exhibition. They were then invited to come view the works in person and select two that resonated with them.  In the spirit of David Driskell and his famous letter writing to artists, each selector was asked to write a letter to the artists of their chosen artworks stating why they like the piece, how it captured their interest, and why it is significant to them. They were encouraged to express any historical, personal, or societal significance that led to the selection process. Prof. Curlee Holton remarked: 

When an artist creates a work of art, it reflects their constant dialogue, both internal and external, with their identity and the world they inhabit. By encouraging the audience to explore and develop an interpersonal connection to the work they’re viewing, it allows us to have access to a diverse, multifaceted, and multigenerational perspective while broadening and enhancing the appreciation of the creative genius of the visual arts, especially that of the African American artists.

More than forty works were selected for the exhibition representing the art of thirty-one artists from the David C. Driskell Center’s Permanent Collection. The works are on display along with accompanying letters both handwritten and typed.

The show includes works from the following artists:

Emma Amos (1937-2020)

Phoebe Beasley (b. 1943)

Robert Blackburn (1920-2003)

Lillian Thomas Burwell (b. 1927)

Milton Bowens

Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012)

EKO

Ed Clark (1926-2019)

Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007)

Barbara Chase-Riboud (b. 1939)

Kevin Cole (b. 1960)

Louis Delsarte (1944-2020)

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1968)

Herbert Gentry (1919-2003)

Robin Holder (b. 1952)

Manuel Hughes (b. 1938)

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

Samella Lewis (1923-2022)

Delita Martin (b. 1972)

Arcmanoro Niles (b. 1989)

Mary Lovelace O’Neal (b. 1942)

Gordon Parks (1912-2006)

Jefferson Pinder (b. 1970)

Amber Robles-Gordon (b. 1977)

Alison Saar (b. 1956)

Augusta Savage (1892-1962)

Frank Stewart (b. 1949)

Renee Stout (b. 1958)

Walter H. Williams (1920-1998)

Richard Wyatt (b. 1955)

Twenty guest selectors as well as guest curator Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell each selected one to two works of art to be included in the show. Selectors include: Mr. Steven Bell and Mr. Burdette Brown, Mr. Reginald Brown, Ms. Zoë Charlton, Mr. David Cronrath, Ms. Cheryl Edwards, Mr. Larry Frazier, Mrs. Juanita and Mr. Mel Hardy, Ms. Gia Harewood, Mrs. Juanita and Mr. Neil Hartbarger, Ms. Barbara Luke, Mr. Taras Matla, Ms. Rhonda Matheison, Mr. Rodney Moore, Ms. Erica Bondarev Rapach, Ms. Halima Taha, Mr. Riley Temple, and Dr. Sheila Wright.

Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell remarked about the show: “Individually, this exhibition demonstrates the power of art to affect one-on-one. But collectively, this exhibition demonstrates the future of the Driskell Center, with new community engagement opportunities and a continued collaborative spirit.”

The exhibition also features a special tribute to the late Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) in the recently established David Clyde Driskell Gallery Space. The space will feature artwork and archives by and about Sam Gilliam from the David C. Driskell Center Permanent Collection and David C. Driskell Papers.  

An exhibition brochure with a full checklist of the works selected for the show is available at the gallery.  

DAVID C. DRISKELL CENTER

for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora

University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

www.driskellcenter.umd.edu

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Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power @ Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Soul of a Nation: 

Art in the Age of Black Power
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Through July 19, 2020

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, featuring work by more than 60 Black artists created over two revolutionary decades in American history. The exhibition, organized by Tate Modern in London, is on view at the MFAH as the final presentation of the three-year tour. The Museum is also present a related film series during the run of the exhibition.

Exhibition Overview

Soul of a Nation explores what it meant to be a Black artist in America during the tumultuous era that spanned the 1960s and the Civil Rights movement to the early 1980s and the emergence of identity politics. Organized into 13 sections, the exhibition features artists from across the United States, with a special emphasis on aligned groups that evolved in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and another focus on the work of artist Betye Saar. The MFAH presentation adds a section featuring a number of works from the Museum’s permanent collection to spotlight Houston’s vital Black American art scene during this period. Artists featured in this section include John Biggers, Kermit Oliver, and Carroll Harris Simms, all of whom contributed to the dynamic local arts scene.

Spiral

The exhibition opens with the work of the Spiral group, a New York–based collective of 15 artists who formed in response to the August 1963 March on Washington, which drew nearly a quarter of a million people and marked a critical turning point in the Civil Rights movement. These artists, who include Charles Alston, Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, and Norman Lewis, regularly met from 1963 to 1965 to discuss the concept of a “Black aesthetic,” creating powerful work, both abstract and figurative, in response to the Civil Rights movement, and later, calls for Black Power. Norman Lewis’s painting Processional (1965) is an abstract evocation of the Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, march led by Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1965, which was violently dispersed by a police assault. The Spiral group organized one exhibition of their work, all in a black-and-white palette. Later, Black artists would look to Spiral, impressed both by the group’s determination to exhibit together in an artist-run space and by the range of artistic viewpoints of its members.

Black Power

In the mid-1960s, painting and sculpture became powerful vehicles to protest violence against peaceful activism, as well as to echo calls for Black Power from Stokely Carmichael and other leaders of that movement. The haunting imagery of Archibald Motley’s painting The First One Hundred Years: He Amongst You Who Is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone; Forgive Them Father for They Know Not What They Do (c. 1963–72) calls up a Klansman’s burning cross, the Crucifixion, and a lynching, while the figures of Martin Luther King Jr. and presidents Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy hover in a spectral haze. Elizabeth Catlett’s wooden sculpture Black Unity (1968) depicts a monumental raised fist while the reverse side shows two placid visages side-by-side, communicating strength in Black collectivity.

Art on the Street

Excluded from mainstream museum and gallery spaces, Black artists in the late 1960s sought out and created venues to present their work, taking their art to the streets and other alternative spaces. Operating well beyond conventional spaces, these artists inspired and mobilized Black and local audiences. In 1967, the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), a group of artists and writers in Chicago, created The Wall of Respect, an outdoor mural on the city’s South Side. The wall and its images of “Black Heroes”—civic leaders, writers, musicians, sports stars, and dancers—became a gathering place for poetry readings, music, and performances. The project sparked a wave of murals in Black neighborhoods nationwide.

