#black-art — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #black-art, aggregated by home.social.
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By African-American artist Manet Harrison Fowler, Still life with flowers and Tuskegee pennant, 1966, watercolor on paper, 17 3/4 × 14 1/2 inches, photo: Swann Galleries, March 24, 2022. #art #blackart #blackartist #womanartist #womenartists
From the gallery: "Manet Harrison Fowler (1895-1976) was a Texas native and 1913 graduate of the Tuskegee Institute who later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and toured the country as a soprano opera singer. She brought the Mwalim Center for African Culture to Harlem in 1932, and became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance.”
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By Kehinde Wiley (born 1977), “Shantavia Beale II,” 2012, oil on canvas, 60x48 inches, private collection. #blackart #blackartist #blackartists #oilpainting #painting
From the Saint Louis Art Museum: “Kehinde Wiley’s vibrant paintings actively engage with the traditions of European art. In his work, Wiley replaces historical depictions of white figures with images of contemporary African Americans, Africans, and people of the African diaspora. His work is widely recognized for calling attention to significant absences and erasures in Western art history, exposing the lack of representation of black individuals in figurative painting.”
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I'm equally left and right-brained so this article was such a pleasant read for me. Eglash, wrote the book African Fractals and I was so excited to see that he'd also written about artist John Biggers.
"A Geometric Bridge across the Middle Passage: Mathematics in the Art of John Biggers" by Ron Eglash
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ron-Eglash/publication/299000294_A_geometric_bridge_across_the_middle_Passage_Mathematics_in_the_art_of_John_Biggers/links/59ffd7fca6fdcca1f29eeace/A-geometric-bridge-across-the-middle-Passage-Mathematics-in-the-art-of-John-Biggers.pdf
#BlackArt #JohnBiggers #RonEglash #geometry #FineArt #painting -
Your art history post for today: by African-American artist Charles Ethan Porter (1847–1923), Floral Still Life, ca. 1880-1890, oil on canvas, 16 1/8 × 20 3/8 × 13/16 inches (41 × 51.8 × 2 cm), Detroit Institute of Arts. #ArtHistory #blackart #blackartists #blackartist #BlackHistory
Information on the artist from the National Gallery of Art: ‘In 1881 Porter decided to travel abroad to continue his development as an artist…
Less than two years into his time in France, Porter’s money ran out. He wrote to Mark Twain, asking him for help. His letters to the writer are the only known first-person accounts from Porter. On April 4, 1883, he wrote:
Now I am aware that there are a goodly number of my Hartford friends and others who are anxious to see how the colored artist will make out, but this is not the motive which impresses me. There is something of more importance. The colored people—my people—as a race I am interested in, and my success will only add to others who have already shown wherein they are capable the same as other men.
Conscious of his place in an art world dominated by white men, Porter was eager to show what he, and other Black artists, could do.’
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I've been working on this #documentary about one of my mentors, David MacDonald since 2022. He was a professor at Syracuse University for over forty years and is a beloved figure in the #ceramics world. This project has been an immense undertaking. My hope is to finish shooting by spring 2027 and to complete post-production by 2028.
At this point, I think we could benefit from the addition of a producer. Suggestions and boosts welcome.
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went to a concert with some amazing #BlackArt #TransFem #hiphop & #rap
featuring #TeZATalks #AmberRyann & #DAMAG3
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By African American artist Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007), “The First Sunday after Easter.” It appears to be pen, ink, & brush, with watercolor. Crite may be the first American artist to present Jesus, Mary and the Apostles as black. #blackart #blackartist #easter #arthistory #art
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By African American/Mexican artist Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), Barbed Wire (Separation), 1954, linoleum cut on wove paper. As a print, it is held in more than one collection. #WomensHistoryMonth
#blackartist #blackart #womanartist #womenartists #art -
Namwali Serpell On Understanding Toni Morrison The Author, Not The Icon
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#AmySherald "American Sublime" is moving to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in May. The imagery in this triptych is giving me a lot to consider! https://high.org/exhibition/amy-sherald-american-sublime/ #Art #BlackArt #painting #OilPainting
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@angieart365, Black Royalty, shared the image below.
