58th Venice Biennale: Arthur Jafa Wins Golden Lion Award, Top Artist Prize
Arthur Jafa accepts 2019 Golden Lion in Venice. AN INTERNATIONAL JURY awarded the top artist prize at the 58th Venice Biennale to Arthur Jafa. The American artist and filmmaker won the Golden Lion recognizing the best participant in “May You Live in Interesting Times,” the international exhibition curated by Ralph Rugoff. Jafa was honored...
Latest News in African American Art: Camille Billops (1933-2019), Joe Overstreet (1933-2019)
Camille Billops (1933-2019), Joe Overstreet (1933-2019) The following review presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related black culture: TWO LEGENDARY New York City artists have died. Painter Joe Overstreet passed away yesterday. He co-founded Kenkeleba House, a Lower East Side artist space in 1974. Meanwhile, Camille Billops, a singular figure...
Leah Chase, Pioneering Creole Chef and Passionate Art Collector, Has Died at 96
Chef Leah Chase (1923-2019) THE COLLECTION of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., includes portraits of America’s most iconic figures—legends of culture, politics, and history. When the most prominent among these national treasures dies, the Smithsonian museum recognizes their life and legacy by displaying their portrait in a designated In Memoriam space on...
Latest News in African American Art: Museum Staffers are Publicizing Their Salaries, Racial Profiling at MFA Boston, New Archibald Motley Painting at DIA, and More
“Café, Paris” (1929) by Archibald J. Motley Jr., at DIA The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related black culture: Museum Staffers are Sharing Their Salaries on a Google Spreadsheet Employees of museums across the country are publicizing their...
Six Decades of Color: First Major Retrospective of Frank Bowling Opens at Tate Britain in London
FROM ONE DECADE TO THE NEXT, one can never guess where Frank Bowling will take his painting. Where ever he goes, somehow it always looks like Bowling. Whether he is sewing silkscreen images of his mother’s house to canvases, stenciling silhouettes of Africa and South America against fields of color, or relying on...
Lanka Tattersall Joins MoMA as Curator in the Drawings and Prints Department
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MoMA) in New York is welcoming a new curator. Earlier this month, Lanka Tattersall was named curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints. The appointment marks a return to MoMA. Tattersall served previously as a curatorial assistant in the museum’s Department of Painting and Sculpture for four years (2010-14)....
Lonnie Bunch is Taking Over the Smithsonian Institution. Named Secretary, He Will Lead 19 Museums and National Zoo
Smithsonian Secretary-elect Lonnie G. Bunch III THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION’S Board of Regents launched a search for a new leader in December and found the ideal candidate was already in its midst. This morning, the Smithsonian announced the election of Lonnie G. Bunch III, who will serve as the 14th Secretary. Bunch is the founding...
Nari Ward in New York: The Artist’s First Museum Survey in the City Showcases His Reinvention of Local Found Materials
EMPLOYING CARPETS left behind by the previous occupant of his Harlem studio, Nari Ward made an angel. He reinvented the carpets, cutting them down and forming tightly rolled segments, combining them with found plastic bags, plastic bottles, springs, wood screws, and rope, to create an airy, open-weave structure. He named the work “Carpet Angel.”...
Whitney Museum’s ‘Spilling Over’ Exhibition Celebrates Color and Calls to Mind an Earlier Moment in Art History
INSTALLED ON THE EIGHTH FLOOR of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, a group exhibition celebrates color. “Spilling Over: Painting Color in the 1960s” considers the technical, formal, and substantive possibilities of painting with bold, neon, and saturated hues. Drawing exclusively on the Whitney Museum’s collection, the show brings together 18...
Sales Results: At Christie’s, Portrait by Amy Sherald Marks Artist’s Auction Debut, Plus Mickalene Thomas and Stanley Whitney Establish New Records
WORKS BY FIVE African American artists opened Christie’s contemporary sale on May 16, with exceptional results for women artists. Amy Sherald made her auction debut with a portrait that sold for three times the estimate. Mickalene Thomas achieved a new artist record and a painting by Jordan Casteel more than doubled expectations. A body...