Watts and After

On August 11, 1965, a Los Angeles police officer pulled over a Black motorist in the Watts neighborhood of L.A. The struggle that ensued during her arrest became the spark that ignited long-simmering neighborhood anger, escalating into a conflict with local police and six days of violence that left 34 dead and a neighborhood in ruins. Following the Watts Rebellion, many artists took it upon themselves to restore their community through public art projects, incorporating found objects and detritus in artistic responses to the conflict. Noah Purifoy’s assemblage Watts Riot (1966), made from collaged debris, was first shown in 66 Signs of Neon, an exhibition that took place in Watts. In the catalogue, Purifoy wrote that “the ultimate purpose of this effort was to demonstrate to the community of Watts, to Los Angeles, and to the world at large, that education through creativity is the only way left for a person to find himself through this materialistic world.”

AfriCOBRA

The artist collective AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) formed in Chicago in 1968; its founding members included Jeff Donaldson and Wadsworth Jarrell. The group’s 1970 manifesto declared a uniquely Black art movement based on a shared sensibility, one that diverged from American and European models of Pop Art, Realism, and Abstraction. “The new aesthetic was based on ‘rhythm,’ ‘shine ... the rich luster of a just-washed ’fro...’ and ‘Color color Color color that shines, color that is free of rules and regulations.” Wadsworth Jarrell’s vibrant Angela Davis portrait Revolutionary (1971), composed from snippets of transcripts from Davis’ speeches, and Jae Jarrell’s 1970 Brothers Surrounding Sis, a hand-painted dress representing protection and solidarity, are featured in this section.

Black Light

Roy DeCarava was one of the first Black photographers to establish a successful career as an independent artist rather than as a photojournalist or studio portraitist. For many, his extraordinary handling of a dark tonal range amounted to a Black aesthetic in photography, as did his choice of subject matter. DeCarava photographed leaders associated with the Civil Rights movement, but he was equally drawn to jazz musicians and everyday people in New York City’s traditionally Black neighborhoods of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant. DeCarava also served as the first director of the Kamoinge Workshop, a group of Black photographers in Harlem who came together in 1963 to discuss the presence and visibility of Black American photography and to support mutual development. Several images by the younger members, such as Adger Cowans, Herb Robinson, and Ming Smith, are also on view in this section, demonstrating a wide range of stylistic approaches that promoted a positive counterpoint to negative or naive images and written impressions of Harlem.

Three Graphic Artists

This section reunites the work of three Los Angeles artists who took independent approaches to the graphic image and were featured in the 1971 exhibition Three Graphic Artists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA): veteran painter and printmaker Charles White, and the accomplished, but at the time emerging, artists David Hammons and Timothy Washington. Each of the artists depicts the human form in innovative ways in response to social and political events of the time. White was by far the most renowned of the three. Here, his work is represented by an oil wash from his Wanted series, based on Civil War–era notices of runaway slaves and large-scale drawings of expertly rendered figures that emphasize cast shadow and volume. A selection of Hammons’s body prints, which he initiated by coating himself in margarine or cooking fat and pressing his body onto printing paper, are also here. Washington is represented by his celebrated drypoint etchings, presented on their aluminum plates as completed objects.

Houston

This gallery explores the work of Houston artists, displaying powerful representations of the figure and experimentation with surface and form, and showcasing the legacy of gifted and generous mentors. In the 1950s, painter and printmaker John Biggers and sculptor Carroll Harris Simms established an art program at what is now Texas Southern University. They went on to educate several generations of students not only in the principles of art making, but also in ways to express self-pride and self-identity. Biggers and Simms are represented by drawings, paintings, and ceramics, alongside the work of one of their most noted protégés, Kermit Oliver, whose evocative, superbly drafted scenes allude to spiritual and personal mythologies.

East Coast Abstraction

Based in New York and Washington, D.C., the seven artists in this section exhibited together in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But their personal experiences and inclinations manifested themselves in various ways. Sam Gilliam and Jack Whitten created abstract homages to Civil Rights leaders and experiences. Peter Bradley and Ed Clark suffused brushed or sprayed color across large-scale canvases. Daniel LaRue Johnson’s sculptures and Virginia Jaramillo’s paintings feature precise bands and lines that cut across vivid painted color fields. William T. Williams connected his compositions and processes to the radical improvisation of jazz, as shown in Trane (1969), titled after John Coltrane and depicting the cascades of sound in Coltrane’s music.

Black Heroes

Here, portraits of boxers, writers, and painters are displayed together under the concept of the “Black Hero,” which was introduced to artists by OBAC in Chicago in 1967 with The Wall of Respect and defined as “any person who honestly erects the beauty of Black life and genius in his or her style; does not forget his Black brothers and sisters who are less fortunate; does what he does in such an outstanding manner that he or she cannot be imitated or replaced.” This concept prompted artists to paint powerful images not only of famous Black Americans, but also of everyday people. Emma Amos’s painting Eva the Babysitter (1973) honored the woman who helped enable Amos’s artistic practice by babysitting; Barkley Hendricks depicted friends in imagery that appears to come to life on the canvas; and Raymond Saunders paid tribute to heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson.

Improvisation and Experimentation

In the early 1970s, Black artists moved away from the conventions of abstract painting and sculpture, and began experimenting with materials and forms. For some artists and critics, this commitment to improvisation and experimentation connected to Black Americans’ ambitions for political freedom. Artists looked back to a history of oppression while celebrating present-day community. Joe Overstreet’s We Came from There to Get Here (1970) features a colorful grid and the outlines of figures giving gestures of empowerment. The canvas is suspended in a way that for the artist suggests a tent as well as the specter of lynching: “I made this art you could hang any place. I felt like a nomad myself, with all the insensitivity in America.” The title and colors of Overstreet’s work indicate a movement from oppression toward freedom. The ghostly outlines of continents in Frank Bowling’s “Map Paintings,” which use stencils of world maps to explore color as its own subject, do not privilege any particular place, but celebrate a more fluid and open idea of identity and belonging to the world. Bold colors characterize Alma Thomas’s paintings, made following a NASA mission to Mars, and former NASA engineer Fred Eversley experimented with casting polyester resin to create his signature “lenses,” translucent discs of radiant color.

Betye Saar

In October 1973, the first survey show of Los Angeles–based Betye Saar opened at the Fine Arts Gallery at California State University. This section re-creates one aspect of Betye Saar: Selected Works 1964–1973 through nine works. Inspired by her experience several years earlier with the Field Museum’s collections of African and Oceanic art, Saar began to invest her work with references to ancestral connectedness, ritual objects, and spiritual power. The works on view here, including Nine Mojo Secrets (1971) and Eshu (The Trickster) (1971), marked a fundamental turning point in Saar’s art making.

