#blackart — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #blackart, aggregated by home.social.
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By African/Cuban-American artist Harmony Rosales (born in Chicago, 1984). #oilpainting #painting #BlackArt #blackartist #womanartist #portrait #portraitpainting #portraiture
Her description on her Facebook and Instagram accounts: “I’ve been heads down with a new body of work.
Experimenting with different grounds and allowing parts of the image to remain unfinished.
This painting began with Portrait of a Lady with her Servant (c. 1694–95), and my interest in the liveried servant in European portraiture.
I kept returning to the power of portraiture: how a painting can tell us who was considered worthy of being remembered, while reducing another person to evidence of someone else’s status.
I wanted to disturb that hierarchy.
The figure once positioned as an accessory to the portrait now occupies it entirely and possessing the space around her.
Maybe the question is no longer who she served, but who she might have been when no one else was defining her.”
The artist’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/honeiee/?hl=en
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By African-American artist Sargent Claude Johnson (1888-1967), “Chester,” 1930, painted terracotta, (Don Ross / Estate of Sargent Claude Johnson). #art #arthistory #sculpture #Blackart #Blackartist
From the art critic Christopher Knight, the Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2024: “Sargent’s father, a white man of Swedish descent, died when the boy was not yet 10. His Black and Indigenous mother succumbed from tuberculosis just a few years later…
The first wave of the Great Migration that saw millions of Black Americans leave the rural South for the increasingly urban North and West was instrumental in creating the Harlem Renaissance. Given the name, we usually think of it as a New York phenomenon, but Johnson lived and worked in the Bay Area throughout his creative life. (He arrived in 1915 and died nearly penniless in 1967.)”
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Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement.
Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti duo SAMO,
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By Trinidadian-American actor/dancer/musician/director/choreographer/artist Geoffrey Holder (1930-2014), portrait of his wife, actress/choreographer/dancer Carmen de Lavallade, 1976, oil on canvas, 61 × 40 ½ inches (framed). #arthistory #blackhistory #blackartists #blackart #blackartist #painting #oilpainting
From James Fuentes Gallery: “The artist’s oeuvre demonstrates a deep interest in representing the totality of black life, registered here in compositions that move from the quiet intimacy of bedrooms and parlors to the lively energy encountered in city streets and nightclubs. Anchored in portraiture, at times Holder’s images are also steeped in religious iconography and a bold reverence for nature—consummately rendered in such a way that they appear at once contemporary, historical, and thus timeless…
Holder’s attunement to beauty imbued much of his portraiture with a mysterious quality—likely amplified by the fact that most of his figures were painted from imagination rather than life. Holder engaged the body as if it were a paintbrush or pen; his choreography resembled movements like brushstrokes and, in turn, his paintings reflected an intimate physical sensibility. For Holder, painting provided fertile terrain for his astonishing experimentations in style, representation, and expression. To this day, Holder’s work remains as contemporary as when it was made.”
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Your art history post for today: by 19th century African American artist Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901), Sunset Scene, ca. 1875-1885, oil on wood, 10 3⁄4 x 18 7⁄8 in. (27.2 x 48.0 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum. #art #blackart #blackartist #blackhistory
From the museum; “Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828–1901) lived by the sea for most of his life, and many of his paintings, including Sunset Scene, feature boats or bodies of water. Here, the glowing oranges and yellows immediately draw us into the center of the image, highlighting the indistinct trees and buildings in the background. Bannister's intimate views of the American landscape contrast with the large vistas of mountains and canyons painted by many of his contemporaries. This picturesque scene, in which nature is shown as passive and calm, is typical of Bannister's work.”
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Your art history post for today: by African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), Daniel in the Lions' Den (1907-1918), oil on paper mounted on canvas, 41 1/8 × 49 15/16 in. (104.46 × 126.84 cm), LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art. #arthistory #blackartist #blackart #painting #oilpainting #blackhistory
From LACMA Untamed, January 4, 2017: “Henry Ossawa Tanner became known for his quiet, subtle depictions of Biblical stories. Where his contemporaries and forbearers often created dramatic scenes of similar subject matters, Tanner’s work tells a different story.
