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

Barnes Foundation Appointed Judia S. Jackson Head of Human Resources and Culture at Philadelphia Museum

Barnes Foundation Appointed Judia S. Jackson Head of Human Resources and Culture at Philadelphia Museum

Judia S. Jackson. | Courtesy Barnes Foundation   IN PHILADELPHIA, PA., the Barnes Foundation named Judia S. Jackson to the role of deputy director for human resources and chief culture officer. Jackson recently served as chief people and culture officer at Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts. The Barnes appointment was...
Alma Thomas Way: Washington D.C., Street Where Famous African American Artist Lived is Now Named in Her Honor

Alma Thomas Way: Washington D.C., Street Where Famous African American Artist Lived is Now Named in Her Honor

Charles Thomas Lewis, grand nephew of Alma Thomas, with Susan Talley, who established the Friends of Alma Thomas group more than a decade ago. They are holding the commemorative street sign DC Councilmember Christina Henderson presented to Lewis. “I think this is a wonderful recognition for her,” he said. “I...
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Sotheby's Posthumous Sale of 3 Paintings by Barkley L. Hendricks Yields Artist Record

Sotheby’s Posthumous Sale of 3 Paintings by Barkley L. Hendricks Yields Artist Record

Lot 187: BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, “Yocks,” 1975 (acrylic on canvas). | Estimate $300,000-$400,000. Sold for $942,500 (including fees)   WEARING A GREEN LEATHER COAT with wide, white fur lapels, the “Boston-based brother” who appears in a triple portrait by Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) was among the subjects for which the artist “felt one pose was...
May 18: Art Museum Day Raises Awareness of Cultural and Community Contributions

May 18: Art Museum Day Raises Awareness of Cultural and Community Contributions

Installation view of Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair” at GWU Museum and The Textile Museum. | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine   MUSEUMS ARE BEING CELEBRATED around the world with an emphasis on the critical role the institutions play in civil society. On May 18, hundreds of museums are observing Art Museum...
5 Works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby are For Sale at This Week's New York Art Auctions. Will They Surpass $3.1 Million Artist Record?

5 Works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby are For Sale at This Week’s New York Art Auctions. Will They Surpass $3.1 Million Artist Record?

Christie’s New York, May 17, 2017 – Lot 64B: NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY, “I Refuse to be Invisible,” 2010 (ink, charcoal, acrylic and transfers on paper, 117 3/4 x 82 inches). | Estimate $1.5 million-$2 million. Sold for $2,647,500 (including fees)   THIS EVENING, A MAJOR PAINTING by Njideka Akunyili Crosby is going on the auction...
Bringing Attention to Wide Selection African American Artists Since 2007, Swann Marks Decade of Sales with 8 Auction Records

Bringing Attention to Wide Selection African American Artists Since 2007, Swann Marks Decade of Sales with 8 Auction Records

Lot 112: ALVIN D. LOVING JR. (1935-2006), “Untitled,” 1968 (diptych of acrylic on shaped cotton canvas). | Estimate $80,000-$120,000. Sold for $130,000 / $161,000 (including fees). RECORD   KNOWN FOR THEIR UNIQUE APPROACHES to abstraction, painters Alvin D. Loving Jr. (1935-2005) and Frank Bowling reached new benchmarks at Swann Auction Galleries last month. A geometric...
A 'Passionate Experimentalist,' Painter Phillip J. Hampton Began His Career as a Trailblazer

A ‘Passionate Experimentalist,’ Painter Phillip J. Hampton Began His Career as a Trailblazer

Lot 38: PHILLIP HAMPTON, “Untitled,” (mixed-media, watercolor and enamel on illustration board). | Estimate $2,000-$3,000. Sold for $2,000 including fees   A SHORT MENTION in the May 22, 1952, edition of Jet magazine documents a historic first. The headline reads: “Missouri Art School Graduates First Negro MA.” The pathbreaker was Phillip J. Hampton (1922-2016), an...
Artist and Citizen: Mark Bradford Presents His Democratic Vision at Venice Biennale