Just Above Midtown

This section is an homage to the gallery Just Above Midtown, active from late 1974 until 1986, which was founded by Linda Goode Bryant, a former director of education at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The gallery recognized the work being made by Black artists and provided a platform for their art to be seen and sold, with a focus on artists making noncommercial, nonrepresentational work, including David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, and Lorraine O’Grady. Soul of a Nation concludes with photographs from a 1983 performance piece that O’Grady orchestrated for the African American Day parade in Harlem. The artist had 15 dancers carry gold-painted frames through the parade route and take photographs of various onlookers within the empty frames Some 400 images were taken over the course of the day, and 40 are featured in this exhibition. Titled Art Is …, the piece overturns the conventions of formal portraiture to celebrate and elevate everyday community.

“We are enormously privileged to serve as the final venue for this landmark exhibition, which has received tremendous acclaim since its debut in London for its path-breaking exploration of the art of this pivotal era," said Gary Tinterow, director, the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

“I am especially thrilled to be able to highlight the work of Houston artists in the final presentation of this exhibition,” said Kanitra Fletcher, assistant curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “This new section contributes to a more comprehensive representation of Black American art during the same era, and celebrates an important legacy of art making in Texas.”

This exhibition is organized by Tate Modern, London, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Broad, Los Angeles; and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

MFAH - MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON
1001 Bissonnet, Houston, TX 77005
mfah.org

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Romare Bearden @ DC Moore Gallery, NYC - Abstract

Abstract Romare Bearden
DC Moore Gallery, New York
February 13 – March 28, 2020

DC Moore Gallery presents Abstract Romare Bearden, featuring rarely-seen stain and collaged paintings from 1958-1962 by one of the most renowned visual artists of the 20th century. Also on view, will be selected works from earlier and later periods. The abstract paintings shed light on Romare Bearden’s continual interest in experimental techniques. They also provide new context to the influence his earlier work had on this period, and how these seminal paintings contributed to the development of his later well-known collages.

After painting and drawing for nearly two decades, the noted African American artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988) turned to songwriting for a few years in the early 1950s. When he began painting again in earnest around 1955, his work was more abstract than previously, as he explored new modes of expression. At first, he layered paint thickly, in abstracted figural works that were increasingly less representational than what he had been doing in the 1940s.

By 1957, Romare Bearden had moved to pure abstraction. His dynamic new canvases were larger, all-over paintings of organic, atmospheric forms, merging and coalescing. A critic noted in an exhibition review, “they are full of suggestions of stratified earth, subaqueous suspensions and clear auroras of atmosphere.”[i] As with Heart of Autumn (c. 1960), he created active surfaces and rich tonal effects with paint that flows across the canvas or is worked in several different ways. In others, he began to use collage elements of painted, torn paper or applied canvas. The underlying canvas plays an important role in many of the works, too, as the paint is often thinly applied, resulting in lyrical abstractions of distinctive beauty.

In most cases, Romare Bearden painted unstretched canvas rolled out on the floor, like some of his Abstract Expressionist contemporaries. He frequently worked from all four sides, sometimes lifting the canvas so that paint flowed freely. He rubbed turpentine onto a freshly painted surface as well, thinning it so that only a few stains remained. Repeating the process two or three times, he gradually built the composition. Spatters, slashes, and drips were another aspect of his method. 

Not only was Romare Bearden well aware of contemporary practice, but he had also been involved with some of the artists of the evolving Abstract Expressionist group since his return to New York from military service in the mid-1940s. He joined the Kootz Gallery in 1945 and had three consecutive solo shows there. At the time, Samuel Kootz also represented Robert Motherwell, Adolph Gottlieb, and William Baziotes, among others, and showed the work of Arshile Gorky and Hans Hofmann. Kootz had group meetings with the artists on a regular basis, so Romare Bearden would have had many opportunities to discuss their current work as well as his own.

In light of this, it is not surprising that when he started painting again in the mid-1950s after his brief excursion into songwriting, Romare Bearden largely set aside his earlier figural modernism and turned to abstraction. Foregoing thematic content—except what is suggested by the evocative titles that he and his wife, Nanette, gave to the works—he began painting freely and on a larger scale, embracing a more intuitive approach based on improvisation and chance. 

For the most part, though, he chose not to pursue the subconscious probing and automatic drawing of the Surrealists that inspired many of the Abstract Expressionists. Instead, his new method resonated with the Zen Buddhist concepts of no-mind and emptiness, which focus on a state of awareness and flow of attention beyond the ego, and, in the case of painting, beyond any conscious effort to create a predetermined composition or result. Merging with his other interests, Romare Bearden’s increasing involvement with Zen and some of the arts related to it created a powerful new current in his art.

Soon after he and Nanette moved to a loft on Canal Street in 1956, Romare Bearden met a calligrapher and scholar of Chinese art named Mr. Wu who had a bookstore in the neighborhood. For the next few years, he studied informally with him, meeting about once a week for discussions of Chinese painting and the principles of calligraphy. He also explored the Buddhist philosophy that underlies them. Bearden discovered that, in his words, “underneath the seeming simplicity was a great, long tradition, and a very complex one, in which so much had been taken away to find the essence of the landscape.”[ii] And, as he later recalled,

“I was also studying…the techniques which enable Chinese classical painters to organize their large areas, for example: the device of an open corner to allow the observer a starting point in encompassing the entire painting; the subtle ways of shifting balance and emphasis; and the use of voids, or negative areas, as sections of passivity and as a means of projecting big shapes. … As a result, I began to paint more thinly, often on natural linen, where I left sections of the canvas unpainted so that the linen itself had the function of a color.” [iii]

His abstracts were featured in two solo New York exhibitions in 1961. Both shows were well received, as critics welcomed his return to painting. One noted that it was good to see an artist “once as well regarded as Romare Bearden exhibiting again.”[i] Elsewhere, Romare Bearden was characterized as “a virtuoso of texture and of sumptuous and subtle color if there ever was one.”[ii] The Museum of Modern Art acquired one of his 1959 abstractions, Silent Valley of the Sunrise, in 1960, after his first show, and in 1997, the Studio Museum of Harlem added a major example to its collection, North of the River (1962).

Romare Bearden continued painting abstracts until 1963, which was a momentous year for the artist and the nation. That summer the massive March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, marked a new stage in the ongoing struggle for civil rights. In New York, Romare Bearden and several artists, including Hale Woodruff, Charles Alston, and Norman Lewis, formed the Spiral group in order to promote the work of black artists and explore ways in which they could contribute to the civil rights movement. This led directly to Romare Bearden’s return to figurative art in his collages and his celebrated black and white photostat enlargements, which he called Projections.

