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An essential resource focused on visual art from a Black perspective, Culture Type explores the intersection of art, history, and culture

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Election 2020: Artists and Museums are Actively Engaged, Presenting Exhibitions and Public Awareness Campaigns, and Encouraging Voter Participation

Election 2020: Artists and Museums are Actively Engaged, Presenting Exhibitions and Public Awareness Campaigns, and Encouraging Voter Participation

Vote.org’s Plan Your Vote campaign features voting advocacy artworks by artists including, from left, Julie Mehretu and Calida Rawles   ELECTION DAY IS NOV. 3 in the United States and in the lead up artists and art institutions have been active and engaged. The political season has inspired countless artist projects, information campaigns, public art...
Andrea Pippins Illustrated a New Kwanzaa Stamp, Offering a Contemporary Take on Traditional African American Holiday

Andrea Pippins Illustrated a New Kwanzaa Stamp, Offering a Contemporary Take on Traditional African American Holiday

  WITH THE HOLIDAY SEASON fast approaching, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new Kwanzaa stamp featuring artwork by Andrea Pippins. The Forever stamp was dedicated on Oct. 13. Pippins offers a contemporary take on the traditional African American holiday established in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, a professor of Africana studies. Working with a largely...
Renaissance Man: An Exceptional Painter, Musician, and Filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule Counts Beyoncé, Ava DuVernay, and Oprah Winfrey Among His Collaborators

Renaissance Man: An Exceptional Painter, Musician, and Filmmaker, Blitz Bazawule Counts Beyoncé, Ava DuVernay, and Oprah Winfrey Among His Collaborators

  A MOMENT IN TIME, a new series of paintings by Blitz Bazawule, is inspired by found photographs he located in markets around the world. The artist first discovered them in Rabat, Morocco, where vendors were selling albums full of old, black-and-white photographs belonging to families they didn’t know. In the paintings, which are on...
Aug. 28: Smithsonian is Marking March on Washington Anniversary With Film Dedicated to Pivotal Day in Black History

Aug. 28: Smithsonian is Marking March on Washington Anniversary With Film Dedicated to Pivotal Day in Black History

  TO MARK THE 57TH ANNIVERSARY of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is making its grand opening film, “August 28: A Day in the Life of a People,” available online, free to public for 24 hours, beginning tomorrow morning. “Aug. 28”...
New National Trust Grants Are Preserving African American History at 27 Sites Connected to Boston Artists, Architect Paul Williams, and Poet Lucille Clifton

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...
National Gallery of Art's First Painting By a Native American Artist Speaks to Race, Rage, and Problematic Name of Local NFL Team

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...
Art for Change: 12 Black Designers Created Black Lives Matter Protest Posters

Art for Change: 12 Black Designers Created Black Lives Matter Protest Posters

  PROTESTORS HAVE BEEN MARCHING throughout the United States and internationally out of frustration, anger, and fear following the latest spate of police killings. Since late May, people have taken to the streets chanting Black Lives Matter and calling for racial justice, often facing violent reprisals from law enforcement. The collective actions are meant to...
CBS News Marks Flag Day with Report on Black National Anthem, Coverage Follows Earlier Features on Black Art and Artists

CBS News Marks Flag Day with Report on Black National Anthem, Coverage Follows Earlier Features on Black Art and Artists

CBS Sunday Morning reports on “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”   TODAY IS FLAG DAY. CBS News marked the occasion with a report about “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” The James Weldon Johnson poem was set to music in 1899 by Johnson’s younger brother, the composer John Rosamond Johnson. Known as the Black National Anthem,...
Feature Film About Florida Highwaymen Painters is Coming Soon

Feature Film About Florida Highwaymen Painters is Coming Soon

  THE DRAMATIC TRUE STORY of the Highwaymen, the Florida artists who made a living selling paintings from the trunks of their cars during segregation, is being made into a feature film. “The Highwaymen” is about a group of 26 African American artists, most of them self-taught, who turned out countless paintings of Florida’s lush,...
A Look Inside Johnson Publishing Archive: From Pearl Bailey on Set of 'Carmen Jones' to Coretta Scott King in Mourning and Eartha Kitt Poolside

A Look Inside Johnson Publishing Archive: From Pearl Bailey on Set of ‘Carmen Jones’ to Coretta Scott King in Mourning and Eartha Kitt Poolside

Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X attend school boycott rally in New York City, March 1964   BLACK-AND-WHTIE PHOTOGRAPHS of Pearl Bailey on the set of the 1954 film “Carmen Jones”; Sammy Davis Jr., hanging with the Rat Pack; Eartha Kitt reading Richard Wright’s “Pagan Spain” poolside at a swank hotel; and Coretta Scott King...
The New York Times Asked African American Creatives About the Black Art That Inspires Them. Here is What They Said

The New York Times Asked African American Creatives About the Black Art That Inspires Them. Here is What They Said

