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Black British Painters Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid Make Turner Prize Shortlist

Black British Painters Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid Make Turner Prize Shortlist

Lubaina Himid, 2017. | Courtesy the Artist and Hollybush Gardens, Photo by Edmund Blok for Modern Art Oxford via Tate   TWO OF THE MOST INTERESTING PAINTERS working in Britain were recognized today. The shortlist for the Turner Prize was announced and Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid are among the four artists selected for the...
In Response to Exponential Increase in Market Demand, Sotheby's Announces Its First-Ever Contemporary African Art Sale

In Response to Exponential Increase in Market Demand, Sotheby’s Announces Its First-Ever Contemporary African Art Sale

Lot 2: CHÉRI SAMBA (b. 1956), “Une Vie Ratée ( A Successful Life), 1995 (acrylic on canvas). | Estimate 20,000-30,000 pounds ($25,844-$38,766). Sold for 52,500 pounds ($67,841 including fees)   SOTHEBY’S IS HOLDING ITS FIRST-EVER modern and contemporary African art sale May 16 in London. Featuring more than 60 artists from 14 countries, the selection...
AIA Recognizes Legacy of African American Architect Paul R. Williams with Gold Medal Awarded Nearly 40 Years After His Death

AIA Recognizes Legacy of African American Architect Paul R. Williams with Gold Medal Awarded Nearly 40 Years After His Death

Residence in Hollywood, Calif., designed in 1928 by Paul Williams for banking executive Victor Rosetti.   STATELY AND GRACEFUL are the descriptors frequently invoked in real state listings for homes designed by architect Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980). The Williams name adds quantifiable prestige to prime properties on the most desirable streets in Beverly Hills, Hollywood...
Skowhegan Honors Studio Museum, Artists William T. Williams, Jack Whitten

Skowhegan Honors Studio Museum, Artists William T. Williams, Jack Whitten

Ford Foundation President Darren Walker (center) presented a Skowhegan award honoring the Studio Museum in Harlem to Thelma Golden and William T. Williams. | Photo by Benjamin Lozovsky/BFA.com via Skowhegan   ONE SOUGHT AFTER RESIDENCY PROGRAM recognized another this week. Skowhegan paid tribute to the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program, presenting the museum...
British Artist Chris Ofili Received Royal Honor at Buckingham Palace

British Artist Chris Ofili Received Royal Honor at Buckingham Palace

Chris Ofili shows off his CBE. | Photo by John Stillwell/AFP/Getty Images   EXCEPTIONAL BRITISH CITIZENS were bestowed with royal honors at Buckingham Palace last week. In January, artist Chris Ofili was announced among Order of the British Empire honorees for 2017. He received a CBE or “Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the...
Milton S. Curry Named Dean of USC School of Architecture, Alma Mater of Legendary African American Architect Paul R. Williams

Milton S. Curry Named Dean of USC School of Architecture, Alma Mater of Legendary African American Architect Paul R. Williams

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA announced the appointment of Milton S. Curry as dean of its school of architecture. The institution has a storied history. The first accredited architecture school in Southern California, the program marked a century of architecture in 2014, graduating its 100th class of students. Among its earliest alumni, Paul R. Williams,...
'One of the Most Influential Artists Anywhere': Kerry James Marshall Makes 'Time' 100 List

‘One of the Most Influential Artists Anywhere’: Kerry James Marshall Makes ‘Time’ 100 List

Photograph by Broomberg & Chanarin via Time   TIME MAGAZINE ANNOUNCED its annual assessment of the 100 Most Influential People and artist Kerry James Marshall made the list. The 2017 roundup of people at the forefront of ideas, innovation, power and change, includes major figures in five categories—pioneers, artists, leaders, titans, and icons. Pope Francis,...
Barkley L. Hendricks, 72, the Artist Known for his Life-Size, Realist Portraits, Has Died

Barkley L. Hendricks, 72, the Artist Known for his Life-Size, Realist Portraits, Has Died

BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, “Slick (Self Portrait),” 1977   ARTIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) died today. He was 72. With a practice spanning painting and photography and landscapes and figuration, he was most recognized for his life-size realist portraits painted in the 1970s of subjects whose cool poses and style of dress conveyed a...
Schomburg Acquires James Baldwin Archive, Including Letters to Artist Beauford Delaney Who Painted Many Portraits of the Writer

Schomburg Acquires James Baldwin Archive, Including Letters to Artist Beauford Delaney Who Painted Many Portraits of the Writer

Embed from Getty Images   DURING HIS LIFETIME, James Baldwin (1924-1987) had a lot to say. His insightful observations and thoughtful, sometimes fiery, words about race, civil rights, and the American paradigm resonate 30 years after his death. The recent Oscar-nominated documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” which is based on an unpublished Baldwin manuscript,...
Washington Renaissance: 8 Distinguished Artists Reflect and Connect in Wide-Ranging Discussion of African American Art in 20th Century Washington

Washington Renaissance: 8 Distinguished Artists Reflect and Connect in Wide-Ranging Discussion of African American Art in 20th Century Washington

Artists Sam Gilliam and David C. Driskell. | © 2017 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington   WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first time Lilian Thomas Burwell met Sam Gilliam, he told her if she wanted to be taken seriously as an artist she should get her own studio space. “He didn’t know me...
Lorna Simpson Joins Hauser & Wirth, New York Gallery Represents the Conceptual Artist and Photographer Worldwide