In all, though, this turn of events was not so much a dramatic break as an adjustment of focus. Writing in the late 1960s about his abstractions and use of collage, Romare Bearden noted that,

“Then in a transition toward what turned out to be my present style, I painted broad areas of color on various thicknesses of rice paper and glued these papers on canvas, usually in several layers. I tore sections of the paper away, always attempting to tear upward and across on the picture plane until some motif engaged me. When this happened, I added more papers and painted additional colored areas to complete the painting.”[iii]

While his collages after the mid-1960s consisted mainly of figurative elements cut from photographs and magazine illustrations, along with areas of solid color and surfaces worked in various ways, the technique that he used to construct them was one with which he had been experimenting for some time.

The same is true of his increasing emphasis on improvisation. Romare Bearden’s lifelong involvement with jazz and blues gave him a deep appreciation and understanding of its potential, and it had played a part in his art since at least the early 1940s. He often credited the modernist artist, Stuart Davis, with helping him recognize the relationship between certain jazz techniques and his artistic process.

Later in life, Romare Bearden told an interviewer that, “I now don’t ‘do’ a collage in the sense of rational, predetermined composition, I just invite some of the people I knew to come into the room and give it an ambiance.”[iv] While this is classic Romare Bearden commentary, it also reflects what he once recalled as Mr. Wu’s tendency to humanize every aspect of their conversations. As such, it highlights the ways in which Romare Bearden’s engagement with Abstract Expressionism merged with other aspects of his life experience and artmaking. His abstracts of the late 1950s and early 1960s stand as a singular achievement, a highly personal body of lyrical, poetic painting that continued to support and strengthen his work for years to come.

In 2018, Mary Schmidt Campbell authored An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden, published by Oxford University Press. Recognized as one of the most original artists of the twentieth century, Romare Bearden has work in public collections across the country, and has had a number of major retrospectives. The Neuberger Museum presented new Bearden scholarship in their 2017 exhibition and publication, Romare Bearden: Abstraction. The American Federation of the Arts will travel a large version of this exhibition to American museums starting in 2020. In 2011, The Studio Museum presented a groundbreaking exhibition The Bearden Project, exhibiting over 100 artists, to showcase the vast influence Romare Bearden has had for generations, and in 2003 The National Gallery of Art presented The Art of Romare Bearden, which traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Art, CA, the Dallas Museum of Art, TX, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, and the High Museum of Art, GA.

[i] Brian O’Doherty, “Art: O’Keeffe Exhibition…Bearden and Resnick Works on View,” New York Times (April 17, 1961).

[ii] Quoted in Myron Schwartzman, Romare Bearden: His Life and Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1990), p. 197.

[ii] Romare Bearden, “Rectangular Structure in My Montage Paintings,” Leonardo 2 (January 1969), p. 12.

[iv] Carlyle Burrows, “Bearden’s Return,” New York Herald Tribune (January 24, 1960).

[v] New York Times (January 23, 1960).

[vi] Bearden, p. 12.

[vii] Quoted in Schwartzman, p. 187.

DC MOORE GALLERY
535 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
www.dcmooregallery.com

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Romare Bearden @ Cincinnati Art Museum - Something Over Something Else

Something Over Something Else: Romare Bearden’s Profile Series
Cincinnati Art Museum
February 28 – May 24, 2020

The Cincinnati Art Museum will present “Something Over Something Else”: Romare Bearden’s Profile Series, an exhibition that brings together more than 30 works from Romare Bearden’s trailblazing series for the first time since its debut nearly 40 years ago.

The Cincinnati Art Museum is one of only two museums to display the exhibition, which opened at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta on September 14, 2019 and will be on view until February 2, 2020.

The pieces in Something Over Something Else appear in a chronological sequence, each accompanied by a title and short text written by Romare Bearden for the original exhibitions of this series, which were presented in New York in 1978 and 1981. These poetic and poignant narratives, written in collaboration with his friend, the writer Albert Murray, and shown in tandem with the collages, help lead viewers through Romare Bearden’s story as he wished to share it.

The development of the exhibition was inspired by a key acquisition by the High Museum of Art: Profile/Part II, The Thirties: Artist with Painting & Model (1981), the culminating work in the series and one of Romare Bearden’s only known self-portraits. The Cincinnati Art Museum presents the exhibition as the owner of another collage from the series, Profile/Part I, The Twenties: Pittsburgh Memories, Mill Hand’s Lunch Bucket (1978).

Romare Bearden began this series after the publication of a feature-length biography published about him in 1977 by Calvin Tomkins as part of The New Yorker magazine’s “Profiles” series. The piece brought national attention to Bearden, who had experienced growing acclaim in the art world since the late 1960s. To Romare Bearden, the experience was so profound that it gave rise to this autobiographical body of work exploring the intricacies of memory and the way a life unfolds in history.

“Something Over Something Else” is sequenced in two parts. “Part I, The Twenties” plumbs memories from the artist’s youth in rural North Carolina and in industrial Pittsburgh. “Part II, The Thirties” celebrates his early adult life and artistic growth in New York City, surrounded by the vibrancy and innovation of the Harlem Renaissance. It also tells the story of a life bridging disparate experiences: rural and urban, rustic and metropolitan, North and South. Romare Bearden interweaves his own biography with the experiences of African Americans of the time, when many were following the path of the Great Migration, enduring and driving tremendous cultural transition. The collages explore the nature of memory and the passage of time, moving beyond autobiography to explore American history, cultural identity and human experience.

“To see this stunning historic series brought together is an opportunity not to be missed,” says Julie Aronson, Cincinnati Art Museum’s Curator of American Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings. “Bearden’s work defies easy categorization—he moved gracefully between abstraction and figuration with exceptional creativity and drew upon so many different traditions. Walking through this exhibition, with its combination of poetic images and words, is like having the artist whispering in your ear. It is an extraordinarily moving experience.”

The exhibition title, “Something Over Something Else,” is a phrase Romare Bearden used to describe his own creative process. “You put something down. Then you put something else with it, and then you see how that works, and maybe you try something else and so on, and the picture grows in that way,” said Romare Bearden. This description of the nature of his work with collage, painting and mixed media also echoes the improvisational nature of jazz, the music that Bearden so greatly admired.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a variety of public programming starting with a lecture by exhibition curators Stephanie Heydt, the High Museum of Art’s Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art, and Robert G. O’Meally, Columbia University’s Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature, on Thursday, February 27 at 7 p.m. The museum will host an Art After Dark celebration of the exhibition on February 28, 5–9 p.m. A Staged Reading of "Joe Turner’s Come and Gone" by August Wilson in collaboration with Playhouse in the Park will take place on April 16 at 7 p.m. Additional programs will be posted on the museum’s website.

This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Andrew Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Cincinnati’s presentation is sponsored by LPK and support was provided by Eric & Jan-Michele Kearney.

