Culture Type Awarded 2015 Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant
CULTURE TYPE HAS BEEN AWARDED a 2015 Arts Writers Grant. Recipients of this year’s grants from Creative Capital and the Andy Warhol Foundation were announced Dec. 1. The annual grant program is “designed to support writing about contemporary art, as well as to create a broader audience for arts writing, the program aims to strengthen...
Honored in February with a Chicago Homecoming, Artist Eldzier Cortor Has Died at Age 99
AFRICAN AMERICAN PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER Eldzier Cortor died on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26. Cortor was recognized for his dignified and graceful images of black women, often depicted in the nude, their lithe bodies referencing the lines of African sculpture. According to the New York Times, he died in Seaford, N.Y., on Long Island, at...
Newark Museum Acquires Norman Lewis Painting Featured in Recently Opened PAFA Retrospective
EIGHT DAYS BEFORE “Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis” opened at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), one of the large-scale canvases featured in the exhibition was acquired by the Newark Museum. The painting is one of the more striking on view in the Norman Lewis retrospective, a 1953 abstract on untreated canvas,...
David Driskell Discusses Major Aaron Douglas Painting Acquired by The Met
HIGHLY REGARDED FOR HIS GRAND MURALS and monumental canvases, artist Aaron Douglas‘s work straddled the visual and literary arts during the Harlem Renaissance. While his depictions of African American history and culture referenced ancient Egyptian motifs and traditional African forms, his graphic style was decidedly modern. Recognized for his silhouetted figures, Douglas’s work was...
Studio Museum Awards 2015 Wein Artist Prize to Njideka Akunyili Crosby
LOS ANGELES-BASED artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby is the recipient of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s 10th Annual Joyce Alexander Wien Artist Prize. Since 2006, the $50,000 prize has honored “the artistic achievements of an African American artist who demonstrates great promise and creativity.” The announcement of the annual prize was celebrated at the museum’s...
African American Artists Factor in New Developments at Hirshhorn Museum
TWO YEARS FROM NOW, in 2017, Los Angeles artist Mark Bradford (above) plans to take full advantage of the unique cylindrical structure of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. The critically recognized artist is installing a suite of site-specific paintings on the third floor of the Smithsonian museum where the work...
Photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier Among 2015 MacArthur Fellows
THE MACARTHUR FOUNDATION has announced its class of 2015 fellows and photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier is among the two dozen recognized for groundbreaking work and outstanding accomplishments in their field. “These 24 delightfully diverse MacArthur Fellows are shedding light and making progress on critical issues, pushing the boundaries of their fields, and improving our world...
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Kalup Linzy Discuss Met Museum Works that Inspire Them
SINCE SHE WAS A TEENAGER, LaToya Ruby Frazier has been using a camera to document her family and community. Growing up in Braddock, Pa., where the steel mill was the chief employer, her photographic endeavor became a serious pursuit when the industry collapsed. The local economy failed and its citizens faced critical health challenges caused...
Mark Bradford’s Art + Practice is on a Mission to Change Lives
ART + PRACTICE IS PRESENTING “The Beautyful Ones,” Njideka Akunyili Crosby‘s first exhibition in Los Angeles. Awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2014 James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize, Nigerian-born Akunyili Crosby lives and works in Los Angeles. Curated by the Hammer Museum, the exhibition features a new body of work that “explores intimacy and interiority...
Architect David Adjaye, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and 21st Century Design
FOR THE FIRST TIME in its nearly 50-year history, the Studio Museum in Harlem plans to construct a new building designed expressly to meet the needs of its ambitious programming. The news came last month, coupled with the announcement that architect David Adjaye is designing the $122 million public-private project made possible by partial...
Chris Ofili’s ‘Holy Virgin Mary’ Make News Again, This Time Setting Auction Record
AT CHRISTIE’S LONDON, expectations were high for Chris Ofili‘s “The Holy Virgin Mary” and the results didn’t disappoint. The mixed-media painting sold for more than $4.5 million (including fees) at the Post-War and Contemporary Evening Auction last night, setting a record for the British-born Ofili. In a post-sale press release announcing the record, Christie’s called...
New York Times Publishes First-Ever, Art-Themed Issue of Sunday Book Review
FEATURING “ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, art-themed fiction, artist biography, nonfiction about the art world, original photography and original artwork,” the New York Times published its first-ever art-themed Sunday Book Review section today (June 28, 2015). The print version arrived in this morning’s paper, but the reviews began appearing online Wednesday and a specially designed web page...
Willie Cole, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall and Hank Willis Thomas Featured in Season 2 of Met Museum’s Artist Project
FEATURED FOUR YEARS AGO in the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents,” Willie Cole recently returned to the museum to talk about his introduction to African art. It was the late 1960s, after the Kennedy and King assassinations and the...
Black Artist News – June 19: Nick Cave, Gordon Parks, Mickalene Thomas & More
THE WEEK’S TOP NEWS COVERAGE from around the web featuring artists Nick Cave, Gordon Parks, Noah Purifoy, Mark Bradford, Mickalene Thomas and designer Duro Olowu. Nick Cave: Soundsuit Invasion, Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead. | Photo by PD Rearick, Courtesy of Cranbrook Art Museum via T Magaine Nick Cave T MAGAZINE talks to Chicago-based artist Nick...
ARTnews Publishes Special Report on Women in the Art World, Black Artists Respond
BORN IN PORTLAND, ORE., IN 1953, photographer Carrie Mae Weems has steadily built a critically acclaimed, internationally recognized practice. Weems uses photography and video to test and explore assumptions about race, gender, class and history. She is a trailblazer, who had few examples to turn to, model her career after or use as a...
Recommended: Time on Chris Ofili, Wall St. Journal on Adam Pendleton, W on Hank Willis Thomas
RECOMMENDED FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “Visionary Artist: Chris Ofili” by David Adjaye | Time Magazine This week, Time magazine published its annual list of The 100 Most Influential People and Chris Ofili made the list of artists who are at the...
Alma Thomas is Given Pride of Place at the White House
THE INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE work of Alma W. Thomas (1891-1978) graces the Old Family Dining Room at the White House. In February, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed the newly refurbished space where Thomas’s “Resurrection” is displayed on the north wall. The painting is the first artwork by an African American woman to hang in the...
How Artist Charles Gaines is Influencing the Creative Economy in Los Angeles
THE HAMMER MUSEUM is currently presenting “Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974-1989,” the first museum survey of the Los Angeles-based artist’s early work. The exhibition originated at the Studio Museum in Harlem and includes some rare works, previously presumed to be lost, being shown for the first time. The work of Charles Gaines has been acquired...
Prominent African American Artists Break Records at Swann Auction
LAST THURSDAY WAS A HISTORY-MAKING DAY in African American art. Sales results show Swann Auction Galleries recorded $2.36 million in total sales (including fees), four lots sold for more than six figures and, most notably, seven artists achieved record prices. Swann Auction Galleries held its first African American fine art auction of the year on...
For Artist Project, Mickalene Thomas, Nick Cave and Kehinde Wiley Reveal Their Favorite Works at the Met
RECLINING IN THE NUDE or posed upright on sofas, Mickalene Thomas‘s female subjects are always surrounded by a dynamic mix of patterned textiles. Mixed-media paintings and photographs, her portraits of African American women are inspired in part by the practice of Malian photographer Seydou Keita (1921-2001), whose work is shown above. “I wasn’t trained...
