FEATURED FOUR YEARS AGO in the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents,” Willie Cole recently returned to the museum to talk about his introduction to African art. It was the late 1960s, after the Kennedy and King assassinations and the...
IN AN ERA WHEN COUNTLESS ARTISTS are creating untitled abstract and conceptual work, there is a certain satisfaction in viewing paintings by artists who not only remain fixated on figures, but also relish the art of naming their canvases. Henry Taylor‘s title choices are often as blunt, cheeky and colorful as his images. “Walking with...
THE WEEK’S TOP NEWS COVERAGE from around the web featuring artists Nick Cave, Gordon Parks, Noah Purifoy, Mark Bradford, Mickalene Thomas and designer Duro Olowu. Nick Cave: Soundsuit Invasion, Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead. | Photo by PD Rearick, Courtesy of Cranbrook Art Museum via T Magaine Nick Cave T MAGAZINE talks to Chicago-based artist Nick...
MYSTERIOUS AND CAPTIVATING are among the descriptors often used to label the subjects in Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s remarkable portraits. Fictional figures, the men and women she paints—whether sitting, standing, reclining, gazing at a floral arrangement or nursing a cup of tea—betray no sense of time or place, and their clothing and spare surroundings don’t offer any...
RECOGNIZED FOR HIS RAPT ATTENTION to the historic narratives of African Americans, Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) envisioned a series of paintings about the history of the United States that would encompass all of the nations’s people. In 1954, Lawrence began working on “Struggle…From the History of the American People” (1954-56), a new series conceived as...
BORN IN PORTLAND, ORE., IN 1953, photographer Carrie Mae Weems has steadily built a critically acclaimed, internationally recognized practice. Weems uses photography and video to test and explore assumptions about race, gender, class and history. She is a trailblazer, who had few examples to turn to, model her career after or use as a...
LIKENING ARTISTS TO SUPER HEROES, Los Angeles-based artist Alison Saar offered an animated message of encouragement at the Maryland Institute of College of Art (MICA) undergraduate commencement on May 18. “In our studios…our super hero persona emerges, determined to save the day, with the desire to make this world a better place through our creative...
View image | gettyimages.com AN AVID COLLECTOR OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART, Maya Angelou (1928-2014) surrounded herself with paintings, sculpture, fine prints and works on paper. The vaunted poet and author acquired works by Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Melvin Edwards and Faith Ringgold, among many others, that have largely remained unseen by the...
OVER THE PAST YEAR, visual artists have responded to the steady clip of national news stories about unarmed black men and youth being killed by police. Titus Kaphur painted the Ferguson, Mo., protestors for Time magazine; Dred Scott wrote an essay titled “Illegitimate” for the Walker Art Center on the killing of Michael Brown;...
TEN BIDDERS VIED FOR A NEW PAINTING by Mark Bradford at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction on May 12. The sale price for “Smear” was ultimately $4,394,000 (including fees), a record for the Los Angeles-based artist, according to Sotheby’s and Iris Index. A brilliant nexus of color, technique and materials executed in 2015, the...
Glenn Ligon and Oscar Murillo for “All the World’s Futures” curated by Okwui Enwezor #VeniceBiennale A photo posted by Artforum (@artforum) on May 5, 2015 at 3:49am PDT THE 56th VENICE BIENNALE officially opens to the public on May 9 and black artists are at the forefront. The entrance to the Central Pavilion...
View image | gettyimages.com FOR TWO DECADES, KARA WALKER HAS PURSUED a unique practice focused on exploring the history of race, gender, power and exploitation in the antebellum South through large-scale cut-paper silhouettes, drawings, watercolor and video animation. The artist’s primary subject parallels that of Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Beloved” (1987), as well...
RECOMMENDED FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “Visionary Artist: Chris Ofili” by David Adjaye | Time Magazine This week, Time magazine published its annual list of The 100 Most Influential People and Chris Ofili made the list of artists who are at the...
THE INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE work of Alma W. Thomas (1891-1978) graces the Old Family Dining Room at the White House. In February, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed the newly refurbished space where Thomas’s “Resurrection” is displayed on the north wall. The painting is the first artwork by an African American woman to hang in the...
THE HAMMER MUSEUM is currently presenting “Charles Gaines: Gridwork 1974-1989,” the first museum survey of the Los Angeles-based artist’s early work. The exhibition originated at the Studio Museum in Harlem and includes some rare works, previously presumed to be lost, being shown for the first time. The work of Charles Gaines has been acquired...
THIS SPRING MARKS THE OPENING of a number of notable exhibitions featuring work by African and African American artists. In Los Angeles, William Pope.L’s largest-ever museum presentation is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In New York, a comprehensive overview of colorful works by Alma Thomas is at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery,...
LAST THURSDAY WAS A HISTORY-MAKING DAY in African American art. Sales results show Swann Auction Galleries recorded $2.36 million in total sales (including fees), four lots sold for more than six figures and, most notably, seven artists achieved record prices. Swann Auction Galleries held its first African American fine art auction of the year on...
RECOMMENDED FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: Over the past month, Artforum’s 500 Words feature has captured the as told to remarks of Simone Leigh, Melvin Edwards and Isaac Julien. The artists explain their work and share the sources and motivations behind their...
RECLINING IN THE NUDE or posed upright on sofas, Mickalene Thomas‘s female subjects are always surrounded by a dynamic mix of patterned textiles. Mixed-media paintings and photographs, her portraits of African American women are inspired in part by the practice of Malian photographer Seydou Keita (1921-2001), whose work is shown above. “I wasn’t trained...
THE TENTH PRESIDENT of Spelman College is a prominent New York City arts leader who played a pivotal role in sustaining and advancing the Studio Museum in Harlem when the city was on a downturn. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., has been named president-elect of Spelman, the Atlanta college established in 1881 and recognized today as...
On View: ‘Danielle McKinney: Tell Me More’ at Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is Painter’s First U.S. Solo Museum Exhibition
Sep 10, 2025
A Year of African American Art: New 2026 Wall Calendars Feature Works by Faith Ringgold, Alma Thomas, and Many Others
Sep 6, 2025
Culture Type | The Month in Black Art: Here’s What Happened in August 2025
Sep 4, 2025
Amy Sherald Exhibition Lands at Baltimore Museum of Art After Artist Canceled Presentation at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Over Censorship Concerns
Sep 3, 2025
Washington, D.C., Museums are Showcasing African American Art, Exhibitions Focus on Photography and the Black Arts Movement, Vivian Browne, Adam Pendleton & More
Aug 31, 2025