Lorna Simpson Joins Hauser & Wirth, New York Gallery Represents the Conceptual Artist and Photographer Worldwide

Lorna Simpson. | Photo by James Wang, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth   HAUSER & WIRTH GALLERY announced its worldwide representation of Lorna Simpson today. A conceptual artist and photographer, Simpson’s work challenges conventional views of gender, culture, identity, history, and memory. In describing her distinguished practice, the gallery said she has “emerged as a central...
MOCA Los Angeles Names Amanda Hunt Director of Education and Public Programming

MOCA Los Angeles Names Amanda Hunt Director of Education and Public Programming

CURATOR AMANDA HUNT has returned to the West Coast to head education and public programming at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles where “Mastry,” Kerry James Marshall’s 35-year survey opened earlier this month. Hunt’s appointment was announced today and she began working at the museum on March 1. Previously, Hunt had served as associate...
Jennie C. Jones is Rose Art Museum's 2017 Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence

Jennie C. Jones is Rose Art Museum’s 2017 Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence

Jennie C. Jones. | Photo by Frank Rothenberg via Rose Art Museum   THE ROSE ART MUSEUM named Jennie C. Jones recipient of the 2017 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Award. Jones explores the intersection of art, black history, and music, describing her work as “listening as a conceptual practice.” Her innovative practice is...
Recognized for His Distinctive Visual Style, Filmmaker Kahlil Joseph is Recipient of 2017 Los Angeles Artadia Award

Recognized for His Distinctive Visual Style, Filmmaker Kahlil Joseph is Recipient of 2017 Los Angeles Artadia Award

Installation view, KAHLIL JOSEPH: Double Conscience at MOCA LA   SOUGHT AFTER ARTIST AND FILMMAKER Kahlil Joseph has worked with Kendrick Lamar, Shabazz Palaces, Flying Lotus, FKA Twigs, and shared a directing credit with Beyonce on her visual album “Lemonade.” He has also collaborated with film director Terrence Malick and visual artists Henry Taylor, Martine...
Recognition: Souls Grown Deep is Collaborating with Museums on Acquisitions of Art by African Americans From the South

Recognition: Souls Grown Deep is Collaborating with Museums on Acquisitions of Art by African Americans From the South

THORNTON DIAL (1965-1998), “Lost Cows”, 2000-2001   SOON, THE GALLERIES at the de Young Museum in San Francisco will echo the American South. Works by African American contemporary artists from Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida will be presented in six spaces at the museum where the institution’s permanent collection is usually on view. An...
Njideka Akunyili Crosby Painting Sells for Record $3.1 Million at Christie's, Nearly Three Times Her Previous High Mark

Njideka Akunyili Crosby Painting Sells for Record $3.1 Million at Christie’s, Nearly Three Times Her Previous High Mark

Lot 3: NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY, “The Beautyful Ones,” 2012 (acrylic, pastel, colour pencil and Xerox transfer on paper). | Estimate $488,800-$733,200. Sold for $3,075,774 (including fees). RECORD   ONLY THREE WORKS by Njideka Akunyili Crosby have come to auction and they have all been record breakers. In the span of six months, sales for the...
Prospect New Orleans Taps Jennifer M. Williams as Deputy Director for Public Experience

Prospect New Orleans Taps Jennifer M. Williams as Deputy Director for Public Experience

FEWER THAN 10 PEOPLE are on staff at Prospect New Orleans. An addition to the small team was just announced. Jennifer M. Williams is joining the citywide triennial of contemporary art as deputy director for the public experience. For nearly seven years, Williams served as executive director and curator at McKenna Museum of African-American Art...
Pomegranate is Publishing 2018 Calendar Devoted to Paintings by Eldzier Cortor, More Products Featuring African American Artists on Horizon

Pomegranate is Publishing 2018 Calendar Devoted to Paintings by Eldzier Cortor, More Products Featuring African American Artists on Horizon

Eldzier Cortor’s “Classical Study No. 39,” 1979 (oil on canvas) is featured on the cover of Pomegranate’s 2018 calendar.   KATIE BURKE WAS VISITING Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York when she saw a major painting by Eldzier Cortor (1916–2015) and it sparked an idea. The publisher of Pomegranate Communications, Burke was very familiar with...
Fund for African American Art Transforming Brooklyn Museum's Holdings, Will Honor Collector Pamela J. Joyner at Annual Benefit

Fund for African American Art Transforming Brooklyn Museum’s Holdings, Will Honor Collector Pamela J. Joyner at Annual Benefit

  THE FUND FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN ART at the Brooklyn Museum is honoring collector Pamela J. Joyner at its annual benefit March 16. The fund concentrates on gifts and purchases of pre-1945 works by important African American artists. Recent acquisitions include “Woman with Bouquet” (circa 1940) by Laura Wheeler Waring, Beauford Delaney’s 1945 “Untitled (Fang,...
Black Women in the Art World, Taking Stock on International Women's Day

Black Women in the Art World, Taking Stock on International Women’s Day

Artists Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Julie Mehretu, Museum director Belinda Tate   WOMEN ACCOUNT FOR 51 PERCENT of visual artists working today, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. The figure mirrors women’s representation in the U.S. population, which was 50.8 percent in 2015, based on Census statistics. The parity ends there. The National...