Sports Agent Rich Paul Advises Athletes to Invest in Art: ‘There’s More Areas to Park Your Finances Than Clothes, Shoes, and Cars. Those are Depreciating Assets’
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...
‘Black American Portraits’ Showcases 140 Artworks, Two Centuries of Representation Across Geographies and Diverse Practices
Installation view of “Black American Portraits,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art THE OBAMA PORTRAITS were such a hit at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the museum launched a multi-city tour to give people throughout the country a chance to see the historic paintings. Kehinde Wiley‘s portrait of President Barack Obama...
The Week in Black Art, March 15-21, 2021: Art Institute of Chicago Hires New Education Director, New Orleans Museum Acquires Wangechi Mutu Sculpture, Major Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Painting Headed to Auction
This post will be updated with the latest news in Black art throughout the week Ashley Harris is heading up marketing at Mana Culture. | Photo by Angela Pham March 20, 2021 Ashley Harris Joins Mana Culture Ashley Harris was appointed head of marketing, Arts and Culture for Mana Culture based...
Call and Response: Full of Drawings of Envisioned Works, Betye Saar’s Sketchbooks Serve as a ‘Wellspring of Creativity’
THE EXHIBITION CATALOG that accompanies “Betye Saar: Call and Response,” the artist’s showcase of sketchbooks and related artworks, is a real treasure. Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the traveling exhibition features sketchbooks dating from 1970 to 2015. The show represents an important milestone for Saar, given it is...
Artist Charles White Was a Devoted Teacher Who Served as a ‘Life Model’ to Countless Students in Los Angeles and Beyond
FOR THE FIRST TIME in more than three decades, “Charles White: A Retrospective” offered a career-spanning overview of Charles White, whose powerful paintings and drawings capture the strength, beauty, and dignity of African Americans. While showcasing White’s artistic practice was the focus of the museum survey, his son, Ian White, realized the traveling exhibition...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Adds Finance Figures Mellody Hobson and Robbie Robinson to Trustee Board
THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART (LACMA), which is developing a new $650 million building, announced three appointments to its board of trustees—Colleen Bell, Melody Hobson, and Robbie Robinson. Two of the new members, Hobson and Robinson, are formidable figures in Chicago’s finance and investment world. Bell, a media executive and former U.S....
After Making California African American Museum Relevant Again, Naima J. Keith is Leaving for LACMA
THREE YEARS INTO HER TENURE as deputy director and chief curator at the California African American Museum, Naima J. Keith is heading to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Keith has been named vice president of education and public programs at LACMA. She begins her new post April 1. “It’s a great time...
Mellon Foundation Issues Report on Art Museum Diversity, Findings Show Significant Progress for African American Curators
Los Angeles County Museum of Art HISTORICALLY, THE U.S. MUSEUM FIELD has lacked diversity, with African Americans significantly underrepresented. A 2015 Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation found 84 percent of art museum curators, educators, conservators, and leadership was white. People of color (blacks/African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and those...
The Week in African American Art: Designer Gail Anderson Recognized by Cooper Hewitt, Artist Kapwani Kiwanga Presents Frieze Commission & More
Gail Anderson of New York received the Cooper Hewitt Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. | Photo by Declan Van Welie; Paris-based Kapwani Kiwanga won the first Frieze Artist Award in New York. | Photo by Bertille-Chérot The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African...
The Week in African American Art: LACMA Acquisitions Include Works by Julie Mehretu, Betye Saar & More
ACQUISITIONS | Julie Mehretu, “Epigraph, Damascus,” 2016. | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Kelvin Davis and Hana Kim through the 2018 Collectors Committee, © Julie Mehretu, Photo by Malcolm Varon The following review of the past week presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related...
At LACMA, Artists Betye Saar and Alison Saar Discuss Intriguing Objects from the Museum’s Collection
Alison Saar on Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. | Video by LACMA CONTAINED IN A DISPLAY BOX, the figure is at once elegant and rough hewn. “She’s a strong, intense female figure …She’s got her one hand up doing this kind of shimmy thing. She is just out there and strutting her stuff,” says artist Alison...
Family Portraits by Archibald Motley are Going on View in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
COME SPRING, VISITORS TO WASHINGTON, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art will have the opportunity to view “Portrait of My Grandmother,” by Archibald Motley (1891-1981). The 1922 painting was Motley’s favorite. In Southern California, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is presenting another family portrait. Motley’s “Uncle Bob” (1928) is expected to be...
How Artist Charles Gaines is Influencing the Creative Economy in Los Angeles
THE HAMMER MUSEUM is currently presenting “Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974-1989,” the first museum survey of the Los Angeles-based artist’s early work. The exhibition originated at the Studio Museum in Harlem and includes some rare works, previously presumed to be lost, being shown for the first time. The work of Charles Gaines has been acquired...
New Year, New Art: What to Look Forward to in 2015
WITH A NEW YEAR UNDERWAY and a promising selection of new books, exhibitions and events on the horizon, here is what is on my radar, what I am most looking forward to in 2015: “Represent: 200 Years of African American Art,” a sweeping new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Jan. 10 – April...
