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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

New York Museums are Showcasing African American Art, Exhibitions Feature Lorna Simpson, Rashid Johnson, Beauford Delaney, Amy Sherald, Black Dandyism & More

New York Museums are Showcasing African American Art, Exhibitions Feature Lorna Simpson, Rashid Johnson, Beauford Delaney, Amy Sherald, Black Dandyism & More

TOP NEW YORK MUSEUMS are presenting exhibitions of major African American artists this spring and summer with most on view through fall 2025. Solo exhibitions include the largest-ever surveys of Rashid Johnson at the Guggenheim Museum, Amy Sherald at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Jack Whitten at the...
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Alabama Artist Thornton Dial, Who Created 'Magisterial Constructions' Out of Everyday Objects, Dies at Age 87

Alabama Artist Thornton Dial, Who Created ‘Magisterial Constructions’ Out of Everyday Objects, Dies at Age 87

  PIONEERING ALABAMA ARTIST Thornton Dial Sr., died on Monday, Jan. 25 at his home in McCalla, Ala. Dial created densely structured wall reliefs and mixed-media works exploring a range of subjects from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and race and social justice issues, to more mundane matters of everyday rural life. He was 87....
How Much is that Painting? 10 Black Artists Whose Work Garners Top Dollar at Auction

How Much is that Painting? 10 Black Artists Whose Work Garners Top Dollar at Auction

THE 2016 AUCTION SEASON is gearing up in early February when the major houses are holding their first modern and contemporary art sales of the year in London. Although art by African American and African diasporic artists represents a nominal share of the lots offered by Sotheby’s, Phillips, and Christie’s (if they are included at...
The Year in Black Art: May 2015

The Year in Black Art: May 2015

CULTURE TYPE IS REVIEWING The Year in Black Art 2015 in monthly installments over the coming weeks. The report began with a look at The Newsmakers, seven artists and curators who continue to advance their practices and their projects with fresh approaches and new ideas—efforts that are recognized and often garner significant news coverage. The...
Triple Canopy: David Hammons's First Trip to the South was Prompted by an 'Outsider' Art Exhibition

Triple Canopy: David Hammons’s First Trip to the South was Prompted by an ‘Outsider’ Art Exhibition

NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO, David Hammons traveled to North Carolina to view the work of “outsider” artists. The elusive artist, who often uses found objects in his own work, had signed on to co-curate “Outside Insight” at Clockwork Gallery in New York. To identify the artists and works to be included in the exhibition, Tom...
Valerie Gerrard Browne: Heir to Painter Archibald Motley Reflects on the Legacy of the 'Jazz Age Modernist'

Valerie Gerrard Browne: Heir to Painter Archibald Motley Reflects on the Legacy of the ‘Jazz Age Modernist’

“Black Belt,” 1934 (oil on canvas) by Archibald J. Motley Jr. | Collection of the Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.   THE FIRST GALLERY OF THE EXHIBITION “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” features a series of striking portraits. Among the group is an image of the artist’s grandmother. The narrow, vertical...
On the Horizon in African American Art: Artists to Watch and Events to Look Forward to in 2016

On the Horizon in African American Art: Artists to Watch and Events to Look Forward to in 2016

WITH A NEW YEAR UNDERWAY and a compelling selection of new books, exhibitions and events on the horizon, here is what to look forward to in African American and African diasporic art—the most-anticipated happenings and artists to watch in 2016:   After spending January at the historic residence of a Mexican muralist, Henry Taylor will...
After Tackling America's Racial History in Her Work, Kara Walker Finds Her Own Roots on PBS

After Tackling America’s Racial History in Her Work, Kara Walker Finds Her Own Roots on PBS

FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS, artist Kara Walker has explored the vestiges of slavery and the antebellum South in her critically recognized work. Known for her narrative silhouettes, her practice probes America’s uncomfortable, often violent, history through the lens of race, gender and sexuality. Given this, it is fascinating to watch Walker learn about her...
Popular on Culture Type: Top 10 Posts of 2015

Popular on Culture Type: Top 10 Posts of 2015

  THIS YEAR’S MOST POPULAR POSTS, based on number of views, tended to be exhibition roundups and Culture Talk conversations with art world figures. The top Culture Type post by far, however, was a report published in March about the number of black artists slated to participate in the 56th annual Venice Biennale. It garnered...
Culture Type Picks: 14 Best Black Art Books of 2015

Culture Type Picks: 14 Best Black Art Books of 2015

MANY OF THIS YEAR’S BEST African American art books were published to coincide with exhibitions. The correlation is not surprising given the caliber of exhibitions on view in 2015, including innovative (“Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now”) and long overdue (“Noah Purify: Junk Dada” and “Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis”)...
The Year in Black Art: April 2015

