Architect David Adjaye Named Lead Designer for National Holocaust Memorial in London
THE UK GOVERNMENT has selected Adjaye Associates, Ron Arad Architects and landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman to design a new national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in London. David Adjaye will serve as lead designer of the project. Commissioned by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, the memorial honors “the six million Jewish men,...
Presidential Appointments: Obamas Select Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald to Paint Their Official Portraits for Smithsonian
TWO AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS are painting official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The artists were selected by the Obamas. New York-based Kehinde Wiley is painting the president and Baltimore artist Amy Sherald will depict the first lady. The Portrait Gallery commissioned...
New Banners at Smithsonian American Art Museum Feature Paintings by Alma Thomas and William H. Johnson
TREASURED WORKS BY African American artists Alma Thomas and William H. Johnson are on view outside the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum (SAAM). With the help of the public, the works were selected to grace the new banners hanging at the museum’s entrances. “The Eclipse” (1970) by Thomas and “Flowers” (1939-40) by Johnson greet visitors...
PAFA Has Acquired a Confederate Flag. Artist Sonya Clark is ‘Unraveling’ it Nov. 4
In September, PAFA acquired “Unraveling” (2015-ongoing) by Sonya Clark for $17,000. The artist is deconstructing (or “unraveling”) the Confederate flag on Nov. 4. | Courtesy Sonya Clark THE FATE OF CONFEDERATE STATUES in public spaces. NFL players taking a knee during the National Anthem. America’s complicated history with race and views about protest and...
Artist Samuel Levi Jones is Joining Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
SUSANNE VIELMETTER LOS ANGELES PROJECTS has announced its representation of Samuel Levi Jones. The Chicago-based artist makes innovative three-dimensional works out of books, taking an intellectual approach to working with the tomes that could be described as anthropological abstraction. The news that Jones is joining Susanne Vielmetter comes about four months after the opening...
Dawoud Bey and Njideka Akunyili Crosby Awarded 2017 MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grants
Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Dawoud Bey. | Photos courtesy MacArthur Foundation THE LATEST CLASS of MacArthur Foundation fellows includes photographer Dawoud Bey and painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby. The artists are among 24 recipients of 2017 “Genius” grants announced today. MacArthur Fellowships are bestowed upon “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in...
Smithsonian’s African American Museum is Getting its Own U.S. Postage Stamp
TO CELEBRATE ITS FIRST ANNIVERSARY, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is being immortalized on a U.S. postage stamp. Based on a photograph of the David Adjaye-designed building, the stamp features a daytime image of the museum’s exterior. The Forever stamp will be available nationwide this friday. “Black history...
Lifetime Achievement: 3 Institutions are Paying Tribute to Betye Saar, ‘One of the Most Profound Living American Artists’
THREE AMERICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS are bestowing lifetime achievement awards on Betye Saar. Next weekend, the Craft & Folk Art Museum Los Angeles (CAFAM) is honoring Saar at its annual fundraising gala. Earlier this year, Saar presented “Keepin’ It Clean,” a solo exhibition of washboard assemblages dating from the 1990s to present at the museum....
A Major Retrospective of Conceptual Pioneer Adrian Piper is Opening at Museum of Modern Art in 2018
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MoMA) in New York is presenting a major retrospective of conceptual artist Adrian Piper in spring 2018. The most comprehensive exhibition to explore her practice,”Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965–2016″ will feature more than 280 works drawn from public and private collections around the world and be on...
David Hammons is Collaborating with Whitney Museum on Proposed Hudson River Public Art Project
THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART has submitted a proposal to the City of New York for a public art project by David Hammons. Titled “Day’s End,” the architectural sculpture bridges the past and the present. It’s a contemporary art work grounded in history. The work would be sited directly across from the Whitney...