Artist and Citizen: Mark Bradford Presents His Democratic Vision at Venice Biennale

Installation view, from left, MARK BRADFORD, “Leucosia,” 2016 (mixed media on canvas); “Medusa,” 2016 (acrylic, paint, paper, rope, caulk), and “Raidne,” 2017 (mixed media on canvas).   OVER THE PAST YEAR, Mark Bradford has been ruminating. Chosen in April 2016 to represent the United States at the 57th Venice Biennale, the Los Angeles artist has...
May Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Reps U.S. at Venice Biennale, Martine Syms at MoMA, Plus Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Pope.L, Beauford Delaney, Kehinde Wiley, and More

May Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Reps U.S. at Venice Biennale, Martine Syms at MoMA, Plus Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Pope.L, Beauford Delaney, Kehinde Wiley, and More

MUST-SEE EXHIBITIONS featuring some of the most interesting black female artists working today are opening around the world this month. The first solo museum show of Los Angeles-based Martine Syms opens May 27 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the same city, an amazing show of new portrait paintings by British...
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair: New Talent, Important Symbolism - Relatively Small New York Fair Has Big Impact

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair: New Talent, Important Symbolism – Relatively Small New York Fair Has Big Impact

Works exploring trade and migration by SERGE ATTUKWEI CLOTTEY of Accra, Ghana, at Gallery 1957. | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine   THIS WEEK, A WIDE SELECTION of art fairs opened around New York. Catering to serious collectors and the art curious, the offerings include Art New York, Collective Design, Spring Break, and TEFAF at...
What to See at Frieze New York: Don't Miss New Paintings by Lorna Simpson, Works by Barbara Chase-Riboud and Kevin Beasley

What to See at Frieze New York: Don’t Miss New Paintings by Lorna Simpson, Works by Barbara Chase-Riboud and Kevin Beasley

Detail of LORNA SIMPSON B”lack & Ice” 2017, on view at Hauser & Wirth, Frieze NY   KNOWN FOR INTRODUCING the latest in today’s contemporary art, Frieze New York this year features both must-see new works and gems from the past. Some of the highlights include focused exhibitions of new paintings by Lorna Simpson at...
Black British Painters Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid Make Turner Prize Shortlist

Black British Painters Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid Make Turner Prize Shortlist

Lubaina Himid, 2017. | Courtesy the Artist and Hollybush Gardens, Photo by Edmund Blok for Modern Art Oxford via Tate   TWO OF THE MOST INTERESTING PAINTERS working in Britain were recognized today. The shortlist for the Turner Prize was announced and Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid are among the four artists selected for the...
In Response to Exponential Increase in Market Demand, Sotheby's Announces Its First-Ever Contemporary African Art Sale

In Response to Exponential Increase in Market Demand, Sotheby’s Announces Its First-Ever Contemporary African Art Sale

Lot 2: CHÉRI SAMBA (b. 1956), “Une Vie Ratée ( A Successful Life), 1995 (acrylic on canvas). | Estimate 20,000-30,000 pounds ($25,844-$38,766). Sold for 52,500 pounds ($67,841 including fees)   SOTHEBY’S IS HOLDING ITS FIRST-EVER modern and contemporary African art sale May 16 in London. Featuring more than 60 artists from 14 countries, the selection...
AIA Recognizes Legacy of African American Architect Paul R. Williams with Gold Medal Awarded Nearly 40 Years After His Death

AIA Recognizes Legacy of African American Architect Paul R. Williams with Gold Medal Awarded Nearly 40 Years After His Death

Residence in Hollywood, Calif., designed in 1928 by Paul Williams for banking executive Victor Rosetti.   STATELY AND GRACEFUL are the descriptors frequently invoked in real state listings for homes designed by architect Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980). The Williams name adds quantifiable prestige to prime properties on the most desirable streets in Beverly Hills, Hollywood...
Skowhegan Honors Studio Museum, Artists William T. Williams, Jack Whitten

