California African American Museum in Los Angeles Hired Two New Curators: Taylor Renee Aldridge and Susan D. Anderson
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 National Trust Grants Are Preserving African American History at 27 Sites Connected to Boston Artists, Architect Paul Williams, and Poet Lucille Clifton
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...
Say It Loud: Curator Destinee Ross-Sutton Partnered With Christie’s to Help Emerging Artists Showcase and Sell Their Work
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...
New Voice With Plenty to Say: Kenyan Painter Michael Armitage Bridges European Traditions and East African Modernism
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...
Historic Appointment: Sheila McDaniel is New Administrator at National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
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...
America Paid Homage to Civil Rights Icon John Lewis This Week in Multi-City Homegoing Worthy of a Statesman
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...
Congressman John Lewis, the Civil Rights Icon and Lifelong Freedom Fighter, Was a Museum Advocate Who Recognized the Importance of Art and Artists
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...
Fulton Leroy Washington Honed His Artistic Talent in Prison, the Made in L.A. Biennial is Giving Him a New Platform
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...
South African Artist Neo Matloga: ‘I Am Hoping the Audience Will See Their Emotions, Their Experiences, Their Spirits Living on My Canvases’
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...
National Gallery of Art’s First Painting By a Native American Artist Speaks to Race, Rage, and Problematic Name of Local NFL Team
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...
Phillips Restarts Live Auctions With Record Results for Titus Kaphar and Christina Quarles, Notable Debut for Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
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,...
Toyin Ojih Odutola Calls Her Portrait of Zadie Smith a ‘Love Letter to Black Britain’
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...
Black Women Leaders Appointed to New Roles at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and Skirball Cultural Center and Lucas Museum in Los Angeles
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...
Curator Shawnya L. Harris is Planning a Major Museum Retrospective of Emma Amos, Forthcoming in 2021
AN UNPRECEDENTED RETROSPECTIVE dedicated to Emma Amos (1937-2020) has been in the works for five years and is forthcoming in 2021 at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia in Athens. Amos was a progressive painter. From the beginning, she explored and challenged race, class, and gender norms, both in her...
ARTNOIR Auction is Raising Funds to Benefit Emerging Artists and Curators of Color: ‘We Needed to Step Up in How We Supported Our Community’
ARTNOIR IS AN INVALUABLE RESOURCE for artists, and serves as a nexus for curators and cultural producers. The global collective organizes artist talks, exhibition tours, studio visits, and a variety of other experiences designed to engage and educate a new generation of creatives and collectors. ARTNOIR has partnered with museums and brands, Aperture, For...
