WHILE THE ART WORLD GATHERS IN MIAMI BEACH for Art Basel, those interested in work by African American artists should be attuned to what is happening in Chicago. Tomorrow Treadway Toomey Auctions is offering paintings, drawings, photography and sculpture by 74 black artists. The group includes well-known 20th century figures Charles Alston, Richmond Barthe,...
GIVE THE GIFT OF ART. Many highly regarded artists are designing functional art objects that would make perfect gifts for the art lovers on your list. Culture Type has assembled more than a dozen fabulous finds that fit any budget and would thrill family, friends and even the most scrutinizing art collectors. Who wouldn’t want...
RECOMMENDED READING FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: Some Thoughts About Richard Serra and Martin Puryear by John Yau | Hyperallergic Martin Puryear and Richard Serra were born two years apart and both attended Yale’s MFA program. Puryear draws on traditional woodworking skills,...
“Buy Black” by Kerry James Marshall on view at “Black Eye” group exhibition curated by Nicola Vassell, May 2014 in New York | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine AMERICA’S THIRST FOR HOLIDAY CONSUMPTION, paired with retailers desperate push to convince consumers to spend, spend, spend so that they can maximize revenues during the most...
ARTISTS HAVE LONG USED EVERYDAY OBJECTS as inspiration, tools and materials, often transforming and utilizing them in entirely new and unrecognizable ways. A generation before Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto began filling nylon textiles with spices, Senga Nengudi (below left) was twisting, stretching and manipulating nylon pantyhose, testing their tension and form by stuffing them...
THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM has awarded Njideka Akunyili Crosby the 2014 James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize for her “bold yet intimate” mixed- media paintings, which it describes as “among the most visually, conceptually and technically exciting work being made today.” The museum made the announcement yesterday. The prize recognizes an artist younger than...
KERRY JAMES MARSHALL HAS JOINED the million dollar club. His 2003 painting “Vignette” sold for more than $1 million (including fees) at Christie’s on Nov. 13. It was a record for the artist, according to sales results and auction records kept by multiple sources including Blouin Art Sales Index and Iris Index. “Vignette” was Lot...
JACOB LAWRENCE COMPLETED “The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture,” his first series of historic narrative paintings in 1938. It was the same year Talladega College commissioned Hale Woodruff to paint a series of murals depicting the Amistad uprising. Both projects document pivotal moments in black diasporic history and demonstrate the immense talent of important 20th century...
A NEW EXHIBITION AT THE STUDIO MUSEUM in Harlem was inspired by the pluck of a young Chicago entrepreneur. When positive images of black people were absent from America’s most popular household magazines, John H. Johnson started his own. Fixtures on the coffee tables of countless black families across the country, Ebony and Jet served...
RECOMMENDED READING FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “The Hole Truth” by Raphael Rubinstein | Art in America Howardena Pindell has pursued a number of avenues in her work, but it is her fields of color punctuated with layered scatterings of...
STORIES, MEMORIES AND DREAMS fill Jack Shainman Gallery. They are embedded in ambitious portraits composed of torn paper and installations of found radios, album covers and eyeglasses. The materials have a history that artist Kay Hassan mines for meaning, envisioning how everyday people live, face challenges and find joy. Images from billboard advertisements and the...
ALL THAT STANDS BETWEEN YOU and owning works by some of the most highly regarded artists practicing today is the wave of a paddle. Major auction houses are staging their fall contemporary sales this week. Works by El Anatsui, Chris Ofili, Mickalene Thomas and Glenn Ligon are up for consideration. Bidding is underway already with...
IT WAS THE FIRST LOT OF THE NIGHT, a white-on-white text painting by Glenn Ligon. Originally executed in 1990 and repainted in 2003, “Untitled (I Was Somebody)” opened Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction and sold for more than $3.9 million, according to sales results. The price was well over twice the estimate of $1 million...
A SELECTION OF SHELF-WORTHY, COFFEE TABLE-READY books and catalogs published recently that explore black art and artists “The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V: The Twentieth Century, Part 2: The Rise of Black Artists” edited by David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Belknap Press, 368 pages) Since 2010, Harvard University Press...
THE MOTIVATION BEHIND MOUNTING “Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist” has everything to do with exposure, recasting the legacy of an important 20th century painter. Based in Chicago, Archibald Motley (1891-1981) painted captivating portraits, lively street scenes and spirited social gatherings with a modern perspective. His canvases capture African American life with wry humor and...
RECOMMENDED READING FEATURES recently published content from around the web, recommendations from Culture Type worth taking the time to explore: “Recovering Weeksville” By Brandon Harris | The New Yorker The new Weeksville Heritage Center, “Brooklyn’s largest African-American cultural center,” cements the legacy of the black landowning community for which it was named. Straddling Bedford-Stuyvesant and...
SINCE LAST FALL, month after month has been punctuated by encounters with photographer Carrie Mae Weems. Not literally, but at every turn it seems another accomplishment or engagement, another confirmation of the importance of her practice, has come to my attention, which is wonderful. Throughout her more than 30-year career, Weems has been critically...
ACROSS THE COUNTRY TODAY, voters are casting ballots in the mid-term elections. Congressional seats, state offices and local initiatives, including arts funding, are up for consideration. Nationwide, President Obama’s handling of ISIS and Ebola is overshadowing fundamental economic issues, though politics remains mostly local. The most competitive states where outcomes will determine the balance of...
SPANNING THREE GALLERY FLOORS, Chris Ofili’s exhibition at the New Museum doesn’t hold back, presenting his greatest hits and new works, fabulous canvases that refute any notion that painting is dead. His culturally tuned layered and embellished canvases from the 1990s are on view, along with a quintet of red, black and green nods...
ART AGENDA LISTS UPCOMING EVENTS, EXHIBITION OPENINGS AND TALKS HAPPENING THIS WEEK IN BLACK ART Prospect 3 New Orleans | Oct. 25, 2014 – Jan. 25, 2015 The first full week of Prospect 3 is underway with a full agenda of talks and events in addition to exhibitions. Exploring the theme “Notes for...
Vogue’s ‘Black Dandy’ Issue is Fashion Forward and Artist Centered, Featuring Photographs by Tyler Mitchell and Cover Painted by Henry Taylor
May 2, 2025
New Obama Presidential Center Artist Commissions Include Lindsay Adams Painting Inspired by Langston Hughes Poem
Apr 26, 2025
Turner Prize 2025 Shortlist of Four British Artists Includes Nnena Kalu and Rene Matić
Apr 24, 2025
Diallo Simon-Ponte is Joining Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, as Inaugural Sam Gilliam Assistant Curator of Artist Programs
Apr 23, 2025
On View: ‘Alberta Whittle: Towards a Motherful Loving Praxis, We Cast Seeds Into the Darkness’ at Nicola Vassell Gallery in New York
Apr 19, 2025
