Cuban-Born Artist Ricardo Brey is Now Represented by Alexander Gray Associates, First Solo Show in New York Slated for 2019
Born in Havana, Cuba, Ricardo Brey lives and works in Ghent, Belgium. | Courtesy Alexander Grey Associates MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST Ricardo Brey has joined Alexander Gray Associates in New York. Brey’s research-oriented practice explores the roots of who we are—the origins of humanity, the intersection of nature and culture, and how we understand our place...
The Week in African American Art: 7 Board Resignations at Chicago’s DuSable Museum, Naima Keith is Co-Organizing Prospect.5 in New Orleans, VMFA Acquisitions & More
NEWS | Seven members have resigned from the DuSable Museum of African American History board of trustees in Chicago. The departures include the chair and two vice chairs. The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: NEWS Seven...
Corcoran Collection Art Goes to Howard University, and Smithsonian African American and Anacostia Museums
Sam Gilliam’s 1969 painting, “Light Depth” will be added to the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. | Courtesy Corcoran Collection THE REMAINING ART from the Corcoran Gallery of Art has been distributed. More than 10,750 works were given away. Nearly all of it went to 22 institutions in Washington, D.C. The...
The Week in African American Art: Designer Gail Anderson Recognized by Cooper Hewitt, Artist Kapwani Kiwanga Presents Frieze Commission & More
Gail Anderson of New York received the Cooper Hewitt Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. | Photo by Declan Van Welie; Paris-based Kapwani Kiwanga won the first Frieze Artist Award in New York. | Photo by Bertille-Chérot The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African...
Archibald Motley’s Favorite Painting, a Portrait of His Grandmother, Has Entered the Collection of the National Gallery of Art
A SELECTION OF PAINTINGS OF WOMEN IN WHITE is displayed in the American Galleries in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Portraits by artists including Gilbert Stuart, Cecilia Beaux, Whistler, George Bellows, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent are among the group. Stuart’s rendering of Catherine Brass Yates...
Overlooked: The Smithsonian Acquired a Portrait of Henrietta Lacks, the Latest Effort to Recognize Her Legacy in Medical Science
KADIR NELSON, “Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine,” 2017 (oil on linen). | Collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from Kadir Nelson and the JKBN Group LLC CERVICAL CANCER CLAIMED THE LIFE of Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951), an African American woman who...
Acquisitions by Glenn Ligon, McArthur Binion, and Toyin Ojih Odutola are Driving Conversations Around Race and History at Mississippi Museum of Art
GLENN LIGON, “Condition Report,” 2000 THE MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART in Jackson, Miss., is encouraging constructive conversations about racial equity through contemporary art. A slate of new acquisitions, including works by African American artists Glenn Ligon, Benny Andrews (1930-2006), and McArthur Binion, a native of Macon, Miss., supports the museum’s commitment to engaging the...
Artist Barkley L. Hendricks Received a Posthumous Faculty Award From Connecticut College Where He Taught for Nearly Four Decades
EMERITUS PROFESSOR Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) received the inaugural President’s Award for Creative Impact from Connecticut College on May 2. He was among five faculty members recognized by President Katherine Bergeron for demonstrating excellence and innovation in research, teaching and leadership. Hendricks is the first to be honored with the new Impact award which...
Charles White’s ‘Love Letter’ for Angela Davis Featured on Forthcoming 2019 African American Art Calendar
CHARLES WHITE, “Love Letter,” 1971 SHORTLY AFTER ‘CHARLES WHITE: A RETROSPECTIVE’ opens at the Art Institute of Chicago, a 2019 wall calendar will be released featuring his work. Published by Pomegranate in collaboration with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), the African American art calendar features Charles White‘s “Love Letter” (1971) on the...
The Week in African American Art: LACMA Acquisitions Include Works by Julie Mehretu, Betye Saar & More
ACQUISITIONS | Julie Mehretu, “Epigraph, Damascus,” 2016. | Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Kelvin Davis and Hana Kim through the 2018 Collectors Committee, © Julie Mehretu, Photo by Malcolm Varon The following review of the past week presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related...
