AN EARLY MEMBER of the Chicago collective AfriCOBRA has died. Artist Nelson Stevens (1938-2022), passed away on July 22. He was 84. His death was first reported by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. The news was confirmed to Culture Type by his gallery, Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore, Md. In a statement, the gallery said:...
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Nancy Lane at Studio Museum in Harlem 2015 gala. | Photo by Julie Skarratt, Courtesy The Studio Museum in Harlem Lives New York art collector and philanthropist Nancy Lee Lane (1933-2022) died March 28....
A PROMINENT FIGURE in the Philadelphia arts community, Moe Brooker (1940-2022) died on Jan. 9 after a brief stay at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. An artist and educator who had served as chair of the Philadelphia Art Commission, Brooker was 81. Active for more than half a century, Brooker made abstract...
BLACK ARTISTS representing multiple generations and disciplines died in 2021, including Virgil Abloh, Winfred Rembert, Donald P. Ryder, Chi Modu, and Peter Williams. Figures such as Judson Powell of Los Angeles, Eugene Wade of Chicago, Charles McGee of Detroit, and Denzil Hurley of Seattle, Wash., who were well-known locally and deserve wider attention, also...
CULTURAL CRITIC AND MUSICIAN Greg Tate (1957-2021) died Dec. 7 in New York. He was 64. Widely renowned and beloved, Tate wrote with a singular style and insight about music, art, and culture at-large. In the 1970s, he worked at Just Above Midtown Gallery in New York, the storied gathering place and exhibition space...
Painter Peter Williams in his studio in 2018. | Courtesy Luis De Jesus Los Angeles ARTIST AND EDUCATOR Peter Williams (1952-2021) has died. He was 69. A fantastic painter and storyteller, his use of bold and intense color was equally matched by his candid and thoughtful insights about his own experiences and the realities...
SHINING A LIGHT on his Cleveland community and its myriad social and economic challenges, artist Michelangelo Lovelace Sr. (1960-2021), addressed issues of racial injustice, crime, poverty, and unemployment in his work. Lovelace also documented people coming together—for parties, parades, or political rallies—and infused his pictures with wisdom and positive messages. The work reflected what...
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...
Collector Ronald Ollie (1951-2020) AN AVID COLLECTOR of African American art and generous museum patron, Ronald Ollie (1951-2020) has died. He passed away at his home in Newark, N.J., on June 1. He was 69. His wife Monique McRipley Ollie confirmed his death to Culture Type. She told me via email, “I think his...
A PIONEERING ARTIST who made captivating, poignant, and culturally insightful works, Emma Amos (1937-2020) has died. She was 83. Amos passed away on May 20 in Bedford, N.H., of natural causes after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Ryan Lee Gallery in New York, where Amos has been represented since 2016, shared news of her...
DAVID C. DRISKELL (1931-2020) helped build the field of African American art history and was a nexus for three generations of artists, curators, and scholars who have studied and are fortifying the discipline. A pivotal figure in American art and leading authority on African American art, Driskell died on April 1. He was 88....
SHE GOT A LOT DONE. On Monday, Toni Morrison (1931-2019) died at the age of 88. The announcement of her death prompted an outpouring of laudatory tributes to the author who wrote with authority and aplomb about the lives of black people, with black women at the center of her narratives. Artists were among...
Chef Leah Chase (1923-2019) THE COLLECTION of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., includes portraits of America’s most iconic figures—legends of culture, politics, and history. When the most prominent among these national treasures dies, the Smithsonian museum recognizes their life and legacy by displaying their portrait in a designated In Memoriam space on...
Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019) THE RANKS OF BLACK CURATORS in the art world, while expanding, are relatively thin. Nearly every one has a connection to Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019), whether they were close with him or worked with him, or only of knew him and his work. Enwezor, the renowned curator and critic, died March 15....
Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019). | Photo: Venice Biennale A LEADING LIGHT in the art world has dimmed. Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019), the internationally renowned curator and critic who served as artistic director of the 56th Venice Biennale, died March 15 in Munich after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 55. Enwezor served as artistic director...
Aretha Franklin (1969) recording at Atlantic Records in New York. SHE WAS A NATIONAL TREASURE. A beacon for the world. The Queen of Soul. Aretha Louise Franklin (1942-2018), whose powerful voice provided a soundtrack for change in America, died yesterday at her home in Detroit. She was 76. The cause was advanced pancreatic cancer....
Arts and Education Advocate Peggy Cooper Caftritz (1947-2018) FOR THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT equity and access in arts and education, a major ally and important advocate has been lost. Peggy Cooper Cafrtiz (1947-2018), the Washington, D.C., arts patron who co-founded the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, died Feb. 18 at a local hospital....
IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT EXPERIMENTATION. For more than half a century, Jack Whitten (1939-2018) pursued the possibilities of paint, material, and technique. While constantly evolving his conceptual practice, he remained proudly political, committed to exploring weighty issues, and intent on lifting up the legacies of fellow African American artists and cultural figures by paying...
BARBARA JONES-HOGU, “Unite (First State),” 1969 (screenprint). | © Barbara Jones-Hogu, Courtesy Lusenhop Fine Art THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT has lost a central figure. Barbara Jones-Hogu (1938-2017), a founding member of the artist collective AfriCOBRA, died Nov. 14. The Chicago artist, educator, and filmmaker, was 79. Recognized for her political, pro-Black images combining figuration...