The Week in Black Art | May 17-May 23, 2014

A REVIEW OF THE WEEK’S NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS IN THE ART WORLD
Featuring Rufus Reid, Elizabeth Catlett, Jack Shainman Gallery, Nick Cave, Terry Adkins, and more

Elizabeth Catlett Inspires Jazz Composer Rufus Reid
The late sculptor Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) has inspired a new jazz album. Drawn to the strength and emotion of Catlett’s sculptures, bassist Rufus Reid (pictured above) created “Quiet Pride: The Elizabeth Catlett Project,” a five-composition suite, after seeing her works in a book. Allen Morrison spoke to Reid about the project for the June 2014 issue of Downbeat and in a special NPR report (audio below), the composer described how he captured Catlett’s masterful works with sound. “You would take maybe something that was fast, something that was angular harmonically, skips in intervals that make you feel uneasy hearing them,” he said “It’s not tangible, but I think there’s a feeling.” The recently released album was influenced by five Catlett sculpture—”Recognition,” “Mother and Child,” “Tapestry in the Sky,” “Singing Head” and “Glory”—which can be found in her 1988 monograph.

“There’s angst in the face, there’s power in the face, there’s maybe some anger in the face — and yet composure in the face.”
— Rufus Reid on Elizabeth Catlett’s sculpture “Glory,” NPR

Jack Shainman Gallery Opens Outpost in Hudson Valley
Jack Shainman, the Chelsea-based gallery that represents El Anatsui, Radcliffe Bailey, Nick Cave, Barkley L. Hendricks, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Odutola, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, among others, has opened a new location in Kinderhook, N.Y. Housed in the old Martin van Buren schoolhouse, the 30,000-square-foot former high school has been renovated—from the gymnasium to the principal’s office and classrooms—to serve as exhibition space and potential studio space for artists. An exhibition of new and old works by Cave and a live performance featuring his signature Soundsuits were the centerpiece of the opening celebration at The School as reported by the New York Times T magazine and Interview, which spoke to Cave about how the The School site inspired his installation. Works by other artists are installed on the second floor for the May 17 event marking the 30th anniversary of the gallery.

Terry Adkins, Blanche Bruce and the Lone Wolf Recital Corps perform “The Last Trumpet” as part of the Performa Biennial 2013 via Salon 94

Adrienne Edwards Pays Tribute to the Late Terry Adkins
In Artforum’s Passages section, Adrienne Edwards remembers fellow Southern-born artist Terry Adkins (1953-2014), the gone-to-soon friend who died in February 7, 2014. Edwards is an associate curator at Performa and a PhD candidate in performance studies at NYU. She notes in the essay published May 19 that Adkins was passionate about many issues and cared deeply where the people around him stood on them. She also reflects on the fact that the late conceptual artist who was taught by Aaron Douglas at Fisk University and influenced by abstract artists including Sam Gilliam, William T. Williams, Alvin Loving, Jack Whitten, David Hammons and Martin Puryear, made it his business to reach out to younger artists coming up behind him. “Terry’s recollections of Professor Douglas uncannily resemble comments about Terry himself by myriad black artists, especially men,” Edwards writes. “Terry’s personal outreach toward and generous mentorship of black artists is legendary; in fact, I would be hard pressed to think of one black male artist I know to whom Terry did not extend some semblance of support or brutally honest opinion.”

I would be hard pressed to think of one black male artist I know to whom Terry did not extend some semblance of support or brutally honest opinion.” — Adrienne Edwards, Artforum

Malawi Conservationist Moses Mkumpha | Photo by Lee Adair Lawrence via Aljazeera

NYU Program Helps Conservationist Preserve His Malawi’s Heritage
An accelerated conservation program in New York is helping Moses Mkumpha preserve Malawi’s heritage. Mkumpha, 31, was teaching high school biology when he accepted the opportunity to serve as his country’s sole conservationist in 2010. The responsibility of the post was overwhelming, given that no one had been charged with the conservation, preservation, restoration and documentation of Malawi’s most important objects and sites for more than 20 years. “I didn’t know where to start,” Mkumpha told Aljazeera. “The department had no inventory of its holdings. There was virtually no funding for the restoration of buildings. And some of the country’s most important cultural and tourist destinations—granite hills painted with images of animals centuries ago—were being damaged.” Over the past nine months, he has gotten a crash course at the Conservation Center of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. CT

TOP IMAGE: Rufus Reid | Photo by Jimmy Katz via rufusreid.com