Welcome to Culture Type®

An essential resource focused on visual art from a Black perspective, Culture Type explores the intersection of art, history, and culture

Fresh Out of Graduate School, Christine Sun Kim Helped to Greatly Improve Experiences of Deaf Audiences at the Whitney Museum

Fresh Out of Graduate School, Christine Sun Kim Helped to Greatly Improve Experiences of Deaf Audiences at the Whitney Museum

Christine Sun Kim gives a tour of “Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night,” her mid-career survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and first major museum exhibition. After graduate school, Kim worked in the education department at the Whitney Museum where she helped develop a...
American Sign Language Videos Explore Whitney Museum's Collection, Including Works by Simone Leigh, Archibald Motley, Diedrick Brackens, Jacob Lawrence & More

American Sign Language Videos Explore Whitney Museum’s Collection, Including Works by Simone Leigh, Archibald Motley, Diedrick Brackens, Jacob Lawrence & More

MALCOLM BAILEY, “Untitled 1969,” 1969 (acrylic on composition board, 48 × 71 15/16 inches / 121.9 × 182.7 cm). | © artist or artist’s estate, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Larry Aldrich Foundation Fund. 69.77   Reaching diverse audiences at art museums includes...
Recently Published
Culture Type: The Year in Black Art 2017

Culture Type: The Year in Black Art 2017

POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT coursed through the art world in 2017. Issues of censorship and debates around who has the right to depict black bodies came to the fore. The biggest news stories, from White House machinations, gun violence, and immigration to the fate of Confederate monuments, racial division, and sexual harassment and assault revelations,...
Representation: 9 Artists to Watch Who Joined New Galleries in 2017

Representation: 9 Artists to Watch Who Joined New Galleries in 2017

AT ANY STAGE of an artist’s career, partnership with the right gallery can be transformative. New gallery representation offers the opportunity to better communicate the focus of an artist’s practice; expose their work to a broader audience of collectors, curators, and critics; and encourage and support exhibitions, projects, and even a new creative direction. In...
Next: 23 Art Curators to Watch Who Took on New Appointments in 2017

Next: 23 Art Curators to Watch Who Took on New Appointments in 2017

THE ART, EXHIBITIONS, AND PROGRAMMING featured in museums and cultural institutions are largely shaped, guided and decided upon by curators, an elite group lacking racial and ethnic diversity. A recent survey from the Mellon Foundation found that representation for black curators (and conservators, educators and leaders) in the museum sector is dismal—just 4 percent. To...
Culture Type Picks: The 14 Best Black Art Books of 2017

Culture Type Picks: The 14 Best Black Art Books of 2017

  SOME OF THE BEST ART BOOKS published this year focus on the past and the present. Exhibition catalogs such as “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-85” and “Soul of a “Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power,” and the scholarly publication “South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in...
Survey: The Latest News in African American Art and Beyond, Dec. 13, 2017

Survey: The Latest News in African American Art and Beyond, Dec. 13, 2017

SURVEY is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters. From left, Artists Emeka Ogboh and Simone Leigh made the shortlist for the 2018 Hugo Boss Prize. | From left, Photos by Adolphus Opara and Paul Mpagi...
Coming Soon: First-Ever Exhibition of Sculptures by Jack Whitten Opening at Baltimore Museum of Art in April 2018

Coming Soon: First-Ever Exhibition of Sculptures by Jack Whitten Opening at Baltimore Museum of Art in April 2018

  THIS SPRING, Jack Whitten is sharing a previously unknown aspect of his practice with the public for the first time. “Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963-2016” opens at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) on April 22, 2018. Co-organized with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the show will feature 40 sculptures Whitten...
The Artist Project: New Volume Explores What Artists See, What Inspires Them, When They Look at Art at The Met Museum

The Artist Project: New Volume Explores What Artists See, What Inspires Them, When They Look at Art at The Met Museum

HOWARDENA PINDELL, Detail of “Oval Memory Series II: Castle Dragon,” 1980-81.   LAST YEAR, ANDREA BOWERS was in conversation with Martha Rosler at the Dia Art Foundation. The two artists discussed “If You Lived Here…,” a project about homelessness and real estate in New York City Rosler presented at the Dia in 1989. Invited to...
Art Basel Miami Beach: Chicago Artist and AfriCOBRA Co-Founder Gerald Williams Debuts at Kavi Gupta Gallery

Art Basel Miami Beach: Chicago Artist and AfriCOBRA Co-Founder Gerald Williams Debuts at Kavi Gupta Gallery

  THE PRINCIPLES AND COLLECTIVE AESTHETIC established by AfriCOBRA in 1968 are evident in the work of Gerald Williams. Exploring culture, place, and identity from a global perspective, works by the Chicago artist are on view in the Kavi Gupta booth at Art Basel Miami Beach. Williams, a co-founder of AfriCOBRA, the artist collective that...
Art Basel Miami Beach: On View at DC Moore Gallery, David Driskell Explains His Political Paintings From the 1960s and 70s

Art Basel Miami Beach: On View at DC Moore Gallery, David Driskell Explains His Political Paintings From the 1960s and 70s

  THE DC MOORE GALLERY booth at Art Basel Miami Beach is devoted to paintings by David Driskell from the 1960s and 70s, a turbulent period in American history. Defined by an earnest use of color and deft symbolism, his paintings and collages express modern sensibilities and blend European, American, and African art forms. Work...
Lubaina Himid, a Pioneer in the UK Black Arts Movement, Wins 2017 Turner Prize

