Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a White House NCAA Sports Day event, Monday, July 22, 2024, on the South Lawn of the White House. | Official White House Photo by Oliver Contreras ARTISTS ARE COMING TOGETHER to help Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency. Artists for Kamala announced that some of...
Vice President Kamala Harris walks onstage to speak at the kickoff for the Reproductive Freedoms Tour, Monday, January 22, 2024, at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 7 in Big Bend, Wisconsin. | Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson THE IMAGES ARE HISTORIC: Vice President Kamala Harris launching...
Julie Mehretu in the BMW Art Car #20, which she designed. | Photo by Tereza Mundilová. © BMW AG (05/2024) WORKING ON A GRAND SCALE, American artist Julie Mehretu makes abstract paintings distinguished by their kaleidoscopic mark making. The dynamic compositions reference architecture and topography and explore an array of contemporary experiences, human conditions,...
Art, Beats + Lyrics is a touring urban art exhibition launched in Atlanta in 2004. From left, Founder and Producer Jabari Graham and Curator Dwayne “Dubelyoo” Wright. | Courtesy AB+L ATLANTA, GA., HAS BEEN A NEXUS for African American art and artists for nearly a century since Hale Woodruff, Atlanta University’s first art teacher,...
ROBERT S. SCURLOCK, Marian Anderson’s Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial, April 9, 1939 (negative). | Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution FROM THE STEPS of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Marian Anderson (1897-1993) gave a memorable concert on April 9, 1939. The contralto singer opened with...
Rich Paul in August, speaking in Invest Fest in Atlanta. | Screenshot from Invest Fest video by Earn Your Leisure EARLIER THIS YEAR, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced 11 new members were elected to its board of trustees since 2020. The group included Rich Paul, 41, CEO and founder of...
“Now and Forever,” a new social justice-themed stained-glass window installation by Kerry James Marshall was unveiled at the Washington National Cathedral on Sept. 23. | Courtesy Washington National Cathedral An original poem by Elizabeth Alexander will be enshrined in stone at the base of the stained-glass windows designed by Kerry James Marshall NEW...
SIXTY YEARS AGO, Bayard Rustin stood on the grounds of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., hoping after a short two months of intense organizing that crowds of demonstrators would come to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. “I was terrified people wouldn’t show,” Rustin told the Washington Post years later....
INCREDIBLY INSPIRING, the Obama Portraits have garnered so much attention they are currently on a national tour, traveling to museums throughout the United States. The portraits of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama painted by acclaimed artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively, were unveiled by the Smithsonian on Feb. 12, 2018....
WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL has turned to a great American artist and one of the nation’s top poets for a high-profile project intended to put the renowned, institution on the right side of history. Several years ago, the National Cathedral embarked on a process of replacing two stained-glass windows featuring images of the Confederate flag...
ONLY ONE MURAL by Charles White (1918-1979) was painted directly on a wall, rather than canvas. “The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America” was created at Hampton Institute (now University) in 1943. Crispus Attucks, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, and Booker T. Washington are all represented in...
WASHINGTON, D.C., is gearing up for a citywide celebration of artist Alma Thomas (1891-1978) this fall. Honoring her contributions to the city’s cultural heritage, the events coincide with the traveling exhibition “Alma Thomas: Everything is Beautiful,” opening Oct. 30 at The Phillips Collection. Institutions throughout Washington are participating in the celebration, including the National...
THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. If you do well you might find yourself in the company of a U.S. President or First Lady. In 2016, Amy Sherald won the competition, becoming the first woman and first Black artist to receive the first place prize. Subsequently, First Lady...
THE COLOR BLUE ordinarily symbolizes spirituality in the work of Delita Martin. She creates figurative mixed-media works combining relief printing, painting, drawing, hand-stitching, and collage. Inspired by oral traditions and old family photographs, her representations of Black women seek to correct problematic narratives and instead emphasize their individuality and vital family and community roles....
FOR BLACK AMERICANS, transformational change has always been on the horizon, just out of reach. Long after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation with an effective date of Jan. 1, 1863, and the Civil War ended two-and-a-half years later in April 1965, it was another two months before Union troops arrived in Galveston,...
Photo: Shutterstock ONE YEAR AFTER the murder of George Floyd, worldwide tributes and remembrances poured forth on May 25. Culture leaders, artists, and journalists weighed in on the state of the national landscape and Floyd’s legacy as police killings persist and Black Lives Matter protests and calls for justice continue in response. Floyd’s family...
SPIKE LEE TEACHES independent filmmaking. Anna Wintour provides insights about leadership. Frank Gehry offers fundamentals about architecture and design. A fine art and fashion photographer, Tyler Mitchell provides instruction on how to tell stories through portrait photography. Mitchell shot to fame in the creative world when he became the first Black photographer and youngest...
Magruder Park sign is removed in anticipation of a new one honoring David C. Driskell. | Photo: City of Hyattsville WILLIAM PINKNEY MAGRUDER PARK in Hyattsville, Md., will be renamed for artist and curator David C. Driskell (1931-2020). The renowned historian of African American art was a longtime resident of Hyattsville. The park was...
A PORTRAIT OF VICE PRESIDENT Kamala Harris was unveiled today on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The artwork is installed near the Lincoln Memorial, in the shadow of the Washington Monument, and will be on view through Feb. 6. Rendered in shattered glass by Swiss artist Simon Berger, the likeness is a nod...
STAYING CLOSE TO HOME over the past year, due to COVID-19, has breathed new life into a traditional past time. An entertaining way to pass the hours and relieve stress, jigsaw puzzles are more popular than ever. Several focus on signigicant works by important 20th century African American artists such as Charles White, Alma...