New Autograph ABP Exhibition is Latest Exploration of Early Images of Blacks
THROUGHOUT THE AFRICAN DIASPORA the image and representation of black people have been fraught with a history of power, subjugation, racism and stereotype. For generations, the black community was largely absent from the visual record of societies from Europe to the Americas. When blacks lacked the means and agency to control their own images,...
Fall Preview: The Season’s 16 Most-Anticipated Art Exhibitions
THE NEW EXHIBITION SEASON IS UNDERWAY and fall’s most anticipated museum and gallery shows are opening soon. In the coming months, 16 exhibitions will feature highly regarded and innovative black artists working across a range of mediums. Chris Ofili’s first major solo museum exhibition in the United States opens at the New Museum on Oct....
A Tale of Two Flags: Sonya Clark at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
SONYA CLARK STIRS HISTORY and explores cultural meaning using human hair and all of its heavy and joyous symbolism. The artist describes hair as power, the essence of identity and a marker of chronology, wisdom and adornment. Her “Black Hair Flag” is currently on view in the “Posing Beauty in African American Culture” exhibition...
Romare Bearden’s ‘Black Odyssey’ Headed to Columbia University
CELEBRATED FOR HIS RICH, LAYERED DEPICTIONS of African American life and culture, Romare Bearden’s decision to produce 20 collages based on episodes of Homer’s “The Odyssey” was widely viewed as a departure from his practice. Citing themes familiar to the African American experience—mourning, wandering and questing for home—scholar Robert O’Meally argues that the 1977...
Kara Walker Discusses Her Sugar-Coated Sphinx at NY Public Library
ON TUESDAY, ARTIST KARA WALKER spoke for 90 minutes about “A Subtlety,” the enormous sculpture she has installed in the old Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn. Commissioned by the public arts organization Creative Time to produce a work for the abandoned space, which is slated for redevelopment, she was given complete creative freedom. In...
On Exhibit: What to See on Art Museum Day 2014
THE ASSOCIATION OF ART MUSEUM OF DIRECTORS is celebrating Art Museum Day on Sunday, May 18. For the fifth year, museums across the country are using the annual event to promote the cultural and educational benefits of their programming and encourage the public to visit. Participating museums are offering free or reduced admission and...
Culture Talk: Duke Professor Richard J. Powell on Archibald Motley
THE NASHER MUSEUM OF ART at Duke University is infused with Chicago jazz and Paris blues. Since January 19, the museum has been exhibiting 45 paintings by Chicago artist Archibald J. Motley Jr. (1891-1981). “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” presents a rare opportunity to experience the work of one of the 20th century’s most...
