Culture Type Gift Guide 2023: Celebrate the Holidays with 50 Great Finds Inspired by Leading African American Artists
THE GRAPHIC QUILT DESIGNS of Gee’s Bend artists inspired a new line of upholstered furniture available exclusively from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Studio Museum in Harlem recently added new items to its Barkley L. Hendricks Collection. Interior designer Sheila Bridges continues to expand the line of products featuring her clever Harlem Toile de...
Latest News in Black Art: Lorna Simpson’s Portrait of Brittney Griner Covers Time Magazine, Johnson Publishing Archive Ownership Transfer, First Major Monograph of Hurvin Anderson & More
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Time, Aug. 8/Aug. 15, 2022: Artwork by Lorna Simpson for TIME, Source photograph by Stephen Gosling—NBAE/Getty Images Magazines Time magazine commissioned artist Lorna Simpson to illustrate its latest cover (Aug. 8/Aug. 15, 2022) featuring...
Latest News in Black Art: Lauren Halsey Takes on Met Museum Rooftop Commission, Michael Armitage Joins David Zwirner, New Lorna Simpson Book & More
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture Artist Lauren Halsey. | Photo by Russell Hamilton, Courtesy David Kordansky Gallery Commissions Lauren Halsey is the latest artist commissioned to create a site-specific installation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop garden. Titled...
Culture Type Gift Guide 2021: Celebrate the Holidays with Fabulous Finds Inspired by Leading Black Artists
THE EVER-PRESENT FLORAL PATTERNS in the background of Kehinde Wiley’s famous portraits inspired a set of notecards. A deck of playing cards features artwork by Gee’s Bend, Ala., quilt artists. Rashid Johnson’s Untitled Escape Collage is emblazoned on a hoodie. From apparel and accessories to stationery and home goods, African American artists have inspired...
Latest News in Black Art: Estate of Thornton Dial and Kevin Beasley Join New Galleries, Julie Mehretu and Kehinde Wiley Collaborate with American Express, Smithsonian Launches Searchable Museum & More
Latest News in Black Art features news updates and developments in the world of art and related culture THORNTON DIAL, “History Refused to Die,” 2004 (okra stalks and roots, clothing, collages drawings, tin, wire, steel, Masonite, steel chain, enamel, and spray paint, 102 x 87 x 23 inches). | © Estate of Thornton...
Los Angeles: 5 New Gallery Exhibitions are Dedicated to Artists Lorna Simpson, Betye Saar, Amoako Boafo, June Edmonds, and Rashid Johnson
LOS ANGELES GALLERIES are brimming with new exhibitions featuring new works by prominent Black artists. The intergenerational slate includes Amoako Boafo, June Edmonds, Rashid Johnson, Lorna Simpson, and Betye Saar, all of whom have coinciding museum exhibitions and public art projects at a variety of venues nationwide. LORNA SIMPSON, “Recurring,” 2021 (ink and...
Best of September: 13 New Museum Exhibitions Feature Artists Ulysses Jenkins, Adam Pendleton, Deborah Roberts, Naudline Pierre, Arthur Jafa, Lorna Simpson & More
THE FIRST MUSEUM retrospective of pioneering video/performance artist Ulysses Jenkins opens this week at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The exhibition is co-curated by ICA Associate Curator Meg Onli and Erin Christovale, associate curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Following Kerry James Marshall and...
The Week in Black Art, March 1-7, 2021: Two Museums Will Acquire Amy Sherald’s Portrait of Breonna Taylor, Text From Obama Speech Will Grace Facade of Presidential Museum
This post will be updated with the latest news in Black art throughout the week AMY SHERALD (b. 1973), “Breonna Taylor,” 2020 (oil on linen, 137.2 x 109.2 cm / 54 x 43 inches). | © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde March 7, 2021...
Iconic Lorna Simpson Portrait of Rihanna Covers January/February Essence Magazine
FOR YEARS, Lorna Simpson has been recognized for her powerful and transporting collage portraits of Black women. Her subjects are usually anonymous. Her latest is one of the most recognizable women in the world—music, beauty, and fashion icon Rihanna. Essence magazine commissioned Brooklyn-based Simpson to make a series of portraits of Rihanna for its...
Culture Type 2020 Holiday Gift Guide: Artist-Inspired Ideas for Everyone on Your List
FAITH RINGGOLD COLLABORATED with Vans and the Museum of Modern Art. The estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat partnered with Coach and Derrick Adams joined forces with a swimsuit brand. Considering an art-inspired gift? This year, highly acclaimed Black artists have made their work more accessible to wider audiences in the form of products such as...