Cincinnati Art Museum
953 Eden Park Drive | Cincinnati, OH 45202
cincinnatiartmuseum.org

Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art @ Baltimore Museum of Art

Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
September 29, 2019 - January 19, 2020

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presents Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art, an exhibition that captures the significant contributions that black artists have made to the development of abstraction from the 1940s to the present. Generations explores the multifaceted power of abstract art as experimental practice, personal exploration, and profound political choice for decades of black artists. The exhibition features nearly 80 paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media installations by such notable artists as Kevin Beasley, Mark Bradford, Jennie C. Jones, Norman Lewis, Lorna Simpson, Alma W. Thomas, and Sam Gilliam. Generations is curated by Christopher Bedford, BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, and Katy Siegel, BMA Senior Research & Programming Curator and Thaw Chair of Modern Art at Stony Brook University. The exhibition is co-organized by the BMA and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Drawing on the extensive collection of Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida, which is recognized for its unparalleled holdings of works by historic and contemporary black artists, Generations builds on the previously touring Solidary & Solitary exhibition, doubling the show’s scale and scope in the BMA’s expansive galleries with new works from The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, as well as select objects from the museum’s contemporary collection. The exhibition highlights unexpected resonances and important distinctions between artists, across time and geographic contexts. In addition to solo presentations of work by Norman Lewis, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Charles Gaines, Generations provides visitors with in-depth explorations of the work of Alma W. Thomas and Jack Whitten, as well as a broader selection of “duets” that juxtapose works between such artists as Gary Simmons and Lorna Simpson, Melvin Edwards and Leonardo Drew, and Kevin Beasley and Shinique Smith. These pairings are supported by expanded thematic groupings that emphasize the origins and futures of the genre, featuring landmark work by Frank Bowling, Al Loving, Julie Mehretu, Joe Overstreet, and Virginia Jaramillo.

“We find ourselves today in an important moment of cultural reckoning—one in which it is imperative for institutions like the BMA to re-examine the histories of art and to tell a truer and more multidimensional story. In working with the visionary Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, as well as the BMA’s own growing collection, we have an extraordinary opportunity to expand perceptions of what contemporary art was and can be, and celebrate the spectrum and brilliance of artists who have redefined and given depth to abstract art into the present day,” said Siegel. “With this expanded version of the exhibition, we are excited to dive deeper into the material dialogues within and across the work of the featured artists, introducing new audiences to their visions and practices.”

The opening of Generations follows the BMA’s re-conceptualization of its contemporary galleries, in a presentation titled Every Day: Selections from the Collection. The reinstallation highlights major works (and several new acquisitions) by such visionary artists as Howardena Pindell, David Hammons, Kara Walker, Nari Ward, and Jack Whitten, locating black artistic achievement at the center of a thematic overview of modern and contemporary art. This initiative underscores the BMA’s commitment to collecting and presenting the work of artists that have typically been underrepresented in major institutions and exhibitions.

“The presentation of Generations is part of a broader vision to reshape the idea of the museum—who it belongs to and whom it represents. This effort occurs across our special exhibitions, collecting, and public programs. In this way, we can recognize historical shortcomings, and provide our audiences with a richer, more vibrant, and dynamic picture of art—one that speaks to different communities, perspectives, and realities,” said Christopher Bedford, BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “We are very much looking forward to our upcoming exhibitions and to the important conversations they may spur.”

The companion publication, Four Generations: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art, is also being expanded and reprinted by Gregory R. Miller & Co. It is edited by Courtney J. Martin, Director of the Yale Center for British Art, and features new research and writing from curators at some of the world’s leading institutions.

Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art is presented by The Helis Foundation and organized by The Baltimore Museum of Art and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Contributing sponsorship is provided by The Lambent Foundation and The Holt Family Foundation. The presentation in Baltimore is generously sponsored by The Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Exhibition Endowment Fund, Ford Foundation, Bank of America, and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.

BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218
www.artbma.org

Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art, San Antonio, Texas

Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art
The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
February 8 - May 6, 2018

Charles Alston

Girl in a Red Dress, 1934 

Oil on canvas 

The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Foundation for the Arts 

Pioneering collectors Harriet and Harmon Kelley paved the way for the collection of African American art by museums and private individuals across San Antonio, Texas, and the United States. Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art illustrates the Kelley Collection’s impact on our cultural landscape by juxtaposing works from their renowned holdings with loans from the burgeoning collections of African American art of Guillermo Nicolas and Jim Foster, John and Freda Facey, and the McNay Art Museum. Something to Say is the first survey of modern and contemporary African American art to be presented at the McNay.

William Henry Johnson 

Ice Cream Stand, ca. 1939 – 42 

Gouache, ink, and pencil on paper. 

The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Foundation for the Arts

Bob Thompson 

Untitled, 1960-61 

Oil on canvas 

The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Foundation for the Arts 

© Estate of Bob Thompson; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Drawn primarily from the ground-breaking collection assembled by Harriet and Harmon Kelley over nearly three decades, Something to Say presents more than 50 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and photographs by a wide range of 20th- and 21st-century artists. Featuring masterpieces by such iconic figures as Charles Alston, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Norman Lewis, Horace Pippin, and Charles White, the exhibition and its related programs allow visitors to reflect upon a broad range of African American experiences, and examines the ways different African American artists have expressed personal, political, and racial identity over approximately 100 years. The exhibition empowers the visitor to appreciate multiple perspectives through various artistic expressions. Something to Say therefore exemplifies the McNay’s commitment to equity, inclusion, and social consciousness as well as artistic excellence.

Stanley Whitney 

Untitled, 2014 

Gouache on paper

Collection of the McNay Art Museum 

© Stanley Whitney; Courtesy of the artist and the McNay Art Museum 

Titus Kaphar 

Letters Never Read, 2017 

Oil and tar on canvas 

Collection of Guillermo Nicolas and Jim Foster. 

© Titus Kaphar. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Throughout the development and planning of Something to Say, the McNay has sought the insights and perspectives of many community members. The exhibition’s Community Committee includes Harriet Kelley, Guillermo Nicolas, Freda Facey, and Veronique LeMelle; additional partners across San Antonio help further inform the exhibition and promote reflection, dialogue, and creativity within the larger community.

The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
www.mcnayart.org

Contemporary African American art, "30 Americans" at DIA, Detroit

30 Americans 
The Detroit Institute of Arts 
October 18, 2015 - January 18, 2016

Barkley L. Hendricks 

Noir, 1978

Oil and acrylic on canvas. 

Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the US, presents “30 Americans,” a dynamic exhibition of contemporary art by African American artists, on view Oct. 18, 2015–Jan. 18, 2016. “30 Americans” includes 55 paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and videos by many of the most important African American artists who rose to prominence during recent decades by exploring racial, gender, political and historical identity in contemporary culture.