Lubaina Himid, a Pioneer in the UK Black Arts Movement, Wins 2017 Turner Prize

  AFTER MUCH ANTICIPATION, the winner of Britain’s most prestigious art prize has been announced. Lubaina Himid, 63, was awarded the 2017 Turner Prize on Tuesday. Her selection is groundbreaking. She is the first black woman to get the prize and she is also the oldest artist to earn the honor, after a rule change...
Hometown Pride: Collectors Ronald and Monique Ollie Donate 81 Works by African American Artists to Saint Louis Art Museum

Hometown Pride: Collectors Ronald and Monique Ollie Donate 81 Works by African American Artists to Saint Louis Art Museum

  THE SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM is benefitting from the largesse of a collector who developed an appreciation for art through visiting the institution as a child. Ronald Ollie grew up in St. Louis and was exposed to the museum by his parents. Eventually he became an art collector. Now based in New Jersey, Ollie...
Harvard Art Museums Acquire Large-Scale Drawing by Kara Walker From Recent Fall Show at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery

Harvard Art Museums Acquire Large-Scale Drawing by Kara Walker From Recent Fall Show at Sikkema Jenkins Gallery

  HARVARD ART MUSEUMS have acquired a monumental drawing from one of this fall’s most talked about gallery exhibitions. Kara Walker‘s “U.S.A. Idioms” was purchased from “the Most Astounding and Important Painting Show of the Fall Viewing Season!,” an exhibition of new works on paper by Walker at Sikkema Jenkins. The show opened Sept. 7...
Survey: The Latest News in African American Art and Beyond, Dec. 3, 2017

Survey: The Latest News in African American Art and Beyond, Dec. 3, 2017

SURVEY is a review of the latest news and happenings related to visual art by and about people of African descent, with the occasional nod to cultural matters.   Pérez Art Museum Miami is among 20 institutions benefitting from diversity initiative supported by Ford and Walton Family foundations.   $6 Million Initiative Aims to Diversify...
Estate of Painter Robert Colescott is Now Represented by Blum & Poe

Estate of Painter Robert Colescott is Now Represented by Blum & Poe

  WITH TWO MAJOR MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS on the horizon, Blum & Poe announced its representation of the estate of Robert Colescott (1925-2009). The thinking man’s provocateur, Colescott challenged art history and reinterpreted American history, painting transgressive, racially and sexually charged scenes with wit, insight, and imagination. Blum & Poe made the announcement on Dec. 1,...
Holiday Gift Guide 2017: Exhibition Posters for the Art Lovers on Your List

Holiday Gift Guide 2017: Exhibition Posters for the Art Lovers on Your List

  AN EXHIBITION POSTER featuring “Bid ‘Em In/Slave (Angie)” by Barkley Hendricks (1945-2017) was produced on the occasion of “Black Fire: A Constant State of Revolution,” a 2015-16 group show at the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Neb. I discovered the poster last spring, shortly after the artist died. The image features a female...
Meeting of Minds: Times Style Magazine Brings Together Jay Z, Artist Henry Taylor, and Editor Dean Baquet

Meeting of Minds: Times Style Magazine Brings Together Jay Z, Artist Henry Taylor, and Editor Dean Baquet

  JAY Z IS FEATURED on the latest cover of T magazine, the New York Times style publication. A painting by Henry Taylor,—a portrait of the rapper, music mogul, and business man—illustrates a wide-ranging interview conducted by Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the Times. The newspaper’s top editor doesn’t often stray from his leadership...
Holiday Gift Guide 2017: 14 New Books for the Photography Lovers on Your List

Holiday Gift Guide 2017: 14 New Books for the Photography Lovers on Your List

EXCEPTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS tell amazing stories. Through images by and about people of African descent, a number of recently published volumes further reveal the personalities, places, cultures and issues that have captured our imaginations and surface others largely overlooked. Must haves for the photography enthusiasts on your gift list, these titles span fine art, documentary, and...
Jordan Casteel's Portraits Bring Visibility to Black Men in Harlem

Jordan Casteel’s Portraits Bring Visibility to Black Men in Harlem

  BIGGIE SMALLS APPEARS ON THE COVER of the latest edition of Frieze magazine. The slain rapper is wearing one of his signature Cosby sweaters, a gold chain and dark shades. His image is emblazoned on a red hoodie worn by Quentin, an African American man who is the subject of a painting by Jordan...
Chicago Artist Barbara Jones-Hogu, a Founding Member of AfriCOBRA, Has Died

Chicago Artist Barbara Jones-Hogu, a Founding Member of AfriCOBRA, Has Died

BARBARA JONES-HOGU, “Unite (First State),” 1969 (screenprint). | © Barbara Jones-Hogu, Courtesy Lusenhop Fine Art   THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT has lost a central figure. Barbara Jones-Hogu (1938-2017), a founding member of the artist collective AfriCOBRA, died Nov. 14. The Chicago artist, educator, and filmmaker, was 79. Recognized for her political, pro-Black images combining figuration...
Auction Record: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Painting Sells for More Than $1.5 million at Sotheby's, Shattering Artist's Previous High Mark

Auction Record: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Painting Sells for More Than $1.5 million at Sotheby’s, Shattering Artist’s Previous High Mark

“The Hours Behind You” (2011) by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye   A MESMERIZING IMAGE of five black women attracted record-breaking interest at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 16. “The Hours Behind You” (2011) by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye sold for $1,575,000 (including fees), a world record for the British-Ghanaian painter, according to Sotheby’s sales results. Estimated to attract bids...