BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS, “Slick (Self Portrait),” 1977 ARTIST AND PHOTOGRAPHER Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) died today. He was 72. With a practice spanning painting and photography and landscapes and figuration, he was most recognized for his life-size realist portraits painted in the 1970s of subjects whose cool poses and style of dress conveyed a...
Embed from Getty Images DURING HIS LIFETIME, James Baldwin (1924-1987) had a lot to say. His insightful observations and thoughtful, sometimes fiery, words about race, civil rights, and the American paradigm resonate 30 years after his death. The recent Oscar-nominated documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” which is based on an unpublished Baldwin manuscript,...
Artists Sam Gilliam and David C. Driskell. | © 2017 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first time Lilian Thomas Burwell met Sam Gilliam, he told her if she wanted to be taken seriously as an artist she should get her own studio space. “He didn’t know me...
Lorna Simpson. | Photo by James Wang, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth HAUSER & WIRTH GALLERY announced its worldwide representation of Lorna Simpson today. A conceptual artist and photographer, Simpson’s work challenges conventional views of gender, culture, identity, history, and memory. In describing her distinguished practice, the gallery said she has “emerged as a central...
ADDISON SCURLOCK, Howard University Students,” circa 1920-30 (printed 1970). | Scurlock Studio Records, circa 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History FOR THE GREATER PART of the 20th century, America’s black metropolises were documented by visionary black photographers who forged successful businesses and important roles as local community historians. They offered portraits of...
Detail of ALMA THOMAS, “Red Rose Cantata” 1973 (acrylic on canvas). | Courtesy National Gallery of Art Symposium gives a nod to Howard University and local artists, scholars and curators who shaped the field WASHINGTON, D.C. — For decades, Howard University in Washington, D.C., was at the center of the African American art world....
ACROSS THE UNITED STATES and in London, auctions of post-war, modern and contemporary art were held at the end of February and early March. Records were set in Los Angeles, where an Alma Thomas painting was offered, and London where Henry Taylor and Njideka Akunyili Crosby achieved new benchmarks. Auction values for Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based...
NEARLY 40 YEARS AGO, the College Art Association’s National Women’s Caucus for Art planned an exhibition featuring works by “Afro-American” women artists. Co-curated by Emily Martin and Tritobia Benjamin (1944-2014), an art historian and professor at Howard University, the show was to be presented at CAA’s 1979 annual conference in Washington, D.C. Forty-six artists—including...
CURATOR AMANDA HUNT has returned to the West Coast to head education and public programming at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles where “Mastry,” Kerry James Marshall’s 35-year survey opened earlier this month. Hunt’s appointment was announced today and she began working at the museum on March 1. Previously, Hunt had served as associate...
Jennie C. Jones. | Photo by Frank Rothenberg via Rose Art Museum THE ROSE ART MUSEUM named Jennie C. Jones recipient of the 2017 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence Award. Jones explores the intersection of art, black history, and music, describing her work as “listening as a conceptual practice.” Her innovative practice is...
HENRY TAYLOR’s paintings on view at 2017 Whitney Biennial, including his depiction of Philando Castile, at right. | Photograph by Matthew Carasella, Courtesy Whitney Museum THROUGH LOOSLY RENDERED FIGURATION Henry Taylor conveys a sense of authenticity and insight into the complexity of humanity. The Los Angeles-based artist is participating in the 2017 Whitney Biennial,...
AMONG EXHIBITIONS OPENING in March, presentations at major museums include Kerry James Marshall’s “Mastry” survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the last stop on its critically praised, three-venue tour. And Theaster Gates has a tightly curated show that just opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. “In the...
Installation view, KAHLIL JOSEPH: Double Conscience at MOCA LA SOUGHT AFTER ARTIST AND FILMMAKER Kahlil Joseph has worked with Kendrick Lamar, Shabazz Palaces, Flying Lotus, FKA Twigs, and shared a directing credit with Beyonce on her visual album “Lemonade.” He has also collaborated with film director Terrence Malick and visual artists Henry Taylor, Martine...
FOR THE MARCH COVER of Art in America magazine Henry Taylor was inspired by a society photograph from half a century ago. Titled “Cicely and Miles Visit the Obamas” the Los Angeles-based painter imagines Cicely Tyson and Miles Davis (1926-1991) visiting President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. The...
THORNTON DIAL (1965-1998), “Lost Cows”, 2000-2001 SOON, THE GALLERIES at the de Young Museum in San Francisco will echo the American South. Works by African American contemporary artists from Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida will be presented in six spaces at the museum where the institution’s permanent collection is usually on view. An...
Lot 3: NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY, “The Beautyful Ones,” 2012 (acrylic, pastel, colour pencil and Xerox transfer on paper). | Estimate $488,800-$733,200. Sold for $3,075,774 (including fees). RECORD ONLY THREE WORKS by Njideka Akunyili Crosby have come to auction and they have all been record breakers. In the span of six months, sales for the...
FEWER THAN 10 PEOPLE are on staff at Prospect New Orleans. An addition to the small team was just announced. Jennifer M. Williams is joining the citywide triennial of contemporary art as deputy director for the public experience. For nearly seven years, Williams served as executive director and curator at McKenna Museum of African-American Art...
Eldzier Cortor’s “Classical Study No. 39,” 1979 (oil on canvas) is featured on the cover of Pomegranate’s 2018 calendar. KATIE BURKE WAS VISITING Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York when she saw a major painting by Eldzier Cortor (1916–2015) and it sparked an idea. The publisher of Pomegranate Communications, Burke was very familiar with...
THE FUND FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN ART at the Brooklyn Museum is honoring collector Pamela J. Joyner at its annual benefit March 16. The fund concentrates on gifts and purchases of pre-1945 works by important African American artists. Recent acquisitions include “Woman with Bouquet” (circa 1940) by Laura Wheeler Waring, Beauford Delaney’s 1945 “Untitled (Fang,...
Artists Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Julie Mehretu, Museum director Belinda Tate WOMEN ACCOUNT FOR 51 PERCENT of visual artists working today, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. The figure mirrors women’s representation in the U.S. population, which was 50.8 percent in 2015, based on Census statistics. The parity ends there. The National...
Barnes Foundation Appointed Judia S. Jackson Head of Human Resources and Culture at Philadelphia Museum
Jun 1, 2025
Malcolm X at 100: Transformational Leader and Outspoken Orator Inspired Artworks by Jack Whitten and Barbara Chase-Riboud
May 30, 2025
Alma Thomas Way: Washington D.C., Street Where Famous African American Artist Lived is Now Named in Her Honor
May 26, 2025
On View: ‘Vanessa German: Gumball’ Presented Monumental Heads and Fallen Figures at Kasmin Gallery in New York
May 11, 2025
Los Angeles Artist Alison Saar is 2025 Recipient of David C. Driskell Prize, For 20 Years Award Has Recognized ‘Field-Defining’ Contributions to African American Art
May 9, 2025
