Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Selma’ and the Images that Captured the 1965 Voting Rights March
Marchers on the way to Montgomery, Ala., as families watch from their porches, 1965 | Courtesy Stephen Somerstein WITHOUT THE IMAGES, the protracted fight for American civil rights is an abstract notion. The legal outcomes are tangible, but the untenable measures undertaken by countless foot soldiers in the pursuit of racial justice are brought...
In New York for the Holidays? 17 Exhibitions for Your Agenda
NOTHING BEATS SPENDING THE HOLIDAYS in New York City and the best way to avoid the clutch of shoppers is to sneak away and take in some art. All around Manhattan, from the New Museum, where British-born Chris Ofili’s first solo exhibition at a major U.S. museum is on view, to the Metropolitan Museum of...
On ‘Black Friday,’ a Look Back at Kerry James Marshall’s ‘Dollar for Dollar’ Exhibition
“Buy Black” by Kerry James Marshall on view at “Black Eye” group exhibition curated by Nicola Vassell, May 2014 in New York | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine AMERICA’S THIRST FOR HOLIDAY CONSUMPTION, paired with retailers desperate push to convince consumers to spend, spend, spend so that they can maximize revenues during the most...
Senga Nengudi’s First UK Exhibition Opens at White Cube Gallery
ARTISTS HAVE LONG USED EVERYDAY OBJECTS as inspiration, tools and materials, often transforming and utilizing them in entirely new and unrecognizable ways. A generation before Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto began filling nylon textiles with spices, Senga Nengudi (below left) was twisting, stretching and manipulating nylon pantyhose, testing their tension and form by stuffing them...
American Masters: 7 Exhibitions Feature Important 20th Century Artists Who Broke Barriers
JACOB LAWRENCE COMPLETED “The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture,” his first series of historic narrative paintings in 1938. It was the same year Talladega College commissioned Hale Woodruff to paint a series of murals depicting the Amistad uprising. Both projects document pivotal moments in black diasporic history and demonstrate the immense talent of important 20th century...
Culture Talk: Lauren Haynes on ‘Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art’
A NEW EXHIBITION AT THE STUDIO MUSEUM in Harlem was inspired by the pluck of a young Chicago entrepreneur. When positive images of black people were absent from America’s most popular household magazines, John H. Johnson started his own. Fixtures on the coffee tables of countless black families across the country, Ebony and Jet served...
Kay Hassan Uses Everyday Materials to Tell Compelling Stories
STORIES, MEMORIES AND DREAMS fill Jack Shainman Gallery. They are embedded in ambitious portraits composed of torn paper and installations of found radios, album covers and eyeglasses. The materials have a history that artist Kay Hassan mines for meaning, envisioning how everyday people live, face challenges and find joy. Images from billboard advertisements and the...
Art & Antiques: An Overdue Look at Archibald Motley, Modernist ‘Mix Master’
THE MOTIVATION BEHIND MOUNTING “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” has everything to do with exposure, recasting the legacy of an important 20th century painter. Based in Chicago, Archibald Motley (1891-1981) painted captivating portraits, lively street scenes and spirited social gatherings with a modern perspective. His canvases capture African American life with wry humor and...
Chris Ofili Presents His Greatest Hits at New Museum
SPANNING THREE GALLERY FLOORS, Chris Ofili’s exhibition at the New Museum doesn’t hold back, presenting his greatest hits and new works, fabulous canvases that refute any notion that painting is dead. His culturally tuned layered and embellished canvases from the 1990s are on view, along with a quintet of red, black and green nods...
London Calling: 6 Must-See UK Exhibitions Featuring Black Artists
HEADED TO LONDON? Frieze, Frieze Masters and the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair likely top your list of things to do, but make certain exploring the gallery scene is a priority too. A group of highly regarded black artists is currently showing in London galleries and art spaces. Six must-see solo exhibitions featuring British artist...
On the Road Again: 8 Must-See Traveling Exhibitions
THE MESMERIZING, STRANGE AND FANTASTIC WORLD envisioned by Wangechi Mutu is on full display at the Block Museum in Evanston, Ill. If you missed “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey” at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum or the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, it recently opened on the campus of...
Picturing the Black Diaspora
FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF ERNEST COLE documenting blacks during apartheid-era South Africa and the work of Royal Court Photographer Chief S.O. Alonge in Benin, Nigeria, to Dean Chalkley’s images of Jamaican ‘Rude Boys’ in Britain, several recent and current exhibitions are presenting photography that documents the rich history, style and culture found throughout the...
Artforum: Thomas J. Lax Previews Chris Ofili’s Fall Exhibition
ONE OF FALL’S MOST ANTICIPATED MUSEUM SHOWS is “Night and Day,” Chris Ofili’s forthcoming exhibition at the New Museum on Oct. 29. His first solo museum show in the United States will be presented on all three gallery floors and survey his entire career. Exploring race and gender issues through cultural and historical references,...
New Autograph ABP Exhibition is Latest Exploration of Early Images of Blacks
THROUGHOUT THE AFRICAN DIASPORA the image and representation of black people have been fraught with a history of power, subjugation, racism and stereotype. For generations, the black community was largely absent from the visual record of societies from Europe to the Americas. When blacks lacked the means and agency to control their own images,...
Fall Preview: The Season’s 16 Most-Anticipated Art Exhibitions
THE NEW EXHIBITION SEASON IS UNDERWAY and fall’s most anticipated museum and gallery shows are opening soon. In the coming months, 16 exhibitions will feature highly regarded and innovative black artists working across a range of mediums. Chris Ofili’s first major solo museum exhibition in the United States opens at the New Museum on Oct....
A Tale of Two Flags: Sonya Clark at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
SONYA CLARK STIRS HISTORY and explores cultural meaning using human hair and all of its heavy and joyous symbolism. The artist describes hair as power, the essence of identity and a marker of chronology, wisdom and adornment. Her “Black Hair Flag” is currently on view in the “Posing Beauty in African American Culture” exhibition...
Romare Bearden’s ‘Black Odyssey’ Headed to Columbia University
CELEBRATED FOR HIS RICH, LAYERED DEPICTIONS of African American life and culture, Romare Bearden’s decision to produce 20 collages based on episodes of Homer’s “The Odyssey” was widely viewed as a departure from his practice. Citing themes familiar to the African American experience—mourning, wandering and questing for home—scholar Robert O’Meally argues that the 1977...
Kara Walker Discusses Her Sugar-Coated Sphinx at NY Public Library
ON TUESDAY, ARTIST KARA WALKER spoke for 90 minutes about “A Subtlety,” the enormous sculpture she has installed in the old Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn. Commissioned by the public arts organization Creative Time to produce a work for the abandoned space, which is slated for redevelopment, she was given complete creative freedom. In...
On Exhibit: What to See on Art Museum Day 2014
THE ASSOCIATION OF ART MUSEUM OF DIRECTORS is celebrating Art Museum Day on Sunday, May 18. For the fifth year, museums across the country are using the annual event to promote the cultural and educational benefits of their programming and encourage the public to visit. Participating museums are offering free or reduced admission and...
Culture Talk: Duke Professor Richard J. Powell on Archibald Motley
THE NASHER MUSEUM OF ART at Duke University is infused with Chicago jazz and Paris blues. Since January 19, the museum has been exhibiting 45 paintings by Chicago artist Archibald J. Motley Jr. (1891-1981). “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” presents a rare opportunity to experience the work of one of the 20th century’s most...
