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. | 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...
Auction Record: Alma Thomas’s 1969 Vision of ‘Spring Flowers’ Yields More Than $300K
PAINTED NEARLY 50 YEARS AGO, Alma Thomas‘s ode to “Spring Flowers in Washington D.C.” set an artist record yesterday, topping more than $300,000 at Los Angeles Modern Auctions. Grounded in pink, the mesmerizing square canvas is a rhythmic composition of pattern and color. Nearly four hours after the Modern Art & Design Auction started...
Hirshhorn Museum Gala Will Honor Five Washington Artists, Including Sam Gilliam and Jefferson Pinder
From left, Jefferson Pinder and Sam Gilliam THE HIRSHHORN MUSUEM and Sculpture Garden is honoring contemporary artists who live and work in Washington, D.C., including Sam Gilliam and Jefferson Pinder. After hosting two galas in New York, the Smithsonian museum is bringing its fundraising celebration home. In addition to Gilliam and Pinder, Linn Meyers,...
Courtney J. Martin Named Deputy Director and Chief Curator at Dia Art Foundation
THE DIA ART FOUNDATION appointed Courtney J. Martin deputy director and chief curator. An assistant professor of art history and architecture at Brown University, she curated an exhibition of the American painter Robert Ryman at Dia:Chelsea in 2015-16. It was the Dia’s first exhibition in Chelsea in more than a decade and Ryman’s first...
Artist Henry Taylor is Lending His West Coast Perspective to New York’s High Line
LOS ANGELES ARTIST Henry Taylor is bringing California cool to the High Line next month with a massive mural. Debuting March 17, “the floaters” is a self-portrait featuring the sunglass-wearing artist leisurely lounging in an enchanting blue pool. Taylor is also featured in the Whitney Biennial, which opens the same day at the nearby...
Detroit Museum Exhibits Major Painting by Julie Mehretu, First in Series of Works on Loan by Black Artists
Julie Mehretu, “Looking Back to a Bright New Future” (2003). A MAJOR PAINTING by Julie Mehretu is on view in the contemporary art galleries at the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA). A symphony of line, color, and form, “Looking Back to a Bright Future” (2003) is on loan from a private collection for...
Artist Rashid Johnson is Expanding his Practice, First Film Project is Adaptation of Richard Wright Novel ‘Native Son’
MONUMENTAL INSTALLATIONS composed of black scaffolding have been the star attraction at Rashid Johnson‘s recent exhibitions. Last fall, “Fly Away” at Hauser & Wirth in New York featured “Antoine’s Organ,” the artist’s largest architectural grid work ever shown in the United States. Overflowing with plants, and filled with lights, video screens, shea butter and...
Curator Naima Keith Named 2017 Recipient of David C. Driskell Prize
Embed from Getty Images INNOVATIVE AND RELEVANT PROGRAMMING has become a signature of the California African American Museum (CAAM) over the past year. Recent presentations have included “Hank Willis Thomas: Black Righteous Space”; “Genevieve Gaignard: Smell the Roses,” the first museum exhibition of the emerging artist; and a group exhibition featuring four contemporary African...
Artist Isaac Julien Joins London’s Art Fund Board, Charity Supports UK Museums
Embed from Getty Images LONDON’S ART FUND announced the appointment of artist Isaac Julien to its board of trustees for a five year term. Art Fund is a national fundraising charity that encourages exposure and access to art in public collections throughout the UK by supporting museum and gallery acquisitions, exhibitions, special curatorial projects,...
Collection Highlights: Museum of Modern Art’s 2015-16 Acquisitions Include More than 50 Works by African American Artists
KARA WALKER, “40 Acres of Mules,” 2015 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART’S collection boasts dozens of new additions by African American artists. Over the past two years the museum has acquired paintings by Mark Bradford, Kerry James Marshall, Chris Ofili, and Faith Ringgold; drawings by Palmer Hayden, Adrian Piper, and Kara Walker; sculptures by...
Hammer Museum Selects Erin Christovale to Co-Curate Made in L.A. 2018
Los Angeles-based independent curator Erin Christovale specializes in film programming. | Photo by Jamie Costa, Courtesy Hammer Museum EVERY OTHER YEAR, Los Angeles comes alive with coordinated exhibition programming showcasing the city’s most promising artists and innovative practices. Made in L.A. is the citywide biennial presented by the Hammer Museum. The fourth edition will...
VMFA Acquires Paintings by Important 20th Century African American Artists Eldzier Cortor and Palmer Hayden
PALMER HAYDEN, “Untitled (Dreamer),” circa 1930 IN DECEMBER, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) acquired “Three Folk Musicians” (1967), a major work by Romare Bearden. When the purchase was announced, VMFA Director Alex Nyerges said the collage painting “bolsters our effort to represent a diverse range of cultures in our galleries and allows...