Trailer: “Get Out” (2017), Written and Directed by Jordan Peele. | Video by Universal Pictures   ‘GET OUT’ was “a phenomenal piece of work,” artist Kerry James Marshall said. Kenya Barris, the television writer and producer, is drawn to the neon work “Double America 2” (2014) by Glenn Ligon. “The simplicity of it is radical...
Time Magazine Recognizes 100 Years of Influential Women with Covers by Mickalene Thomas, Bisa Butler, and Toyin Ojih Odutola

Time Magazine Recognizes 100 Years of Influential Women with Covers by Mickalene Thomas, Bisa Butler, and Toyin Ojih Odutola

  TIME MAGAZINE is exploring the most influential women of the past century. 2020 marks 100 years since women gained the right to vote in the United States. To recognize the milestone that transformed women’s individual and collective agency, the magazine launched a project called 100 Women of the Year. Introducing the project, Nancy Gibbs,...
Chicago Painter is Central Character in New 'Candyman' Horror Film From Jordan Peele and Director Nia DaCosta

Chicago Painter is Central Character in New ‘Candyman’ Horror Film From Jordan Peele and Director Nia DaCosta

“Candyman” stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who also had roles in HBO’s “Watchmen” and Jordan Peele’s “Us.”   A NEW HORROR FILM from Jordan Peele weaves the contemporary art world and Chicago gentrification with an urban legend about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand. According to the legend, if you say Candyman five...
2,500+ Artists Sign Open Letter Endorsing Bernie Sanders for President, Group Includes Kara Walker, Kevin Beasley, and Aria Dean

2,500+ Artists Sign Open Letter Endorsing Bernie Sanders for President, Group Includes Kara Walker, Kevin Beasley, and Aria Dean

  A SIZABLE GROUP OF ARTISTS has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for President of the United States, issuing an open letter of support outlining the reasons why they think the he is the best candidate in the Democratic field. More than 2,500 artists have endorsed the online letter, including Kader Attia, Kevin Beasley, Nicole...
Sundance Features Documentaries About Betye Saar and Agnes Gund, Black Women Directors Celebrated With Top Awards

Sundance Features Documentaries About Betye Saar and Agnes Gund, Black Women Directors Celebrated With Top Awards

Betye Saar in the short documentary “Taking Care of Business,” directed by Christine Turner   BLACK FILMMAKERS and black stories are an increasing presence at the Sundance Film Festival. This year a number of projects garnered attention, including documentaries about artist Betye Saar and philanthropist and art collector Agnes Gund, and three films by black...
MCA Chicago's 'Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech' is an Exhibition Experience Dedicated to the Fast Rise of the Artist/Designer

MCA Chicago’s ‘Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech’ is an Exhibition Experience Dedicated to the Fast Rise of the Artist/Designer

Installation view of “Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech” at MCA Chicago   THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO is presenting the first museum exhibition dedicated to Virgil Abloh. The fast-rising designer and inveterate collaborator is the head of menswear design at Louis Vuitton and founder of the “streetwear” label Off-White. A traveling survey spanning two...
World Champion Simone Biles and the Elite Competition and Complexities of Women's Gymnastics Recently Inspired Two Painters

World Champion Simone Biles and the Elite Competition and Complexities of Women’s Gymnastics Recently Inspired Two Painters

  THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME. If there was any question Simone Biles is the greatest athlete in the history of gymnastics, she put all doubts to rest over the weekend at the United States Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, Mo. The world’s top gymnast pushed new boundaries, delivered ambitious routines, and clenched her sixth...
Louis Vuitton Invited 6 Artists Including Tschabalala Self and Nicholas Hlobo to Reimagine its Capucines Handbag

Louis Vuitton Invited 6 Artists Including Tschabalala Self and Nicholas Hlobo to Reimagine its Capucines Handbag

  SIX NOTABLE FIGURES in contemporary art have reimagined Louis Vuitton’s top-handle Capucines bag. The Artycapucines Collection features limited-edition designs by South African artist Nicholas Hlobo and American artist Tschabalala Self, along with Sam Falls, Urs Fischer, Alex Israel, and Jonas Wood. Self is the only female artist in the group. Inspired by the Louis...
50 Years Ago, Alma Thomas Made 'Space' Paintings that Imagined the Moon and Mars

50 Years Ago, Alma Thomas Made ‘Space’ Paintings that Imagined the Moon and Mars

  WHEN APOLLO 11 LANDED on the moon, Alma Thomas was inspired by the historic milestone. The mission was launched 50 years ago today and Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins landed on the moon four days later, July 20, 1969. The American astronauts were the first people to visit...
Priceless History: Johnson Publishing Photography and Media Archive Up for Auction This Week

Priceless History: Johnson Publishing Photography and Media Archive Up for Auction This Week

  BEGINNING IN THE MID-20TH CENTURY, Johnson Publishing dominated the media landscape disseminating images of African Americans that defined black identity during an unprecedented period of progress and change. The photography published in Ebony and Jet magazines established a visual language and black aesthetic that came to represent the African American experience. It’s hard to...