Jean-Michel Basquiat 

Bird On Money, 1981

Acrylic and oil on canvas. 

Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami 

Among the renowned artists included are Barkley Hendricks, Kerry James Marshall, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson and the late Jean-Michel Basquiat and Robert Colescott. Their influence on a younger generation can be seen in the works of artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Nick Cave, Mickalene Thomas and Kara Walker.

Rashid Johnson 

The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Thurgood), 2008

Lambda print, Ed. 2/5. 

Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami 

The exhibition is organized around several artistic approaches used by the artists to explore identity: defying Western art traditions; portraying black subjects as real people as opposed to types; sampling multiple sources of inspiration, from historical material to found objects; freestyling by adopting improvisational and expressionistic styles to demonstrate creative and technical virtuosity; signifying through the use of symbols, materials and images that imply or trigger associations about gender, race, religion, class and sexuality; transforming the body’s appearance to examine the relationship between societal assumptions and identity; and confronting American history regarding race, racism and power in the United States.

This exhibition is drawn from the acclaimed Rubell Family Collection, Miami.

Artists in the exhibition

Nina Chanel Abney (1982)
John Bankston (1963)
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988)
Mark Bradford (1968)
Iona Rozeal Brown (1966)
Nick Cave (1959)
Robert Colescott (1925 - 2009)
Noah Davis (1983)
Leonardo Drew (1961)
Renée Green (1959)
David Hammons (1943)
Barkley L. Hendricks (1945)
Rashid Johnson (1977)
Glenn Ligon (1960)
Kalup Linzy (1977)
Kerry James Marshall (1955)
Rodney McMillian (1969)
Wangechi Mutu (1972)
William Pope.L (1955)
Gary Simmons (1964)
Xaviera Simmons (1974)
Lorna Simpson (1960)
Shinique Smith (1971)
Jeff Sonhouse (1968)
Henry Taylor (1958)
Hank Willis Thomas (1976)
Mickalene Thomas (1971)
Kara Walker (1969)
Carrie Mae Weems (1953)
Kehinde Wiley (1977)
Purvis Young (1943 - 2010)

Detroit Institute of Arts 
5200 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48202
www.dia.org

William Pope.L @ Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York

William Pope.L, Colored Waiting Room
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
September 12 - October 26, 2013

Mitchell-Innes & Nash presents Colored Waiting Room, the third solo exhibition of WILLIAM POPE.L at the gallery and his second in the Chelsea space.  This show’s incorporation of drawing, painting, sculpture, and projections display the artist’s versatility and use of various media in his practice. 

The show’s title, Colored Waiting Room, interpolates an excess, an aberration of intentional language which seeks to qualify division by defining identity.  The show’s title evokes a very particular historical moment, specifically American racial segregation against blacks in the late 19th to mid 20th centuries.  However, a literal examination of the phrase opens the space to ‘nosier’, more flexible readings of color, words and proximity in the context of art, science and culture.

In this exhibition, William Pope.L addresses a lack within language with a playfulness which is both enigmatic and astute.  As evident in his Skin Set drawings, Pope.L collaborates with society’s use of color terminology to characterize notions such as ontology, gender, race and social value.  The current exhibition includes a large group of Skin Set works as well as two new, large-scale diptychs with a ‘cousin’ focus. In addition, through sound and olfactory pieces, the viewer is invited to contemplate the exhibition through an almost synesthetic dialogue with color. 

By creating an exhibition space that is both structurally and ideologically a puzzle, Pope.L seeks to reconstruct the viewer via his or her own boundaries. 

WILLIAM POPE.L was born in 1955 in New Jersey.  He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL, where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago.  He has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carpenter Center at Harvard University, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and the Kunsthalle Wien.  The MIT Press published a monograph to accompany The Friendliest Black Artist in America, his 2002-2004 traveling survey exhibition.  His work has been exhibited and performed at Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Whitney Museum in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The New Museum in New York and the Renaissance Society in Chicago.  Recent exhibitions and performances include Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas; Flux This! With Pope.L and Special Guests at Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY; and The Long White Cloud, Te Tuhi Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.

Mitchell-Innes & Nash
534 West 26th st, New York, NY 10001
www.miandn.com

Robert Seldon Duncanson: Acquisition announced by the Amon Carter Museum, Texas

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Announced Acquisition of its First Painting by 19th-Century Artist Robert Seldon Duncanson

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announced last month the acquisition of a major painting by 19th-century landscape artist ROBERT SELDON DUNCANSON (1821-1872), the first African-American artist to achieve international acclaim. The work, titled The Caves, painted in 1869, was originally owned by Cincinnati Abolitionist Richard Sutton Rust (1815-1906), and it remained in his family until the Amon Carter purchased it in late 2012. Because it has been in a private collection for nearly 150 years, the painting will be accessible to the public for the first time beginning May 4, when it is displayed in the Amon Carter’s galleries.

“Duncanson is an immensely important figure in American art,” says Andrew J. Walker, director of the Amon Carter. “He was a self-taught, black artist from Cincinnati and a leading landscape painter of his time, which was a monumental accomplishment during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. Owning a work by this esteemed artist greatly enriches our collection.”

Impressive in scale, the painting is approximately 3 feet tall and is in magnificent condition. The Caves is painted in the Hudson River School tradition, which was an inspiration to Duncanson after he viewed works by Thomas Cole and other Hudson River School artists at Cincinnati’s Western Art Union in the late 1840s. The scene depicts an intimate view of the wilderness, with unusual geographic features of steep ravines and sandstone cliffs perforated by a canopy of evergreens and a trio of caverns.

“At first glance, the scene suggests a documented view of untouched nature,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture. “But then we notice three figures making their way up a steep incline toward the mouths of the caves.

“This painting is a fine example of Duncanson’s mature style,” Lawton continues. “His extraordinary powers of transcription are evident; and although the exact location of the painting is not confirmed, we believe it’s the area known today as Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio. The work beautifully synthesizes mid-19th-century concerns for nature as an expression of cultural and national identity.”

Robert Seldon Duncanson’s paintings seldom overtly depict the political and cultural issues of the years surrounding the Civil War, such as slavery and discrimination, according to Margi Conrads, deputy director of art and research. Instead, the artist may have included subtle cues in his landscapes that conveyed his anti-slavery position.

“His depiction of caves poses intriguing questions about whether the painting includes references to the abolitionist movement or the role of African-Americans in everyday society,” says Conrads. “Caves were among the safe havens for runaway slaves through the Civil War. Additionally, both before and after the War, African-Americans guided tourists through caves, and it’s possible Duncanson is referencing this in his painting through the figure at the cavern’s mouth. Regardless, the painting is a beautiful testimony of an artist dedicated to depicting the essential natural world.”

