FOR DECADES, Faith Ringgold fought to be seen and heard and for representation of Black artists and women artists in New York City museums, all the while following her own creative path. Her activism has opened doors for many, including the artist herself. On the occasion of a major survey of her work at...
SPIKE LEE TEACHES independent filmmaking. Anna Wintour provides insights about leadership. Frank Gehry offers fundamentals about architecture and design. A fine art and fashion photographer, Tyler Mitchell provides instruction on how to tell stories through portrait photography. Mitchell shot to fame in the creative world when he became the first Black photographer and youngest...
NASHVILLE, TENN.-BASED, Cuban-born artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons makes deeply personal and poetic work. A key figure in post-revolutionary Cuban art, she has received international attention over the past three decades. Currently, her unique practice is being celebrated with a prestigious prize from the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM); acquisitions at the Institute of Contemporary...
A NEW PORTRAIT of Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., was painted by Kerry James Marshall, the critically acclaimed Chicago painter. A prolific author and Harvard University professor, Gates is a widely regarded authority on African American history and literature whose influence extends far beyond academia. Most recently, he served as executive producer of the...
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART (NGA) recently acquired “Free, White and 21” (1980), a seminal video installation by artist Howardena Pindell. She was 37 years old when she filmed herself facing the camera recounting her personal experiences with racism and bias as a young Black woman in America. Pindell also performs as a white...
NORTH OF MIAMI, the new home of tennis champion Serena Williams boasts a trophy room with open shelves displaying her U.S. Open, Wimbledon, French Open, and Australian Open awards and a living room space where her growing art collection, including works by Radcliffe Bailey and Leonardo Drew, is on view. She moved into the...
Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on Nov. 7, 2020 PERFORMANCE ART takes many forms. On Sunday, it was realized in the impassioned sermon preached by Rev. William J. Barber II from the pulpit of his Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, N.C. Invoking history, astronomy, and the lyrics of Mary J. Blige, he said Vice President-Elect...
A NEW VIDEO produced by the Biden-Harris campaign, captures Americans from all walks of life at home and work, in bustling cities and expansive rural landscapes, from sea to shining sea. With the Ray Charles rendition of “America the Beautiful” serving as the soundtrack, the video depicts Americans holding up ornate gold picture frames,...
PAINTINGS ARE POWERFUL. They influence generations of artists (Picasso’s “Guernica”), encourage pilgrimages to museums (Amy Sherald’s portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama), and garner millions of dollars at auction (“Past Times” by Kerry James Marshall). Inspired by Francis Bicknell Carpenter’s “First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln” (1864), artist Fulton Leroy Washington...
Theaster Gates is featured in “Firsthand: Coronavirus,” a series from Chicago’s PBS affiliate. | Video by WTTW TRAVELING THE GLOBE is a constant in the life of artist Theaster Gates. His schedule of exhibitions, talks, lectures, and projects is unrelenting. Gates has a diverse portfolio. In his bio, he states that his practice “focuses...
DETAILS ARE CRITICAL in Kerry James Marshall‘s paintings. In “Our Town” (1995), the artist portrays a pleasant 1950s-era residential neighborhood. A young boy bikes down a vehicle-free lane with his sister and their dog running alongside him. Wearing an apron, their mother can be seen in the distant background waving from the walkway of a...
A CBS SUNDAY MORNING profile of assemblage artist Betye Saar aired Feb. 23. The segment opens with red carpet footage of the Art + Film Gala held last November at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Honored that evening, Saar walks the red carpet in a black beaded gown by Gucci (one...
Betye Saar in the short documentary “Taking Care of Business,” directed by Christine Turner BLACK FILMMAKERS and black stories are an increasing presence at the Sundance Film Festival. This year a number of projects garnered attention, including documentaries about artist Betye Saar and philanthropist and art collector Agnes Gund, and three films by black...
VISITING THE DAILY SHOW, Kehinde Wiley discussed his recent projects with host Trevor Noah. Wiley explained the symbolism of “Rumors of War,” his largest work to date depicting a young black man with dreads, wearing a hoodie and Jordans, astride a horse. Standing 27 feet high, the monumental work debuted in Times Square in...
IN ANTICIPATION OF ITS REOPENING, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York asked writer Roxane Gay to select a work of art from its collection and discuss what she sees in it. She chose “Christ’s Entry Into Journalism” (2017) by Kara Walker. “She has managed in a series of figures to depict...
AGAINST A STORMY BACKDROP, the 2019 J. Paul Getty Medals were presented to Mary Beard, an author and classics professor at the University of Cambridge, and American artists Ed Ruscha and Lorna Simpson. The recipients were announced in January and a dinner was held in their honor Sept. 16. Simpson’s recent paintings have been...
BEFORE HE PAINTED hotly colored Jazz Age scenes set in Chicago and Paris, Archibald Motley Jr. (1891-1981), made a loving portrait of his paternal grandmother embedded with history and the nuances of her life experience. Emily Sims Motley (1842-1929) was born in Kentucky where she was formerly enslaved. “This painting…is in some ways an...
THE LIGHT-FILLED ATRIUM at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) was transformed into a dance floor on Sunday. Artist and choreographer Brendan Fernandes staged “Free Fall 49” (2017), a piece he developed in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. On June 12, 2016, a lone gunman killed 49 people and wounded...
ANDERSON COOPER is a CNN anchor, 60 Minutes correspondent, and art collector who owns works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Mark Bradford. Called “The Hood is Moody,” his Bradford work is made with end papers—rectangles of white tissue paper used to set hair. On Sunday, Cooper profiled Bradford on “60 Minutes,”...
CBS NEWS reports on a broad range of issues and on occasion turns its attention to visual art. Last Saturday was one of those moments, when Simone Leigh was profiled on CBS This Morning. The network appearance is the latest development in a succession of new opportunities and recognition over the past five years, culminating...