#blackwomen #92percent #blackcreatives #blackart #blackmastodon
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By Jamea Richmond-Edwards (b. 1982, Detroit, MI), "Archetype of a 5 Star," 2018 (acrylic, spray paint, glitter, ink and cut paper collage on canvas, 60 × 48 inches), ©️ Jamea Richmond-Edwards. #blackart #blackartist #womanartist #womensart #collage
From Victoria L. Valentine, Culture Type, April 20, 2018: ‘AS A YOUNG GIRL, Jamea Richmond-Edwards got lost in the pages of Ebony magazine. She was particularly drawn to the runway images from the Ebony Fashion Fair show. Through the otherworldly photographs of stunning black models styled in wildly imaginative ensembles, she discovered haute couture and envisioned herself as a fashion designer. Years later, she chose visual art over fashion design, but never gave up on her desire to explore the artifice of dressing.
"Those images were very visually affirming for me. It presented black women in a space that had never seen before," Richmond-Edwards told me via email.’
The artists Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamearichmondedwards/
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My art history theme for March will be women artists. So today: by Nigerian-Italian illustrator and textile artist Diana Ejaita, “Iya Ni Wura (Mother Is Gold),” cover for The New Yorker Magazine, May 13, 2019. #BlackArt #womanartist #womenartists #illustration #illustrationart
From the artist, on the website Afriquette: “I was contacted by The New Yorker's Art Director and was asked to send some sketches in 48 hours for Mothers Day. They were looking for a representation of motherhood with elements that qualify the traditional way of seeing mother from the Nigerian perspective. I decided I wanted to create something modern, intense, yet deeply universal.
I had recently returned from a visit to Lagos and decided to portray a mother in the city of Lagos, in the middle of the crazy traffic. I wanted to show the mother who, despite the chaos, still takes time to kneel down to her child and takes time to take care of her at the same eye level. I hoped this sense of motherhood would be universal — that any mother would be able to see herself in it. To me, the illustration is very powerful because it speaks about a sense of belonging to the family and to the land.
I was happy to be asked to do the cover and to have the chance to use this major opportunity to say thank you to Lagos, the city that is has been so generous and inspiring to me. I wanted Nigerians around the world to see something from our homeland that would warm their heart.”
The artist’s website: https://www.dianaejaita.com/
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By African-American artist and educator Hilda Wilkinson Brown (1894-1981), Portrait of a Girl. I could find little specific information about this painting, nor could I find a better photo; however, it appears on the website for the short documentary film “Kindred Spirits: Artists Hilda Wilkinson Brown and Lilian Thomas Burwell.” The film explores the relationship between Brown and her niece, also an artist. #arthistory #BlackHistoryMonth #blackart #blackartist #womanartist
From Paul Richard, “Drawing on the District: The Neglected Art Of Hilda Wilkerson Brown,” The Washington Post, November 14, 1983:
“Like the finest works she left us, Hilda Brown herself was sophisticated, genteel, charming, modest, tough. In the '20s and the '30s, she was one of the few painters capable of linking this city's black community to the world of modern art.
Her best paintings are delightful. Her subjects are familiar. She painted what she saw here--the lights of Griffith Stadium, brick Victorian row houses, the streets of Le Droit Park. Her oils please at once, and after pleasing unfold slowly. They have quiet truths to give us. Hers are images that teach.
When it suited her intentions she would borrow from the moderns. She fully understood the space-declaring brushstrokes of Ce'zanne, Lyonel Feininger's light rays, and the sweet, domestic scale of the paintings at the Phillips. But her style is her own."
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By African-American sculptor May Howard Jackson (1877-1931). “Slave Boy,” 1899, bronze. Today, the title is offensive. He’s a young man who is enslaved, not a boy.
As cast bronze, the sculpture is in more than one collection, public and private. #arthistory #BlackHistoryMonth #blackart #blackartist #womanartist
From Black Art Story: ‘Jackson expressed a fascination with the wide variety of features among African Americans and this became evident in her work. Pieces that expressed this love are works such as “Head of a Negro Child” (1916), “Mulatto Mother and Child” (1929), and “Shell-Baby in Bronze” (1929). These three pieces defined her sculptures. Jackson was a unique representative of the Weltzensang of the Jazz Age that embraced and exalted Black Beauty.’