Four watercolors from the museum’s permanent collection by Adrien Mayers (1801?-1833) will be exhibited near the Duncanson painting through September 4, 2013. The watercolors portray an early view of Cincinnati, Robert Seldon Duncanson’s adopted hometown and the place that nurtured his career.

“It’s a wonderful and distinctive moment for the museum to exhibit the works of three prominent black artists from three different centuries,” says Walker. “We are honored to show this exceptional American art to our visitors.”

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art's website: www.cartermuseum.org

African American Art Since 1950, David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland - Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center

African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center

David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland

September 20 - December 14, 2012

African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center is an exhibition in which works by renowned artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, and Sam Gilliam are coupled with exciting new visionaries, including Chakaia Booker, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker, collectively reflects the growing prominence—and complexity—of the field of African American Art over the last 60 years. 

Over thirty-five years ago, when prominent artist, collector, and scholar David C. Driskell developed the 1976 exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, he introduced the tremendous depth and breadth of African American art and creativity to an international audience. African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center, curated by Dr. Robert E. Steele and Dorit Yaron, the David C. Driskell Center’s Executive Director and Deputy Director, respectively, and Independent Scholar Dr. Adrienne L. Childs, honors the legacy of this landmark exhibition and brings to the nation the next pivotal chapter of African American art.

The exhibition, which is comprised primarily of works from the Driskell Center Permanent Art Collection, showcases the generation of artists who opened up the possibilities for African American art, from pursuing pure abstraction to providing a forum for art as political activism. The exhibition also presents the newest voices in African American art which utilize a variety of media and possess a hybrid approach to cultural and social identity. 

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue with essays that highlight the relationships among artists in the exhibition and the institutions that have impacted the field. Dr. Julie L. McGee, Curator of African American Art, University Museums, and Associate Professor of Black American Studies, University of Delaware, in her essay, “The Driskell Circle as Centrifuge,” discusses how David Driskell’s activism in the academic and museum fields was instrumental in the early careers of many artists, such as Bennie Andrews, Felrath Hines, and Jacob Lawrence.

African American Art Since 1950 

Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center

David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park

Exhibition Catalogue, 2012

Dr. Adrienne L. Childs, Independent Scholar, in her essay, “Notes on the Politics of Identity in African American Art,” explores artists whose work is largely defined by postmodern identity politics, including race, memory, gender and history, as well as the importance of the body as a site of expression. Among these artists are Kevin Cole, Willie Cole, Margo Humphrey, Betye Saar, Kara Walker and Carrie Mae Weems.

Franklin Sirmans, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, in his essay, “Bridging the Gap: New Voices in the Driskell Collection,” focuses on artists who are utilizing various media and operating in a forum where national and racial boundaries are not the primary focus of inspiration; among these are Jefferson Pinder, and Hank Willis Thomas. The catalogue also includes: an “Acknowledgements” by Dr. Robert E. Steele and a “Foreword” by Prof. David. C. Driskell, along with a timeline of major events in African American art since 1950; a checklist; and color reproductions of all the works in the exhibition along with short artist biographies.

In his “Foreword,” Driskell writes of the significance of this exhibition to the field of African American Art, “African American Art Since 1950 brings forth a new insight into the meaning of this aspect of American art as it continues to highlight the social, cultural, and political visions of a growing creative community within Modernism.”

The exhibition is organized by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland.

DAVID C. DRISKELL CENTER

for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora

University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

www.driskellcenter.umd.edu

Creation of a Center for African American Art in Detroit, Michigan

Museum News > Michigan > Detroit > Detroit Institute of Arts

The creation of the General Motors Center for African American Art was announced by the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) as a new curatorial department and resource center at the museum. The Center is named in recognition of a $5 million donation from the General Motors Foundation to the DIA's capital campaign.

The Center will act as an independent department within the museum's existing structure, and will be staffed by a curator, assistant curator and administrative assistant. A national search for staff is currently underway.

"The development of the General Motors Center for African American Art is a natural extension of the DIA's commitment to African American art, and will provide a stimulating new dimension to our collections," said Graham W.J. Beal, director of the DIA. "We intend to create a center of excellence in this area, which will prove to be an invaluable resource for scholars and collectors, as it will house a specialized library related to works by African American artists."

The Center is a testament to the DIA's and GM's commitment to serving the community. "General Motors is dedicated to recognizing the achievements and influence of African Americans," said General Motors vice president and chief financial officer, Michael Losh. "GM is proud to support this extraordinary Center that will enrich and expand the breadth of the museum in both culture and importance."

Early emphasis will be on research that will lead to special exhibitions, lectures and symposia. Additionally, the Center will provide a place where talented African American students can gain valuable experience in a stimulating environment to prepare them for an art museum career.

"I've spoken with Christy Matthews, director of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and we agreed that there could be interesting opportunities for collaboration," Beal said. "While it is difficult to be specific at this early stage, these might include loans of art to parallel exhibitions, joint educational initiatives, and mutual programming around exhibitions."

With a solid core of artistic expertise, intellectual acumen, a powerfully growing collection and a vitally interested local community, the DIA expects the Center will quickly gain national prominence and become a leading contributor to the field of study in African American art. The Center's work will be disseminated through publications such as exhibition catalogues and seminar proceedings.

The DIA is located at 5200 Woodward Avenue in the University Cultural Center in Detroit, Michigan.

DIA’s upcoming exhibition: Punch's Progress: A Century of American Puppetry

Updated post

Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945 - 1965, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945 - 1965
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
January 12 - March 23, 1997

Marla Price, Director of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth announced that the museum will be the only Southwest venue for Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945 - 1965. Organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem, this exhibition examines the importance of Paris (the City of Light) as an artistic mecca for African-American artists in the years following World War II and continues the Studio Museum's mission to conduct scholarship in previously unexplored areas of African-American artists' experience. Explorations in the City of Light showcases the work of seven African-American artists whose imagery, styles and philosophies were shaped by their experience in postwar Paris: Edward Clark, Harold Cousins, Beauford Delaney, Herbert Gentry, Lois Mailou Jones, Larry Potter and Barbara Chase-Riboud.

Following the war, Paris—known as the City of Light for its intellectual enlightenment, gleaming beauty and the quality of its natural light—became a seminal destination for a diverse group of artists, writers and musicians. African-American artists enjoyed acceptance in diverse Paris and embraced the historic and visual stimulation of the city. Featuring over sixty paintings and sculpture, Explorations in the City of Light presents the rich work of African-American artists that resulted from their encounters with the unique beauty and creative forces found in postwar Paris.