Newly Focused on Acquiring African American Art, Columbus Museum Adds Works by Robert Neal and Augusta Savage to Collection
Robert Neal, “Rearguard,” 1950 (oil on linen canvas). | Courtesy Swann Auction Galleries A STRIKING PORTRAIT of an African American soldier during the Korean War was acquired by the Columbus Museum this month. “Rearguard” by Robert Neal (1916-1987) is the latest in a series works by African American artists to enter the Columbus, Ga.,...
It’s World Book Day. Have You Read an Exhibition Catalog in the Past Year?
Johnson Publishing Library Archive at Rebuild Foundation, Chicago (April 23, 2016). | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine TODAY IS WORLD BOOK DAY, what are you reading? An exhibition catalog or critical text perhaps? Designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Book and Copyright Day celebrates and promotes books, reading,...
The Week in African American Art: Solange Creates Performance with Dozens of Dancers and White Minimalist Cube & More
PROJECTS/UNVEILINGS | Solange Ferguson, “Metatronia (Metatron’s Cube),” 2018, at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles The following review of the past week presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: NEWS Jerome Meadows, a Savannah, Ga.-based artist has been commissioned to create a memorial to Ed Johnson,...
Kehinde Wiley, the Portrait Artist Who is ‘Transforming the Way African Americans are Seen,’ Makes Time 100 List
Kehinde Wiley is among the artists who made the 2018 Time 100 list. | Video by Time Magazine TIME MAGAZINE RELEASED its Time 100 list for 2018 and it features three visual artists—Judy Chicago, JR, and Kehinde Wiley, who appears in the wake of painting his news making portrait of President Barack Obama, which...
The Week in African American Art: Zoé Whitley Named Curator of British Pavilion at 2019 Venice Biennale & More
Zoé Whitley to curate British Pavilion at 2019 Venice Biennale. | Photo by Andrew Dunkley, Tate Photography The following review of the past week presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: APPOINTMENTS British Pavilion at Venice Biennale Zoé Whitley is curating the British Pavilion at the...
PAFA Hired Curator Brittany Webb to Steward Legacy of African American Sculptor John Rhoden and Collection of 275+ Works
Sculptor John Rhoden (1918-2001). FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER THE DEATH of African American sculptor John Rhoden (1918-2001), his widow died in 2016. The couple was childless and Richanda Rhoden did not designate a beneficiary in her will, but she did specify that the couple’s estate should go to an institution willing to steward her husband’s...
The Week in African American Art: Kehinde Wiley Signed with a Hollywood Agent & More
The following review of the past week presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: Kehinde Wiley has signed with a Hollywood talent agency. Shown here, he attends the opening for his 2017 exhibition “Trickster” at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York City. | Photo by Johnny...
Speed Art Museum Acquires Bob Thompson Painting, a Self-Portrait of the Louisville Native
Bob Thompson, 1964 | Smithsonian Archives of American Art 1960 WAS A PIVOTAL YEAR for Bob Thompson (1937-1966). He had his first solo exhibition at the Delancey Street Museum on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The same year, he made a rare self-portrait, depicting himself in his Clinton Street studio surrounded by his...
Record-Setting African American Art Auction Gives Swann Galleries Highest-Ever Sales Total in Company History
BEAUFORD DELANEY, “Untitled (Village Street Scene),” 1948 APPLAUSE SWEPT THROUGH THE SALESROOM when a colorful mid-career canvas by Norman Lewis soared to $725,000*, three times the estimate. Bidders also clapped when a village street scene painted by Beauford Delaney (above) and “O Freedom,” a large-scale charcoal and crayon drawing by Charles White reached half...
Alma Thomas’s Hometown Museum in Columbus, Ga., Plans a Major Retrospective
Alma Thomas with her work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. | Courtesy Archives of American Art LARGELY KNOWN AS A WASHINGTON, D.C,-BASED ARTIST who dedicated herself to her practice full-time late in life, Alma Thomas (1891-1978) is recognized for her abstract compositions, exuberant works defined by rhythmic pattern and vibrant color. The...
