Titus Kaphar Paints Ferguson Protesters for Time Magazine
LIKE SO MANY OTHER AMERICANS, artist Titus Kaphar has been struggling with how to respond to the shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the choking death of Eric Garner in New York, and the countless other incidents involving police officers killing unarmed Black men and youth across the country. Ultimately, he expressed himself...
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...
Recommended: New Yorker on Black Southern Art at Met, AiA Talks to Kevin Beasley, New York on D.C. Art Scene
RECOMMENDED FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “The Met Embraces Neglected Southern Artists” by Paige Williams | The New Yorker The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the acquisition of dozens of works by African American self-taught artists from the South including Thornton Dial,...
Treadway Toomey Auctioning Works by 74 African American Artists in Chicago
WHILE THE ART WORLD GATHERS IN MIAMI BEACH for Art Basel, those interested in work by African American artists should be attuned to what is happening in Chicago. Tomorrow Treadway Toomey Auctions is offering paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture by 74 black artists. The group includes well-known 20th century figures Charles Alston, Richmond Barthe,...
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...
Recommended: Hyperallergic on Martin Puryear, NY Times Profiles Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Renee Green in Artforum
RECOMMENDED READING FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: Some Thoughts About Richard Serra and Martin Puryear by John Yau | Hyperallergic Martin Puryear and Richard Serra were born two years apart and both attended Yale’s MFA program. Puryear draws on traditional woodworking skills,...
On ‘Black Friday,’ a Look Back at Kerry James Marshall’s ‘Dollar for Dollar’ Exhibition
“Buy Black” by Kerry James Marshall on view at “Black Eye” group exhibition curated by Nicola Vassell, May 2014 in New York | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine AMERICA’S THIRST FOR HOLIDAY CONSUMPTION, paired with retailers desperate push to convince consumers to spend, spend, spend so that they can maximize revenues during the most...
Senga Nengudi’s First UK Exhibition Opens at White Cube Gallery
ARTISTS HAVE LONG USED EVERYDAY OBJECTS as inspiration, tools and materials, often transforming and utilizing them in entirely new and unrecognizable ways. A generation before Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto began filling nylon textiles with spices, Senga Nengudi (below left) was twisting, stretching and manipulating nylon pantyhose, testing their tension and form by stuffing them...
Njideka Akunyili Crosby Wins Smithsonian’s 2014 James Dicke Prize
THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM has awarded Njideka Akunyili Crosby the 2014 James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize for her “bold yet intimate” mixed- media paintings, which it describes as “among the most visually, conceptually and technically exciting work being made today.” The museum made the announcement yesterday. The prize recognizes an artist younger than...
Kerry James Marshall’s ‘Vignette’ Sells at Christie’s for Record $1 Million
KERRY JAMES MARSHALL HAS JOINED the million dollar club. His 2003 painting “Vignette” sold for more than $1 million (including fees) at Christie’s on Nov. 13. It was a record for the artist, according to sales results and auction records kept by multiple sources including Blouin Art Sales Index and Iris Index. “Vignette” was Lot...
American Masters: 7 Exhibitions Feature Important 20th Century Artists Who Broke Barriers
JACOB LAWRENCE COMPLETED “The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture,” his first series of historic narrative paintings in 1938. It was the same year Talladega College commissioned Hale Woodruff to paint a series of murals depicting the Amistad uprising. Both projects document pivotal moments in black diasporic history and demonstrate the immense talent of important 20th century...
Culture Talk: Lauren Haynes on ‘Speaking of People: Ebony, Jet and Contemporary Art’
A NEW EXHIBITION AT THE STUDIO MUSEUM in Harlem was inspired by the pluck of a young Chicago entrepreneur. When positive images of black people were absent from America’s most popular household magazines, John H. Johnson started his own. Fixtures on the coffee tables of countless black families across the country, Ebony and Jet served...
Recommended: AiA on Howardena Pindell, Walker Art Center on Bill T. Jones, Ocula on Isaac Julien
RECOMMENDED READING FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “The Hole Truth” by Raphael Rubinstein | Art in America Howardena Pindell has pursued a number of avenues in her work, but it is her fields of color punctuated with layered scatterings of...
Kay Hassan Uses Everyday Materials to Tell Compelling Stories
STORIES, MEMORIES AND DREAMS fill Jack Shainman Gallery. They are embedded in ambitious portraits composed of torn paper and installations of found radios, album covers and eyeglasses. The materials have a history that artist Kay Hassan mines for meaning, envisioning how everyday people live, face challenges and find joy. Images from billboard advertisements and the...
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...
Shelf Worthy: New Books on Black British Artists, Chris Ofili, Basquiat and More
A SELECTION OF SHELF-WORTHY, COFFEE TABLE-READY books and catalogs published recently that explore black art and artists “The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V: The Twentieth Century, Part 2: The Rise of Black Artists” edited by David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Belknap Press, 368 pages) Since 2010, Harvard University Press...
Art & Antiques: An Overdue Look at Archibald Motley, Modernist ‘Mix Master’
THE MOTIVATION BEHIND MOUNTING “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” has everything to do with exposure, recasting the legacy of an important 20th century painter. Based in Chicago, Archibald Motley (1891-1981) painted captivating portraits, lively street scenes and spirited social gatherings with a modern perspective. His canvases capture African American life with wry humor and...
Recommended Reading: New Yorker on Weeksville, Filmmaker Bradford Young in BOMB, WSJ on Kara Walker
RECOMMENDED READING FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “Recovering Weeksville” By Brandon Harris | The New Yorker The new Weeksville Heritage Center, “Brooklyn’s largest African-American cultural center,” cements the legacy of the black landowning community for which it was named. Straddling Bedford-Stuyvesant and...
For Carrie Mae Weems, Guggenheim Honor Caps Banner Year
SINCE LAST FALL, month after month has been punctuated by encounters with photographer Carrie Mae Weems. Not literally, but at every turn it seems another accomplishment or engagement, another confirmation of the importance of her practice, has come to my attention, which is wonderful. Throughout her more than 30-year career, Weems has been critically...
