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...
“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...
Barbara Jones-Hogu (1938-2017). | Photo by David Lusenhop 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. THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT has lost a significant figure. A founding member of the artist collective AfriCOBRA, Barbara...
FOLLOWING HIS PARTICIPATION in the 2017 Whitney Biennial earlier this year, Lyle Ashton Harris has a new gallery and a new monograph. This week, Salon 94 announced its representation of the New York-based artist whose latest book, “Today I Shall Judge Nothing That Occurs: Selections from the Ektachrome Archive,” was just published by Aperture....
A TENDER AND REVOLUTIONARY PORTRAIT of Harriet Tubman by Kerry James Marshall sold for more than $5 million last night at Christie’s New York. Titled “Still Life with Wedding Portrait,” the painting depicts the abolitionist posing with her first husband John Tubman. Interest in the 2015 painting far exceeded its $1 million to $1.5...
“White River Fish Kill” (2017) by Nina Chanel Abney. PROSPECT.4 OPENS TO THE PUBLIC on Saturday. The international triennial features major exhibitions and inventive installations by more than 70 artists, including prominent artists of African descent, the late Barkley L. Hendricks, Derrick Adams, John Akomfrah, Hank Willis Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Kahlil Joseph, Odili...
A SCULPTURAL PAINTING by Titus Kaphar set an artist record today. “Tina Vesper,” a portrait of a Reconstruction-era woman who could pass for white, is partially shrouded with un-stretched canvas. The 2009 painting sold for $40,000 (including fees) at Phillips 20th Century and Contemporary Art Day Sale in New York, exceeding its estimate of...
From left, Curator Thelma Golden. | Photo © Julie Skarratt; Artist Kara Walker. | Photo by Paul Zimmerman, Getty Images THELMA GOLDEN IS THE EIGHTH most powerful person in the art world, according to Art Review. The London-based international contemporary art magazine published its 2017 Power 100 list of the most influential figures in...
From left, Sable Elyse Smith, Allison Janae Hamilton, and Tschabalala Self. THREE WOMEN ARTISTS will be in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem during its 50th anniversary year. The museum announced Allison Janae Hamilton, Tschabalala Self, and Sable Elyse Smith are its 2018 artists in residence. Their residency begins in early April 2018....
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. SEVERAL MAJOR EXHIBITION featuring African American artists are opening this week including Mark Bradford at the Hirshhorn Museum, Nick Cave at the Frist Center, Nina Chanel Abney...
THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT was about strength, community, black identity, and self determination. All of these characteristics are present in “Black Unity” by Elizabeth Catlett. Created in 1968, Catlett’s powerful, wood sculpture covers of the latest issue of Artforum magazine. It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks at Artforum. Knight Landesman, one of its...
WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is an element of fantasy in Amy Sherald’s portraits. The Baltimore-based artist usually paints people she spots around the city—men, women, and youth who have a certain something that captures her attention and piques her curiosity. She’s depicted a woman with a baby on her hip, a young man who’s...
ART SHOULD GET RIGHT UP IN YOUR FACE. “A good art work should rush out so close up to you that you are so uncomfortable. It should just rush out and get in your face,” Mark Bradford says in a new WSJ. The Wall Street Journal Magazine video. He talks about how America is...
AMONG THE HALLMARKS of Arnold Lehman’s nearly two-decade tenure as director of the Brooklyn Museum was his focus on community engagement, popular culture, and the visibility of African American artists. After retiring in 2015, he transitioned from the museum world to the auction world, joining Phillips as a special adviser to the CEO, Edward...
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. OVER THE WEEKEND, the feminist art historian Linda Nochlin died at age 86. She wrote the seminal 1971 essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,”...
ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO, Anderson Cooper “got really serious” about collecting art. In an interview with Town & Country, the CNN anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent discusses how he and his partner Benjamin Maisani are assembling a collection that represents their disparate tastes and shared interests. Of the two, Maisani is the veteran collector...
RETROSPECTIVE 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. OVER THE PAST WEEK, compelling conversations about art, politics, and society, took place across the country. The SCAD Museum of Art hosted a symposium in conjunction with...
Kellie Jones, author of “South of Pico.” A DECADE AGO, Kellie Jones set out to write a book about African American artists in Los Angeles. The focus of her research was the 1960s and ’70s, a period when artists in the city were experimenting with materials and form, and mixing art with activism. Shortly...
THE UK GOVERNMENT has selected Adjaye Associates, Ron Arad Architects and landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman to design a new national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in London. David Adjaye will serve as lead designer of the project. Commissioned by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, the memorial honors “the six million Jewish men,...
THE FALL SEASON continues with an international slate of black artists presenting new and important work in the United States and abroad. The Whitney is hosting Toyin Ojih Odutola‘s first exhibition in a New York museum. A monumental exhibition of African design is making its U.S. debut at the High Museum in Atlanta. Njideka...
On View: ‘Michael Armitage: Crucible,’ Paintings by Kenyan British Artist Explore Migration at David Zwirner in New York
Jun 27, 2025
Fresh Out of Graduate School, Christine Sun Kim Helped to Greatly Improve Experiences of Deaf Audiences at the Whitney Museum
Jun 24, 2025
American Sign Language Videos Explore Whitney Museum’s Collection, Including Works by Simone Leigh, Archibald Motley, Diedrick Brackens, Jacob Lawrence & More
Jun 24, 2025
Picturing Freedom: Exhibition and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Book Shed Light on Harriet Tubman’s Greatest Feat, Liberating More than 700 in Combahee River Raid
Jun 19, 2025
On View: ‘Jack Whitten: The Messenger’ at Museum of Modern Art in New York is First Full Retrospective of Pioneering Artist
Jun 17, 2025
