Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Time, Aug. 8/Aug. 15, 2022: Artwork by Lorna Simpson for TIME, Source photograph by Stephen Gosling—NBAE/Getty Images
Magazines
Time magazine commissioned artist Lorna Simpson to illustrate its latest cover (Aug. 8/Aug. 15, 2022) featuring WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February. The portrait draws on Simpson’s previous work, referencing the cosmos, starscapes, and images of heavenly bodies that “question perceptions about identity.” | More
Appointments
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) announced it was diversifying its board of trustees with a slate of new elections, including Gowri Natarajan Sharma, the first person of color to serve as president of the board and Sheryl Adkins-Green, chief marketing officer at Mary Kay, who is now vice president of DMA’s board. | More
Singer James Brown is captured off stage around Memphis, Tenn. | (Ted Williams/Johnson Publishing Company Archive). Courtesy Ford Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Smithsonian Institution
Photography
One year after a consortium comprising the Ford Foundation, Getty Trust, MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution acquired the Johnson Publishing Archive for $30 million, the institutions announced the transfer of sole ownership to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and Getty Research Institute, a program of the Getty Trust. The news was accompanied by a commitment of $30 million from the Getty Trust to support the cataloging and digitization of the photographic archive—4 million prints and negatives from Ebony and Jet magazines. | More
Fotofest, the photography biennial in Houston, Texas (Sept. 24-Nov. 6), announced participating artists. “If I Had a Hammer,” the central exhibition will feature about two dozen artists and collectives, including Forensic Architecture, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Dionne Lee, Lorraine O’Grady, and Keisha Scarville. The programming also includes “African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other,” curated by Mark Sealy, and “Ten by Ten: Ten Portfolios from the Meeting Place 2020–21” showcasing images by 10 artists, Will Harris and Theresa Newsome, among them. | More
Getty Images announced its annual Inclusion Grants, awarding $40,000 each to eight photographers including Ivan McClellan (Sports) and Brandon Watson (Arts & Entertainment). | More
“Hurvin Anderson” by Catherine Lampert, Roger Robinson and Courtney J. Martin (320 pages). | © Rizzoli New York, 2022
Books
Rizzoli is publishing “the first major monograph” of British-born Jamaican artist Hurvin Anderson in October. The volume features a foreword by Courtney J. Martin, essay by Catherine Lampert, and poems by Roger Robinson, along with an illustrated chronology of Anderson’s life and career. Described as “carefully curated by the artist himself,” the publication includes paintings, sketches, source material and ephemera, studio images, and a series of new black-and-white drawings produced specifically for the book. | More
More News
The official White House portraits of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be unveiled on Sept. 7. The artists commissioned to produce the paintings will be announced the day of the East Room ceremony hosted by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. | Associated Press
In New York City, the Jackie Robinson Museum opened on July 26. The museum was first announced in 2008 and finally debuted 14 years later. The opening celebration included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Rachel Robinson, 100, the barrier-breaking baseball player’s widow. | Associated Press
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