African-Americans who wished to pursue an art education in the United States following World War II often encountered difficulties caused by racial segregation. Few prestigious art schools accepted African-American students, and study abroad was seen as an important prerequisite for success. Although the desire to escape discrimination was a significant factor in the African-American artists' sojourn in Paris, several post-WWII artists have said that their primary goal was a quest for artistic freedom and a need to experience modernism firsthand.

Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Director of The Studio Museum in Harlem, explains the premise of the Explorations in the City of Light project: "Past exhibitions have dealt with the subject of the expatriate experience of African-American artists in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth century. None, however, has concentrated on this specific period, nor with this fascinating group of artists." The seven African-American artists featured in Explorations in the City of Light received significant critical attention while in Paris and have influenced subsequent generations of artists working in America. The power and diversity of creative expression evident in their art continues to inspire others. The endurance of these qualities confirms the significance of their artistic careers that were cultivated in the City of Light. 

A major catalogue containing over 100 illustrations accompanies the exhibition. Essayists for the catalogue are Valerie J. Mercer, Curator of the exhibition and Curator of Collections at The Studio Museum in Harlem, Catherine Bernard, Peter Selz and Michael Fabre. Also included is an introduction by Kinshasha Holman Conwill and a foreword by Geoffrey C. Bible, Chairman and C.E.O. of Philip Morris Companies Inc. 

Biographical information of the artists featured in the exhibition:

EDWARD CLARK

1926 Born in New Orleans, Louisiana

1947-1951 Studies at the Chicago Art Institute

1952 Travels to Paris, studies at L'Académie de la Grande Chaumière, under the GI Bill. Remains in Paris, continues to paint and exhibit

1956 Goes to New York, becomes member of the Tenth Street art scene

1966 Returns to Paris, begins to experiment with the ellipse form in his art

1969 Returns to the United States where he continues to reside, but spends summers in Paris

HAROLD COUSINS

1916 Born in Washington, D.C.

1947 Receives BFA from Howard University, Washington, D. C.

1948 Studies at the Art Students League, New York

1949 Arrives in Paris, studies at L'Académie de la Grande Chaumière

1952 Exhibits in Paris, New York, Toronto and other European cities

1967 Leaves Paris to live in Brussels, Belgium. Continues to work and exhibit

1992 Dies in Brussels

BEAUFORD DELANEY

1901 Born in Knoxville, Tennessee

1918 Moves to Boston at the age of 17

Studies at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, the South Boston School of Art and the Copley School of Art

1929 Arrives in New York where his work is exhibited at various galleries, Meets Henry Miller who writes about Delaney's art

1953 Arrives in Paris where he exhibits his work steadily at various galleries

1978 Retrospective exhibition at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

1979 Dies in Paris

HERBERT GENTRY

1919 Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1938-1939 Participates in WPA Program

1940-1942 Attends New York University

1946 Arrives in Paris

1946-1949 Studies at L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes and L'Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, under the GI Bill

1948 Opens club, Chew Honey, frequented by artists and musicians

1952 Returns to the United States

1954 Returns to Paris, then moves to Malmo, Sweden

Present Divides time between Malmo, Paris and the United States

LOIS MAILOU-JONES

1905 Born in Boston, Massachusetts

1923-1927 Studies at Boston Museum School of Fine Arts

1930 Joins faculty of Howard University as a professor of design and watercolor painting

1937-1938 Makes first trip to Paris to study at the Académie Julian

1953 Marries Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, well-known Haitian artist

1954 Is guest professor at Centre d'Art and Foyer des Arts Plastiques, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Present Returns to Paris annually; continues to exhibit in Paris, Haiti U.S.

LARRY POTTER

1925 Born in Mount Vernon, New York

1945-1950 Studies at Cooper Union and later at the Art Students League, N.Y.

1956 Travels to Paris where he paints and exhibits art

1966 Dies in Paris

BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD

1939 Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1957 Receives her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University

1960 Receives her MFA from Yale University

1961 Arrives in Paris

Present Continues to reside in Paris, exhibits in Europe and the United States

The exhibition is organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem. Following its premiere at the Studio Museum in January 1996, Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945 - 1965 began a four-city tour of the United States. 

MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH
Fort Worth's Cultural District
www.mamfw.org

Updated 23.06.2019

Lifting the Veil: Robert S. Duncanson and the Emergence of the African-American Artist at Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth

Lifting the Veil: Robert S. Duncanson and the Emergence of the African-American Artist
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth
April 20 - June 16, 1996

Lifting the Veil: Robert S. Duncanson and the Emergence of the African-American Artist is the first national touring exhibition of paintings by African-American painter Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872), freeborn artist of color who rose from house painter to accomplished landscape painter in the years preceding the Civil War. Best known for his views of nature, Robert S. Duncanson created a distinctive pastoral style of romantic landscape painting and became the principal artist of the Ohio River Valley tradition at midcentury.

Lifting the Veil contains more than fifty oil paintings, including Land of the Lotus Eaters (1861), from the collection of His Royal Majesty the King of Sweden; Uncle Tom and Little Eva (1853), Detroit Institute of Arts; and Blue Hole, Flood Waters, Little Miami River (1851), Cincinnati Art Museum. Also represented are manuscripts, newspapers, books, and drawings.

Robert S. Duncanson's career spans a time of tremendous racial upheaval, from the antebellum era through emancipation and Reconstruction. Some scholars interpret Robert S. Duncanson's paintings as thinly veiled messages that were understood by his African-American community. Just as slave songs held double significance, Robert S. Duncanson's paintings contained references to the evils of slavery. By closely examining his landscape painting in the light of contemporary historical and social events, one can "lift the veil" and expose their underlying content--the experience of an African-American living in the antebellum United States.

Joseph D. Ketner, Director of the Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis, curated the exhibition Lifting the Veil and authored the accompanying publication. The Emergence of the African-American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson, 1821-1872 (235 pages, 144 black and white illustrations, 20 color plates) is available in the Museum Bookstore for $27.50.

The Amon Carter Museum is the third venue on a national tour which opened last fall in Duncanson's hometown of Cincinnati, with a major collaborative showing at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum. Lifting the Veil was seen at the Washington University Gallery of Art this winter, and following its showing at the Carter, will travel to the Clark-Atlanta University Art Gallery and Hammonds House Galleries in Atlanta, July 19-September 15, 1996, as one of the chief cultural attractions of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

The national tour of Lifting the Veil is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funds for the exhibition were provided by the Hortense Lewin Art Fund and the St. Louis Printmarket Fund of Washington University. The exhibition is organized by the Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis. 

AMON CARTER MUSEUM
Fort Worth, Texas
cartermuseum.org

Updated 23.06.2019