The Year in Black Art: April 2015

CULTURE TYPE IS REVIEWING The Year in Black Art 2015 in monthly installments over the coming weeks. The report began with a look at The Newsmakers, seven artists and curators who continue to advance their practices and their projects with fresh approaches and new ideas—efforts that are recognized and often garner significant news coverage. The...
The Year in Black Art: March 2015

The Year in Black Art: March 2015

CULTURE TYPE IS REVIEWING The Year in Black Art 2015 in monthly installments over the coming weeks. The report began with a look at The Newsmakers, seven artists and curators who continue to advance their practices and their projects with fresh approaches and new ideas—efforts that are recognized and often garner significant news coverage. The...
Record Breaker: Norman Lewis Painting Sells for Nearly $1 Million at Swann Auction

Record Breaker: Norman Lewis Painting Sells for Nearly $1 Million at Swann Auction

Lot 49: NORMAN LEWIS (1909 – 1979), “Untitled,” circa 1958 (oil on linen canvas). | Estimate $250,000-$350,000. Sold on Dec. 15, 2015 for $965,000 fees included (Hammer Price $800,000) THE MOMENTUM SURROUNDING NORMAN LEWIS (1909-1979) continued earlier this week when a large-scale abstract painting by the artist (shown above) garnered nearly $1 million at Swann...
The Year in Black Art: February 2015

The Year in Black Art: February 2015

CULTURE TYPE IS REVIEWING The Year in Black Art 2015 in monthly installments over the coming weeks. The report began with a look at The Newsmakers, seven artists and curators who continue to advance their practices and their projects with fresh approaches and new ideas—efforts that are recognized and often garner significant news coverage. The...
The Year in Black Art: January 2015

The Year in Black Art: January 2015

CULTURE TYPE IS REVIEWING The Year in Black Art 2015 in monthly installments over the coming weeks. The report began with a look at The Newsmakers, seven artists and curators who continue to advance their practices and their projects with fresh approaches and new ideas—effort thats are recognized and often garner significant news coverage. The...
The Year in Black Art 2015: The Newsmakers

The Year in Black Art 2015: The Newsmakers

OVER THE PAST YEAR, a number of black artists and curators have made news on a regular basis, whether for groundbreaking projects and exhibitions, or for earning a significant honor or appointment. These key figures—both established and recently eclipsing emerging status—are not only pushing their own practices and institutions in innovative new directions, they are...
Dawoud Bey and Mark Bradford Participate in Season 4 of Met Museum's Artist Project

Dawoud Bey and Mark Bradford Participate in Season 4 of Met Museum’s Artist Project

  FASCINATED BY HIS BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGES of a man in a rumpled shirt emerging from the subway seemingly propelled by an angle of light and Billie Holiday captured in soft focus, photographer Dawoud Bey discusses the style and composition of photographer Roy DeCarava (1919-2009). Bey says DeCarava was the first African American artist working in...
Culture Type Awarded 2015 Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant

Culture Type Awarded 2015 Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant

CULTURE TYPE HAS BEEN AWARDED a 2015 Arts Writers Grant. Recipients of this year’s grants from Creative Capital and the Andy Warhol Foundation were announced Dec. 1. The annual grant program is “designed to support writing about contemporary art, as well as to create a broader audience for arts writing, the program aims to strengthen...
Culture Talk: Franklin Sirmans on Leading the Pérez Art Museum in Miami

Culture Talk: Franklin Sirmans on Leading the Pérez Art Museum in Miami

  SIX WEEKS INTO HIS TENURE as director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Franklin Sirmans is adapting to his new role at the museum and new expectations for Art Basel Miami Beach. Previously, as department head and curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), he could duck...
With 'Be Strong Boquan,' Mark Bradford Pushes His Painting Practice and Flexes His Comedy Chops

With ‘Be Strong Boquan,’ Mark Bradford Pushes His Painting Practice and Flexes His Comedy Chops

FOR HIS FIRST NEW YORK EXHIBITION with Hauser and Wirth Gallery, Mark Bradford has mounted a show that reinforces the depth of his painting practice and at the same time demonstrates his mastery of conceptual and performance art. “Be Strong Boquan” begins with a whimsical video installation with anthropomorphic roller skate wheels rolling, leaping and...
Honored in February with a Chicago Homecoming, Artist Eldzier Cortor Has Died at Age 99

Honored in February with a Chicago Homecoming, Artist Eldzier Cortor Has Died at Age 99

  AFRICAN AMERICAN PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER Eldzier Cortor died on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26. Cortor was recognized for his dignified and graceful images of black women, often depicted in the nude, their lithe bodies referencing the lines of African sculpture. According to the New York Times, he died in Seaford, N.Y., on Long Island, at...