On View: ‘Denzil Forrester: A Survey’ at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE PULSATING RHYTHMS and dynamic energy of London’s reggae and dub nightclub scene in the early 1980s are palpable in the work of Denzil Forrester. His large-scale paintings are characterized by “vivid color, gestural brushstrokes, and frenetic compositions.” Spanning the four decades (1978-2019), new and historic works...
Coming Soon: ‘The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement’ at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.
THE TITLE OF A FORTHCOMING exhibition at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., is derived from Isabel Wilkerson’s critically acclaimed book “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” The volume documents the migration of African Americans in the United States from the Jim Crow South to the industrial North...
Sales Results: New Records at Phillips for Christina Quarles, Ed Clark, Rashid Johnson, and Stanley Whitney, Plus ‘Helter Skelter II’ by Mark Bradford Hits Auction Block
THE SPRING CONTEMPORARY AUCTIONS at Phillips New York featured a variety of works by critically acclaimed African American artists—emerging, mid-career, and long-established figures. Lots sold against the backdrop of Mark Bradford’s “Helter Skelter II” (2007), which was on display behind the auctioneer’s podium over the course of three sales spanning two days. On May...
On View: ‘David Driskell: Resonance, Paintings 1965-2002’ at DC Moore Gallery, New York
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions DC MOORE GALLERY is presenting a nearly four-decade survey of David Driskell, the renowned artist, curator, art historian, and educator. The paintings, large and small, reflect the expanse of his interests, travels, and experiences. Driskell, 87, draws on a range of styles and techniques, from figuration and...
A Self-Portrait is the Latest Painting By Jordan Casteel to Hit the Auction Block in 2019 and Far Exceed Expectations
A SELF-PORTRAIT by Jordan Casteel sold at Phillips last night. The painting tells a visual story. It depicts the artist, documents a chronic health issue, and unpacks a narrative about her life in Denver before she enrolled in the MFA program at Yale and later participated in the artist-in-residence program at the Studio Museum...
‘Selective Histories’ by Toyin Ojih Odutola Set Auction Record in London, Forthcoming Lot in New York May Surpass Benchmark
SOTHEBY’S RECENT Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London featured 65 lots. Only 13 of the works were by women artists, but the representation was a milestone. According to Sotheby’s, it was the highest proportion of works by women the auction house has ever offered in an evening sale. Each season, the evening sale is...
Artist Meleko Mokgosi Appointed Associate Professor of Painting/Printmaking at Yale School of Art
THE YALE SCHOOL OF ART announced the appointment of Meleko Mokgosi as associate professor of painting/printmaking on May 14. A painter, Mokgosi uses figuration and representation to explore political themes, notions of democracy, and post-colonialism in Southern Africa. His tenure-track appointment begins July 2019. “As an artist and an educator, Meleko Mokgosi is dedicated...
Frieze New York: Booth Prizes Go to Galleries Showing Works by Photographer Ming Smith and Artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase
From left, Gallery owner Karen Jenkins-Johnson and Ming Smith surrounded by Smith’s photographs displayed at the Jenkins Johnson booth at Frieze New York. | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine GALLERIES DISPLAYING WORKS by African American artists won both booth prizes at the latest edition of Frieze New York. Presenting works by pioneering photographer Ming...
’60 Minutes’ Profiled Mark Bradford, Introducing Him as One of America’s ‘Most Important and Influential Artists’
ANDERSON COOPER is a CNN anchor, 60 Minutes correspondent, and art collector who owns works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Mark Bradford. Called “The Hood is Moody,” his Bradford work is made with end papers—rectangles of white tissue paper used to set hair. On Sunday, Cooper profiled Bradford on “60 Minutes,”...
Artist Vivian Browne’s Tantrum-Throwing Subjects Epitomize White-Male Privilege
“Seven Deadly Sins” (c. 1968) by Vivian Browne WHEN AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS were weighing issues of race and representation in the 1960s, Vivian Browne (1929-1993) went in a unique direction. She began making drawings and paintings of white men in various states of rant, rage, and rebellion. Their white dress shirts and neckties indicate...
