On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE TITLE of Chase Hall‘s new solo exhibition, “Half Note,” references both the improvisation of jazz and biracial identity. He explores both in a new series of portraits on view at Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago. One of the paintings is named for a famous impromptu...
ONE OF THE FIRST AMERICANS to use photography as a promotional tool, Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) copyrighted her image and used it to help fund her “sojourns” as a traveling preacher. She sold cartes de visite bearing her image as souvenirs to those who came to hear her speak about the abolition of slavery and women’s...
Taylor Renee Aldridge joined CAAM as visual arts curator. | Photo by Paper Monday IN LOS ANGELES, the California African American Museum (CAAM) announced two key curatorial appointments. Detroit-based independent curator and writer Taylor Renee Aldridge is joining the museum as visual arts curator and program manager. Susan D. Anderson, a public historian...
NEW GRANTS ARE HELPING TO PRESERVE 27 U.S. sites dedicated to African American history. Sites connected to Boston artists; Los Angeles architect Paul Williams; and the historic homes performer and activist Paul Robeson, blues legend Muddy Waters, inventor Lewis Latimer, and poet Lucille Clifton, are among the beneficiaries. The support from the National Trust...
CHRISTIE’S AUCTION HOUSE is providing an online platform for emerging and mid-career artists to sell their work. It’s not an auction, rather it’s a virtual selling exhibition with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the artists. “Say It Loud” is a collaboration with independent curator Destinee Ross-Sutton and features 22 international artists of...
Artist Michael Armitage. | Photo courtesy White Cube ONE OF THE MOST THOUGH-PROVOKING figures in contemporary painting, Kenyan artist Michael Armitage probes the politics and cultural history of East Africa. His fascinating narrative scenes have a mythical quality and abstract tendencies that draw on aesthetic tensions between European traditions and East African modernism. In...
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART (NGA) announced a major appointment this week. Sheila McDaniel is joining the museum as administrator, leading teams critical to the museum’s operations: administrative support, architecture and capital improvement, facilities, horticulture, personnel, procurement, and security. Her appointment is historic. McDaniel is the first Black woman to hold an executive officer post...
July 26. 2020: Casket of Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge by horse drawn caisson in Selma, Ala. | Photo by AP Photo/John Bazemore, © 2020 The Associated Press AMERICA PAID HOMAGE to the Honorable John Lewis (1940-2020) this week in the cities where his biography unfolded in ceremonies worthy of...
Portrait of Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. | Photo by Anthony Geathers, Used with permission AN ENDURING IMAGE of the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis (1940-2020) took a knee. It was the summer of 1962 and he was leading a vigil outside a “whites only” swimming pool...
PAINTINGS ARE POWERFUL. They influence generations of artists (Picasso’s “Guernica”), encourage pilgrimages to museums (Amy Sherald’s portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama), and garner millions of dollars at auction (“Past Times” by Kerry James Marshall). Inspired by Francis Bicknell Carpenter’s “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln” (1864), artist Fulton Leroy Washington...
THE SCENES AND SITUATIONS in Neo Matloga‘s collage paintings are familiar. He captures small groups gathered in living rooms and around dining tables, couples engaged in intimate conversations, and individuals in the midst of introspective moments. Combining images cut from books and magazines with ink and charcoal line drawings, Matloga creates compelling characters...
THE PERMANENT COLLECTION of the National Gallery of Art (NGA) includes more than 150,000 objects—paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, prints, drawings, and photographs. Only 25 of them are by Native American artists, including Jaune Quick-to-See Smith‘s “I See Red: Target” (1992), the first painting by a Native American artist to enter the collection, which was...
LIVE SALES AT THE BIG AUCTION HOUSES have returned and at Phillips works by several black artists stood out in the results. On July 2, the Phillips New York 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale featured 25 premium lots and all found buyers. Seven black artists were represented including Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hammons,...
THE MUTUAL ADMIRATION between storytellers Zadie Smith and Toyin Ojih Odutola is palpable. The British novelist has written about the Nigerian-born visual artist’s work for British Vogue and contributed an essay to her forthcoming catalog, “Toyin Ojih Odutola: A Countervailing Theory,” which will accompany a show at the Barbican Centre in London, the artist’s...
MUSEUM OPERATIONS CONTINUE TO CHURN as institutions navigate months of challenges resulting from COVID-19. Museums are facing budget constraints in the wake of the virus. At the same time, several are dealing with accusations of racism from staff and former staff. Many remain temporarily closed and others are joining a wave of re-openings. Three...
Exploring the Beauty of New Orleans Courtyards, Artist Patrick Waldemar Channeled a Painful History of Racism
Aug 9, 2020
On View: ‘Chase Hall: Half Note’ at Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago
Aug 9, 2020
Women’s Suffrage: Grace Lynne Haynes Painted Sojourner Truth Using Vibrant Colors and Vividly Patterned Textiles to ‘Make the Portrait Contemporary’
Aug 8, 2020
California African American Museum in Los Angeles Hired Two New Curators: Taylor Renee Aldridge and Susan D. Anderson
Aug 7, 2020
New National Trust Grants Are Preserving African American History at 27 Sites Connected to Boston Artists, Architect Paul Williams, and Poet Lucille Clifton
Aug 6, 2020