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By African-American artist Ronald Jackson, born 1970, Zipporah's Song, 2014, oil and fabric on wood, 36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm), DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. #BlackHistoryMonth #blackart #blackartist #art
A quote from the artist’s website: “ The conceptual basis of my works (specifically narrative works) comes from a time of the past, whether 40, 60 or 100 years ago. The art world is heavily urbanized, and I do not produce urban art. Regardless of living in urban environments over the past 30+ years, I realize how my rural roots have shaped my value system and world view. The great American migration shifted millions of African Americans from the South to more industrialized cities which has produced millions of urban Black people having little personal reference to the rural existence of their ancestry. I have chosen not to become another urban artist, but nor will I produce works depicting rural life. My aim is to address contemporary issues through Black figuration but only from the backdrop of a non-urban environment. Therefore, I am not an urban artist.”
Who is Zipporah? She is Moses’ wife in the Book of Exodus. A very strange passage in the book: ‘But it came about at the overnight encampment on the way, that the Lord met Moses, and sought to put him to death. So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet; and she said, “You are indeed a groom of blood to me!” So He left him alone. At that time she said, “You are a groom of blood”—because of the circumcision.”’ ~ Exodus 4:24-26 (NASB2020)
The artist’s website: https://www.ronaldjacksonartworks.com/about
The artist’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronald_jackson_artworks/
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By African-American sculptor Beulah Ecton Woodard (1895-1955), "Maudelle," fired terra-cotta painted brown, ca. 1937-1938, 12x12 1/4x8 inches (approximately 305x310x202 mm), Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. #arthistory #blackart #blackartist #BlackHistoryMonth #sculpture #womanartist
From Jill Renae Hicks in a review of the exhibit "Black Women in Art and the Stories They Tell” at the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology: ‘One of the most incandescent works in the exhibit is "Maudelle," the bust of Maudelle Weston, a black woman who once was a New York dancer. Maudelle modeled for many artists, including Beulah Ecton Woodard, who carefully fashioned the terra cotta sculpture. Woodard, skilled at bringing life to clay, seems to poke fun at the stiff, arched busts traditionally seen in society by creating one infused with dignity, joy and clear African roots, as exemplified by Maudelle's braided hair and exquisitely captured features.
The sculpture testifies to "Woodard's belief that accurate depiction of African costume and features could enhance African American pride," said Diana Burgess Fuller and Daniela Salvioni in the book "Art/Women/California, 1950-2000: Parallels and Intersections." It is an excellent example of one black woman telling another black woman's story, Pixley said.’ (Jill Renae Hicks, Columbia Daily Tribune, Feb. 19, 2012.)
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By African-American artist Alfred Amadu Conteh (born 1975), "Mr. Wright,” 2018, acrylic and atomized copper dust on canvas, 14x14 inches, private collection. #arthistory #blackart #blackartist #BlackHistoryMonth #painting
From the journal Colossal: ‘The urgency of Alfred Conteh’s portraits lies in the present. He portrays Black people he meets around Atlanta, creating monumental works that accentuate the material both physically and metaphorically, in their mediums and the critical analysis of current social conditions. “Black folks are not doing well in this country,” Conteh tells Colossal. “We will not do well until we come to terms with how this country was built, and the resulting racial wealth gaps and social decay. Nothing is being done to improve that, first and foremost economically.”’
The artists website: https://www.alfredconteh.com/
His Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaconteh
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By African-American artist Charles White (1918-1979), Juba, 1965, Lithograph. As a print it appears in more than one collection, both public and private. #blackartist #blackart #art #printmaking #BlackHistoryMonth
Quote from the artist: “Art must be an integral part of the struggle. It can’t simply mirror what’s taking place. It must adapt itself to human needs. It must ally itself with the forces of liberation. The fact is, artists have always been propagandists. I have no use for artists who try to divorce themselves from the struggle.”
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “White believed in creating representational art that would connect with the public as well as advocate for racial, economic, and social justice. Active for several decades, White had a profound influence on generations of artists and students. His art consistently reflected his mission to create positive images of Black Americans. He depicted both celebrated people, such as the social reformer Frederick Douglass, and anonymous figures.”
