Collection Highlights: Museum of Modern Art’s 2015-16 Acquisitions Include More than 50 Works by African American Artists
KARA WALKER, “40 Acres of Mules,” 2015 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART’S collection boasts dozens of new additions by African American artists. Over the past two years the museum has acquired paintings by Mark Bradford, Kerry James Marshall, Chris Ofili, and Faith Ringgold; drawings by Palmer Hayden, Adrian Piper, and Kara Walker; sculptures by...
VMFA Acquires Paintings by Important 20th Century African American Artists Eldzier Cortor and Palmer Hayden
PALMER HAYDEN, “Untitled (Dreamer),” circa 1930 IN DECEMBER, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) acquired “Three Folk Musicians” (1967), a major work by Romare Bearden. When the purchase was announced, VMFA Director Alex Nyerges said the collage painting “bolsters our effort to represent a diverse range of cultures in our galleries and allows...
Virginia Museum Acquires ‘Three Folk Musicians’ by Romare Bearden, an ‘Iconic’ Collage Long Held in a Private Collection
FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS, “Three Folk Musicians” (1967) by Romare Bearden (1911-1988) has appeared in major exhibitions of the artist’s work hosted by the nation’s top-tier museums. One of his most renowned and recognizable individual works, the 1967 collage painting was presented in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1971 exhibition “Romare Bearden: The Prevalence...
At Swann Auction, Records Set for 6 Black Artists Including Frank Bowling, Palmer Hayden, and Felrath Hines
SIX BLACK ARTISTS made news recently when their work set sales records at Swann Auction Galleries. Paintings by Frank Bowling, Allan Freelon, Palmer Hayden, Felrath Hines, Wadsworth Jerrell, and Robert Neal, sold for record prices at Swann’s April 7 sale of African American fine art. The artists, both modern and contemporary, have had notable and...
1946 Life Magazine Offers Platform for 12 ‘Negro’ Artists
NUDE FROM THE WAIST UP, Eldzier Cortor‘s vision of Black female beauty made quite a statement in 1946 when it was showcased in Life magazine. While other Black artists, preoccupied with racial uplift, generally portrayed Black women in morally unambiguous circumstances, Cortor embraced the natural beauty and power of their bodies. In his view, dignity...
