POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT coursed through the art world in 2017. Issues of censorship and debates around who has the right to depict black bodies came to the fore. The biggest news stories, from White House machinations, gun violence, and immigration to the fate of Confederate monuments, racial division, and sexual harassment and assault revelations, directly affected some institutions, were reflected in the work of artists, and prompted many to take action through open letters, protests, and special campaigns and projects. The contemporary moment is reminiscent of the 1960s and 70s when the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Women’s Rights Movements, and efforts to diversify art institutions dominated the discourse. Exhibitions documenting these historic years were some of the most compelling of 2017. “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” at the Tate Modern in London, “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” organized by the Brooklyn Museum, and “Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s,” currently on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, present works by pioneering African American artists and brought attention to overlooked figures. Meanwhile, emerging artists had their first solo museum exhibitions, new artist records were achieved at … Continue reading Culture Type: The Year in Black Art 2017