Cleveland Art Museum Acquires Robert Colescott Painting Depicting African American Collector
THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART announced it has received a gift of five contemporary art works from philanthropist Agnes Gund, including “Tea for Two (The Collector)” by Robert Colescott (1925-2009). The 1980 painting depicts a nattily dressed black man (the collector) leaning against a fireplace with circles of smoke hanging in the air above...
Oct. 3: Culture Type Joins Swann Auction Galleries for a Discussion About ‘New Voices in African American Fine Art’
From left, Robert E. Holmes, Victoria Valentine, Nigel Freeman. BEYOND THE INCONTROVERTIBLE INFLUENCE and authority of curators and scholars, professionals from a variety of backgrounds are playing increasingly important roles in preserving art and culture. To explore this phenomenon, Culture Type is joining Swann Auction Galleries for an Oct. 3 discussion about “New Voices...
As 50th Anniversary Approaches, Studio Museum in Harlem Unveils Design for its New Home
CHANGE IS COMING at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A new website design was unveiled yesterday and the museum announced it will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year by breaking ground on a new building designed by architect David Adjaye. The Studio Museum revealed the new developments in a New York Times article lauding...
Kara Walker Among 8 Recipients of Harvard University’s Annual Du Bois Medal
Embed from Getty Images AFTER CAUSING A STIR when she announced the lengthy, provocative title of her latest exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins, Kara Walker is being honored with a W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Walker is among eight recipients of the 2017 award, including...
Sept. 23-24: Smithsonian’s African American Museum is Marking First Anniversary with Weekend of Special Events
ONE YEAR AFTER ITS LONG-AWAITED DEBUT, overwhelming interest in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) hasn’t waned. The museum dedicated to the contributions and experiences of black Americans opened Sept. 24, 2016, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Often referred to as the “Blacksonian,” the museum turns one...
Kerry James Marshall Mural is Monumental Tribute to Women Who Have Shaped Chicago’s Cultural Arts Scene
BEFORE: His largest work to day, Kerry James Marshall’s mural is being installed at the Chicago Cultural Center in Garland Court. | Courtesy City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) GENERATIONS OF WOMEN have made groundbreaking contributions to Chicago’s arts and culture scene. A new mural by painter Kerry James...
Monumental Practice: Long Before the Violence in Charlottesville, Mabel O. Wilson Was Exploring the Intersection of Race and History in Public Spaces
Robert E. Lee Monument in Emancipation Park, Charlottesville, Va. | via UVA THE CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE’S plan to remove a monument memorializing Confederate General Robert E. Lee drew protests from tiki torch-bearing white supremacists and white nationalists. On Aug. 12, counter-demonstrators clashed with participants in the “Unite the Right” rally and one woman, among...
LaToya Ruby Frazier and Nari Ward Among 16 Artists Participating in Creative Time’s Political ‘Pledges of Allegiance’
FLAGS HAVE PROVEN to be a powerful medium in contemporary art, from David Hammons’s “African American Flag” (1990), which sold at Phillips auction for more than $2 million, to Dread Scott’s “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday” (2015) displayed last summer at Jack Shainman Gallery, and Nu Barreto’s “Desunited States of Africa” (2010)...
Faith Ringgold Story Quilt is Among Acquisitions Marking National Museum of Women in the Arts 30th Anniversary Year
FAITH RINGGOLD, “American Collection #4: Jo Baker’s Bananas,” 1997 (acrylic on canvas with pieced fabric border). | Purchased with funds donated by the Estate of Barbara Bingham Moore, Olga V. Hargis Family Trusts and the Members’ Acquisition Fund FOUNDED IN 1987, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is celebrating its 30th...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Appoints Culture and Tech Entrepreneur Troy Carter to its Board of Trustees
Embed from Getty Images Troy Carter, Founder and CEO of Atom Factory THREE NEW MEMBERS were elected to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Board of Trustees, including entrepreneur and venture capitalist Troy Carter. A relatively young addition to the museum’s board, Carter, 44, is the influential founder and CEO of Atom...