On View: ‘To Be Determined’ at Dallas Museum of Art in Texas
“Untitled (America)” (2018) by Glenn Ligon On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions THE STATE OF THE NATION is influx. The pandemic. Isolation. Police killings. Racial justice protests. Election 2020. “To Be Determined” is a response to the moment. The collection exhibition draws on the expansive holdings of the Dallas Museum of Art,...
‘Give Me Some Moments’: Lorna Simpson’s New Collages Channel the Imagined Lives and Complex Interiority of Black Women
THE IMAGES OF AFRICAN AMERICANS that populate the pages of vintage Ebony and Jet magazines have been a source of inspiration for Lorna Simpson for nearly a decade. Black men and children have featured in her collages, but overwhelmingly she’s focused on advertising images of Black women culled and cut from the pages of the...
Latest News in African American Art: Artist Selection for J. Marion Sims Replacement Monument Goes Sideways, 2021 Whitney Biennial Curators Announced & More
VINNIE BAGWELL, Rendering for “Victory Beyond Sims,” 2019. Bagwell’s proposal envisioning a “majestic angel” to replace the Central Park monument to J. Marion Sims was favored by representatives of the community and ultimately emerged as the city’s official choice. | Courtesy the artist ACQUISITIONS Eleven works from South African artist Zanele Muholi‘s “Faces and...
A Pioneer of Conceptual Art, Lorna Simpson Receives 2019 Getty Medal
AGAINST A STORMY BACKDROP, the 2019 J. Paul Getty Medals were presented to Mary Beard, an author and classics professor at the University of Cambridge, and American artists Ed Ruscha and Lorna Simpson. The recipients were announced in January and a dinner was held in their honor Sept. 16. Simpson’s recent paintings have been...
Sotheby’s Contemporary Sales in New York Yielded Records for Kevin Beasley, McArthur Binion, Michael Ray Charles, Charles Gaines, Rashid Johnson, and Alma Thomas
SOTHEBY’S ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK that it was being acquired by French-Israeli telecommunications billionaire Patrick Drahi in a $3.7 billion deal. The purchase would take the publicly traded auction house private, again, after 31 years on the New York Stock Exchange. (Other major auction houses are privately held, including Christie’s, its chief rival, Phillips, and...
Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated Sale Offered Look at Rarely Seen Works by Faith Ringgold, Henry Taylor, Robert Colescott, Romare Bearden, Jack Whitten & More
AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS figured prominently in Sotheby’s recent Contemporary Curated auction. Works by 32 African American artists were offered, some rarely if ever shown publicly including a 2002 portrait of Malcolm X by Henry Taylor acquired directly from the artist and a pair of Robert Colescott interior scenes that give a nod to Roy...
Ursula Magazine: Hauser & Wirth Introduced a New Art Quarterly Featuring Linda Goode Bryant, Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, Senga Nengudi, and Jack Whitten
THE INAUGURAL ISSUE of Ursula magazine begins and ends with depictions of African American women by black female artists. The cover features a collage image of Linda Goode Bryant by Lorna Simpson. A painting by Amy Sherald illustrates the back cover the magazine. Bryant is the pioneering founder of Just Above Midtown (JAM), the...
Latest News in African American Art: Rashid Johnson’s ‘Native Son’ Acquired by HBO, David Hammons Exhibition Planned at Hauser & Wirth L.A. & More
Director Rashid Johnson at Sundance The following review of the past week or so presents a snapshot of the latest news in African American art and related culture: Prioritizing Museum Board Diversity The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) is launching a three-year, $4 million initiative designed to diversify museum boards and leadership. A...
Culture Type Picks: 18 Best Black Art Books of 2018
The best illustrated black art books of 2018. | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine THE INCREASED INTEREST among some museums in mounting exhibitions featuring the work of African American artists has translated into a growing number of catalogs published to document them, which is wonderful. Many of those catalogs made Culture Type’s 2018 list...
Commencement 2018: Glenn Ligon, Dawoud Bey, Carrie Mae Weems, and Joyce J. Scott Are Among the Artists Imparting Wisdom and Expectations on New Graduates
Glenn Ligon spoke at The New School’s 2018 commencement on May 18. A NUMBER OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS were declared doctors over the past month. Invited to participate in commencement ceremonies for undergraduate and MFA students at institutions around the country, prominent artists, critics, and curators were bestowed honorary doctorate degrees. Addressing 2018 graduates,...