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By Barkley L. Hendricks (American, 1945–2017), Lawdy Mama, 1969, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 53 3/4 x 36 1/4 in. (136.5 x 92.1 cm), Studio Museum in Harlem, © Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks. #blackart #BlackHistoryMonth #blackartist #art
From the Frick Collection: ‘This portrait of the artist's relative Kathy Williams was inspired by Byzantine and early Italian Renaissance paintings. In them, gold-leaf backgrounds signal the divine, conveying through material splendor the importance of the devotional object, prompting wonder and meditation. Hendricks learned the painstaking process of applying gold leaf after returning from Europe in 1966. Noting the delicacy of the precious material, he wrote, “The slightest wind or heavy breath will send it fluttering all over the place.” Lawdy Mama’s rounded top, crafted by Hendricks himself, echoes the geometry of Renaissance art and frames the sitter’s afro-as-halo. Inspired by lyrics by Nina Simone, the painting’s title evokes, with a touch of humor, the traditional “Lord” and “Mother” of the Christian faith. Though he acknowledged finding inspiration for his metallic paintings in gold-leaf panels from centuries prior, Hendricks also appreciated them as “shiny things” that appeal to viewers regardless of their knowledge of historical precedents.’
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By African-American artist Alma Thomas (1891-1978), Hello Dolly, 1967, oil on canvas board, 24 x 18 in. (60.9 x 45.7 cm.), photo: Christie’s New York, 14 Dec 2023. Very different from her more well known abstract works. #arthistory #art #blackart #womanartist #blackartist #BlackHistoryMonth
A quote from the artist: “I’ve never bothered painting the ugly things in life. People struggling, having difficulty. You meet that when you go out, and then you have to come back and see the same thing hanging on the wall. No. I wanted something beautiful that you could sit down and look at. And then, the paintings change you.”
–– Alma Thomas -
Your Black History Month art post for today: by Elizabeth Colomba (born 1976), Spring, 2018, oil on canvas, 72 x 36 inches, ©️Elizabeth Colomba. #BlackHistoryMonth #blackart #blackartist #womanartist #womenartists
From the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: ‘Colomba’s work centers stories of Black women, drawing on her extensive knowledge of art history and her academic training to complicate Western notions of beauty. As she explains, "I . . . start from a story that exists and remake it in a way that is appealing to me . . . making it more about my roots, which are a mix of French and Caribbean."’
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By African-American artist Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948), Portrait of Marian Anderson, 1944, oil on canvas, 76 x 40 1/4 inches (193 x 102.2 cm), National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC. #womenartists #arthistory #art #blackart #blackartist #BlackHistoryMonth
From Cherene Sherrard-Johnson, “Laura Wheeler Waring: A Luminous Palette,” History Now, Issue 73 (Winter 2024): “In Laura Wheeler Waring’s Portrait of Marian Anderson (1944), you can almost hear the renowned contralto’s voice soaring in the pastel room in which she stands. There is a vitality to this painting that evokes the performer behind the façade. Strikingly, Wheeler Waring does not position Anderson on a stage, which is where she first heard Anderson sing. She paints her alone in a room with a single window that frames a bucolic pasture and skyscape, combining two features, portraiture and landscape. Wheeler Waring’s iconic image of Anderson recalls the grace and dignity that Anderson brought to her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow her to perform in Constitution Hall in 1939. Anderson would go on to have a groundbreaking musical career. Wheeler Waring captures her contemplative subject in a moment of self-gathering before or after she opens her mouth to sing.”
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By Nelson Stevens (1938-2022), “Uhuru - Nina,” 1978, acrylic on linen canvas, 40x40 inches (1016x1016 cm), photo: Swann Auction Galleries, October 3, 2024. #arthistory #art #blackart #blackartist #BlackHistoryMonth
From the gallery: ‘Stevens told the painting owners that in this work, he painted the inspiration of Nina Simone and her spirit, rather than her portrait. It is part of his representation of the concept of uhuru; the word means "freedom" in Swahili. Stevens first used the title in the 1971 work Uhuru (see lot 103) to signal the collective AfriCOBRA's Afrocentric identity and politically conscious purpose. Nina Simone also was outspoken in her call for freedom and justice - she said famously "I'll tell you what freedom is to me. No fear!" The great singer and songwriter was also a great Civil Rights activist who spoke out against racism and social and political injustice throughout the 1960s and 70s.‘