For the Obamas, Art Has Helped Make the White House Feel Like Home
President Obama narrates a look inside his art-filled White House residence. | Obama White House Video IN OCTOBER, PRESIDENT OBAMA hosted “Love & Happiness: A Musical Experience,” the last of many, many musical performances staged at the White House during his two terms. “Over the past eight years, Michelle and I have set aside...
Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art – Theaster Gates Starts Apprentice Program, Rodney McMillian Wins Austin Art Prize
RETROSPECTIVE is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. This week, Theaster Gates announced a groundbreaking apprenticeship program to provide training for local residents through his Rebuild Foundation in Chicago; Rodney McMillian received an important...
Retrospective: The Latest News in Black Art – London Fairs, African and African American Art at Auction
RETROSPECTIVE is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. This week, highlights include news from Frieze London and the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair; sales of African and African American art at auctions in New York,...
Book Report: New Titles on McArthur Binion, Glenn Ligon, Mickalene Thomas, and More
BOOK REPORT CHARTS recently published art books. Among these six new titles, a number accompany exhibitions of work by African American artists including Norman Lewis, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas. A scholarly study investigates the life and work of early 20th century painter Horace Pippin. “Suffering and Sunset: World War I in the...
How Much is that Painting? 10 Black Artists Whose Work Garners Top Dollar at Auction
THE 2016 AUCTION SEASON is gearing up in early February when the major houses are holding their first modern and contemporary art sales of the year in London. Although art by African American and African diasporic artists represents a nominal share of the lots offered by Sotheby’s, Phillips, and Christie’s (if they are included at...
Culture Type Picks: 14 Best Black Art Books of 2015
MANY OF THIS YEAR’S BEST African American art books were published to coincide with exhibitions. The correlation is not surprising given the caliber of exhibitions on view in 2015, including innovative (“Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now”) and long overdue (“Noah Purify: Junk Dada” and “Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis”)...
The Year in Black Art: February 2015
CULTURE TYPE IS REVIEWING The Year in Black Art 2015 in monthly installments over the coming weeks. The report began with a look at The Newsmakers, seven artists and curators who continue to advance their practices and their projects with fresh approaches and new ideas—efforts that are recognized and often garner significant news coverage. The...
Dec. 15: Next Swann African American Art Auction Features Diverse Slate of Significant Modern and Contemporary Works
SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES has released the catalog for its fall African American Fine Art sale on Dec. 15 in New York. The selection, which it describes as including its “strongest offerings to date,” features a number of Norman Lewis paintings, several works by Hughie Lee-Smith, Lois Mailou Jones, Beauford Delaney, and Charles White, along with...
At MoMA PS1, David Hammons’s ‘African American Flag’ Beckons Visitors to ‘Greater New York’
MOMA PS1 HAS ASSEMBLED a sprawling exhibition featuring 157 New York artists and collectives that span generations and mediums, and includes more than 400 works, as well as performances and films. Before visitors enter the main museum building, they get an Afrocentric welcome. Flying out front is David Hammons‘s “African American Flag,” the New...
At Whitney Museum, ‘America is Hard to See’ Acknowledges African American Contributions to Recent Art History
FOR GENERATIONS, IT HAS BEEN HARD to visit American museums and genuinely appreciate the experience when rarely is the depth and breadth of American art represented in exhibitions and collections. Far rarer, has been the inclusion of works by African American artists in retrospectives intended to capture the broad sweep of American art history....
Summer Shows: 25 Noteworthy Exhibitions Feature Black Artists
THIS SUMMER, MAJOR CITIES are presenting major exhibitions featuring the work of important African American artists. In greater Detroit, Nick Cave (shown above) is staging pop-up performances showcasing his mesmerizing Soundsuits in conjunction with a museum exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum, his first in Michigan. In New York, the Studio Museum in Harlem is...
Willie Cole, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall and Hank Willis Thomas Featured in Season 2 of Met Museum’s Artist Project
FEATURED FOUR YEARS AGO in the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents,” Willie Cole recently returned to the museum to talk about his introduction to African art. It was the late 1960s, after the Kennedy and King assassinations and the...
Okwui Enwezor’s Vision for Venice Biennale is Right Up Front
Glenn Ligon and Oscar Murillo for “All the World’s Futures” curated by Okwui Enwezor #VeniceBiennale A photo posted by Artforum (@artforum) on May 5, 2015 at 3:49am PDT THE 56th VENICE BIENNALE officially opens to the public on May 9 and black artists are at the forefront. The entrance to the Central Pavilion...
Art x Music: Art World Embraces Kanye West, Afrika Bambaataa and Drake
View image | gettyimages.com THE INTERSECTION OF ART AND MUSIC is increasingly ever present. Several new examples emerged over the past week. A cartoon-like action figure of Pharrell Williams entitled “Happy” was presented at the Perrotin Gallery booth at Art Basel Hong Kong (March 15-17). According to ARTnews, the small-scale sculpture by Japanese artist Mr....
Assassinated 50 Years Ago, Malcolm X’s Powerful Image and Message Still Resonate
FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. To pay tribute to her father, Ilyasah Shabazz wrote an essay published in the New York Times titled “What Would Malcolm X Think?” In the article, she recounts the outspoken leaders’s strategies for gaining civil rights for Black Americans and...
Artforum Asks Artists, Critics and Curators to Name the Best of 2014
WHAT MAKES AN EXHIBITION exceptional? For artist Glenn Ligon, it must be “rigorous, challenging, and beautifully installed” and it really registers if it causes him to self reflect. “A good exhibition is one that makes me reconsider my own practice,” he says in Artforum. The magazine’s December “Best of 2014” issue takes a look back...
Holiday Gift Guide 2014: A Curated Selection for the Art Lovers on Your List
GIVE THE GIFT OF ART. Many highly regarded artists are designing functional art objects that would make perfect gifts for the art lovers on your list. Culture Type has assembled more than a dozen fabulous finds that fit any budget and would thrill family, friends and even the most scrutinizing art collectors. Who wouldn’t want...
Assessing the Fall Contemporary Auctions in New York
ALL THAT STANDS BETWEEN YOU and owning works by some of the most highly regarded artists practicing today is the wave of a paddle. Major auction houses are staging their fall contemporary sales this week. Works by El Anatsui, Chris Ofili, Mickalene Thomas and Glenn Ligon are up for consideration. Bidding is underway already with...
At Sotheby’s, $3.9M White Text Painting Sets Glenn Ligon Record
IT WAS THE FIRST LOT OF THE NIGHT, a white-on-white text painting by Glenn Ligon. Originally executed in 1990 and repainted in 2003, “Untitled (I Was Somebody)” opened Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction and sold for more than $3.9 million, according to sales results. The price was well over twice the estimate of $1 million...
Today is Election Day, Vote with Your Art
ACROSS THE COUNTRY TODAY, voters are casting ballots in the mid-term elections. Congressional seats, state offices and local initiatives, including arts funding, are up for consideration. Nationwide, President Obama’s handling of ISIS and Ebola is overshadowing fundamental economic issues, though politics remains mostly local. The most competitive states where outcomes will determine the balance of...