Skowhegan Honors Studio Museum, Artists William T. Williams, Jack Whitten

Ford Foundation President Darren Walker (center) presented a Skowhegan award honoring the Studio Museum in Harlem to Thelma Golden and William T. Williams. | Photo by Benjamin Lozovsky/BFA.com via Skowhegan   ONE SOUGHT AFTER RESIDENCY PROGRAM recognized another this week. Skowhegan paid tribute to the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program, presenting the museum...
British Artist Chris Ofili Received Royal Honor at Buckingham Palace

British Artist Chris Ofili Received Royal Honor at Buckingham Palace

Chris Ofili shows off his CBE. | Photo by John Stillwell/AFP/Getty Images   EXCEPTIONAL BRITISH CITIZENS were bestowed with royal honors at Buckingham Palace last week. In January, artist Chris Ofili was announced among Order of the British Empire honorees for 2017. He received a CBE or “Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the...
Milton S. Curry Named Dean of USC School of Architecture, Alma Mater of Legendary African American Architect Paul R. Williams

Milton S. Curry Named Dean of USC School of Architecture, Alma Mater of Legendary African American Architect Paul R. Williams

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA announced the appointment of Milton S. Curry as dean of its school of architecture. The institution has a storied history. The first accredited architecture school in Southern California, the program marked a century of architecture in 2014, graduating its 100th class of students. Among its earliest alumni, Paul R. Williams,...
For World Book Day, 5 New Volumes Featuring African American Artists

For World Book Day, 5 New Volumes Featuring African American Artists

DESIGNATED BY THE UNITED NATIONS Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Book Day promotes reading, publishing and copyright. It’s a great excuse to learn more about five new art books. Recently published volumes pay tribute to women artists and explore the work of African American artists active in 1960s and 70s Los Angeles—the work...
'One of the Most Influential Artists Anywhere': Kerry James Marshall Makes 'Time' 100 List

‘One of the Most Influential Artists Anywhere’: Kerry James Marshall Makes ‘Time’ 100 List

Photograph by Broomberg & Chanarin via Time   TIME MAGAZINE ANNOUNCED its annual assessment of the 100 Most Influential People and artist Kerry James Marshall made the list. The 2017 roundup of people at the forefront of ideas, innovation, power and change, includes major figures in five categories—pioneers, artists, leaders, titans, and icons. Pope Francis,...
Celebrating Earth Day with Alma Thomas's Nature-Inspired 'Earth' Paintings

Celebrating Earth Day with Alma Thomas’s Nature-Inspired ‘Earth’ Paintings

Alma Thomas, “Untitled,” circa 1968. | MoMA   A NEW EXHIBITION at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is dedicated to works by women artists created between the end of World War II in 1945 and the onset of the Feminist Movement in the late 1960s. “Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction”...
April Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Pays Homage to Clyfford Still, Plus 'Black Radical Women,' Radcliffe Bailey, Deana Lawson, Nari Ward, Terry Adkins, and More

April Exhibitions: Mark Bradford Pays Homage to Clyfford Still, Plus ‘Black Radical Women,’ Radcliffe Bailey, Deana Lawson, Nari Ward, Terry Adkins, and More

SPRING SHOWS ARE HERE and the rich selection runs the gamut, from exhibitions of innovative new works to scholarly examinations of important historic movements. Exploring the intersection of race, feminism, political action, art production, the much-anticipated “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” is opening at the Brooklyn Museum. In advance of his representation...
Kara Walker Covers New York Magazine's Special Art & Design Issue

Kara Walker Covers New York Magazine’s Special Art & Design Issue

Cover Artist: Kara Walker on New York magazine’s Art & Design issue (April 17-30, 2017).   FOR THE NEW ART & DESIGN ISSUE of New York magazine, writer Doreen St. Félix profiles Kara Walker. She spent time with the 47-year-old artist at her brownstone in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, her Garment District studio, and also talking...