Latest News in Black Art features updates and developments in the world of art and related culture
Herbert Gentry painting in his studio at the Hotel Chelsea, New York, 1990. | © Toni Parks; Courtesy of the estate of Herbert Gentry and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York
REPRESENTATION
Estate of Herbert Gentry is Represented by Ryan Lee Gallery
In 2021, Ryan Lee gallery in presented its first solo exhibition of Herbert Gentry (1919-2003) in collaboration with the artist’s estate. Three years later the New York gallery has announced its representation of Gentry, who is known for his jazz-influenced, gestural abstraction. Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Gentry grew up in Harlem, served in a segregated unit of the U.S. Army (1942-45), and thrived in the post-war years in Europe. Living for extended periods in Paris, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, he split his time between the Swedish capital and the Chelsea Hotel in New York. In 1975, Gentry was the first non-Scandinavian artist to have a retrospective at the Royal Academy in Stockholm, according to the gallery. Next month, Ryan Lee will feature works from the career-defining retrospective in the Survey section of Art Basel Miami Beach (Dec. 6-8). Titled “The Gesture of Jazz,” the solo presentation will include 14 paintings and works on paper produced between 1959 and 1975. (11/18) | More
APPOINTMENTS
Shake Up at Smithsonian American Art Museum
Since September, Jane Carpenter-Rock has been serving as acting director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Carpenter-Rock joined SAAM as deputy director for museum content and outreach in 2022. She recently took the helm of the museum on an interim basis after Stephanie Stebich, SAAM’s director since 2017, was removed from her position in the wake of staff complaints and “years of declining morale,” according to The Washington Post. An in-depth report by Kriston Capps details what has been going on behind-the-scenes at the museum. Staff described an “atmosphere of fear and recrimination” under the leadership of a “toxic director.” Stebich is now serving as senior adviser to Kevin Gover, the Smithsonian’s undersecretary for museums and culture. The Smithsonian said a search for her replacement is underway. (11/18) | Washington Post
IMAGE: Above left, Jane Carpenter-Rock. | Photo Courtesy Smithsonian
From left, NANCY ELIZABETH PROPHET, “Walking Among the Lillies,” circa 1931-32 (polychrome wood). | Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund (2023.15). Photo by Erik Gould; NANCY ELIZABETH PROPHET, “Youth (Head in Wood),” circa 1930 (wood). | Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Fund for African American Art in honor of Saundra Williams-Cornwell, 2014.3 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
EXHIBITIONS
First Museum Exhibition of Nancy Elizabeth Prophet Coming to Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum announced “Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch will open at the museum on March 14, 2025. Sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890–1960) was the first woman of color to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1918. The Brooklyn Museum describes Prophet’s sculpture as “unmatched in its emotional nuance and technical virtuosity, and her story is a model of unshakable determination.” Prophet spent time in New York before living, studying, and working Paris from the early 1920s to the early 1930s. Upon her return to the United States, she taught for a decade in the Spelman College art department, where she was a founding faculty member. “Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch” is organized by the RISD Museum, where the show was inaugurated earlier this year. The exhibition features 20 works, new scholarship, and documentary materials that shed light on the under-studied artist’s life, including correspondence with W.E.B. Du Bois, who championed her work. A fully illustrated catalog accompanies the traveling exhibition. (11/19) | More
Coming Soon: National Touring Exhibition of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson
A national touring exhibition of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (1940–2015) will launch early next year and travel through 2028. Robinson was an artist, poet, historian, teacher and more, who said the mission of her multifaceted art practice was “to celebrate the everyday lives of Black people and their endurance through centuries of injustice.” “Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, a Visual Memoir” opens at the Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio (Feb. 1–July 13, 2025) and make stops at The Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey (Oct. 16, 2025–March 1, 2026), Mobile Museum of Art in Alabama (March 26, 2026–Jan. 9, 2027), and two additional venues to be announced. The career-spanning exhibition will feature 60 paintings, drawings, prints, collages, textiles, “hogmawg” sculptures, and “RagGonNon” tapestries. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Robinson bequeathed her artworks, writings, personal belongings, and home studio to the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA). Her hometown museum is now shepherding her legacy. CMA announced the touring exhibition, which is supported by the Art Bridges Foundation. (11/21) | More
MAGAZINES
Frieze Magazine Celebrating Southern Artists
The latest issue of Frieze magazine explores the work of artists living and working in the American South. A shack drawing by Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015) covers the November/December 2024 issue. Inside, Suzanne Jackson who lives in Savannah, Ga., is profiled. Curators Valerie Cassel Oliver and Kevin W. Tucker are in conversation about how the art world engages with the American South. L. Kasimu Harris focuses on photography in the South. Allison Janae Hamilton, Tanner Adell, Hannah Chalew, Imani Jacqueline Brown, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, are also among the artists highlighted in the issue. | More
Frieze Issue Issue 247, November/December 2024 | Cover Image: BEVERLY BUCHANAN, Detail of “St. Simons, Georgia,” 1989 (oil pastel on paper, 38 × 51 inches / 96.5 × 129.5 cm). © Estate Beverly Buchananan
SYMPOSIUMS
Public Discussion About Race in Texas
The Smithsonian is hosting a National Conversation on Race in San Antonio, Texas, from Dec. 3-14. Part of the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past” initiative, the program is presented in collaboration with American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions, Asian Texans for Justice, The DoSeum, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM), and the Witte Museum. The agenda includes panel discussions, exhibitions, film screenings, and a Conference on Texas: Ode to Juneteenth: Slavery in Texas, hosted by the Witte Museum. (11/20) | More
RASHIDA BUMBRAY, “Untitled (How High the Moon),” 2024 (video, color, sound, 10 mins.). | Courtesy the artist
AWARDS & HONORS
$50,000 Awards for Women Artists Over 40
Recipients of the 2024 Anonymous Was A Woman awards include Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, 42; Mary Lee Bendolph, 89; and Rashida Bumbray, 46. Recognizing the contributions and practices of 15 women-identifying artists over 40 years of age, Anonymous Was a Woman was established by artist Susan Unterberg in 1996. This year, each artist received a $50,000 unrestricted cash award for the first time. In previous years, the prize was $25,000. AWAW is also widening its programming beyond awards this year, adding a survey exhibition “Anonymous Was a Woman: The First 25 Years” at the Grey Art Museum at New York University (April 1-July 19, 2025) and a coinciding free symposium on April 9: “Artists Speak: The Anonymous Was A Woman Symposium.” In addition, AWAW is collaborating with journalists Charlotte Burns and Julia Halperin, arts leader Loring Randolph, and SMU Data Arts to study the experiences of woman artists of all ages through a survey process. The research group is organizing the symposium and will report their findings at the gathering. (11/20) | More
UK Emerging Art Filmmakers Award
Larry Achiampong (b. 1984) is among six artists shortlisted for the 2024 Film London Jarman Award recognizing “the spirit of experimentation, imagination and innovation” among emerging filmmakers in the UK. The winner of the £10,000 prize (about US $12,500) will be announced Nov. 25. | More
CT
British Ghanaian artist Larry Achiampong: “At the heart of my practice really is an interest to explore the multiple facets of what identity means, especially in relation to the digital age, this ability to create multiple versions of one’s self.” | Video by Film London