Daniel in the Lions’ Den offers a quiet, contemplative moment in an otherwise terrifying scene. Daniel, a Jewish prophet persecuted for his faith, was sent to certain death in a den of wild lions. His captors discovered him alive and unharmed the next day. A shaft of light illuminates the center of the scene, but Daniel’s face is obscured. He and the lions are cloaked in a blue-green shadow. The focus, rather than on Daniel’s face, is drawn to his bound hands and the face of a docile lion, the only things illuminated in this work.
Tanner’s calm interpretation of the story of Daniel conveys a man of faith, secure in and protected by his belief, not one fervently praying in fear. The subtlety of the painting conveys Daniel’s humanity and his faith on the same level, showing him alone but accompanied by the almost heavenly beam of light.”
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Rest in Power, Betye Saar. Artist and activist extraordinaire. Black Liberation. Womanist. She died on Sunday four days before her 100th birthday. 🙏🏿✊🏿
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By African-American artist Augusta Savage (1892-1962), "Lift Every Voice and Sing, installed at the 1939 World's Fair in NYC. Savage had no room to store it, and it was smashed by bulldozers during the fair’s cleanup despite its popularity. 😢 #art #blackart #blackartist #womanartist #BlackHistory
The 16 foot tall sculpture depicts 12 Black singers, who represent the strings on a harp, fronted by a Black man holding a sheet of music. "Lift Every Voice and Sing, lyrics by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954). This hymn has become known as The Negro National Anthem. It begins: “Lift every voice and sing, 'Til earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the list'ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on 'til victory is won.”
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Your art history post for today: by African-American artist Charles White (1918–1979), “General Moses and Sojourner Truth,” 1954, wolff carbon pencil and white chalk over traces of graphite pencil, 27 7/8 in x 38 inches, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, ©The Charles White Archives. #arthistory #blackart #blackartist #BlackHistory #drawing
From the museum: ‘Charles White’s 1954 drawing General Moses and Sojourner Truth, represents two famed African American women who fought for equality in different ways. Harriet Tubman is presented in the guise of “General Moses,” grasping a staff like the one Moses used to part the Red Sea. The intellectual nature of Sojourner Truth’s writings and speeches in support of abolitionism and women’s rights is suggested through her upward gaze, in contrast to Tubman’s direct engagement with the viewer.’
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By Grace Lynne Haynes (b. 1992), "Sojourner Truth, Founding Mother," cover of The New Yorker, Aug. 3 & Aug. 10, 2020. #art #blackartist #blackart #womanartist #womenartists #BlackHistory
From the artist (found on the CNN website, dated, August 5, 2020: “My portrait of Truth is based off of existing black-and-white photos of her, but I interpreted them in a playful, modern way. She wears the shawl and cap she was often pictured in, but in vibrant colors and textiles of my own imagination. She sits at a table next to a lively plant rising upwards from a vase while hummingbirds flit around her. I often include hummingbirds in my paintings as a tribute to my grandmother, who grew up in the South and dealt with racism and sexism as a Black woman.”
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By Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), "Harriet Tubman," 1931, oil on canvas, 54 × 72" (137.1 X 182.9 cm), Bennett College, Greensboro, N.C. #arthistory #blackhistory #blackhistory #blackart #blackartist #art #painting #oilpainting
From the Camden Civil Rights Project: 'Douglas uses modernist imagery to depict the slave era heroine, Harriet Tubman, who was responsible for leading more than three hundred slaves to freedom by way of the Underground Railroad. Douglas wrote that he portrayed Tubman "as a heroic leader breaking the shackles of bondage and pressing on toward a new day." Behind her and stretching back symbolically to Africa are the black men and women who toiled and prayed through three hundred years of servitude. "The group of figures to the right... symbolizes the newly liberated people as laborers and heads of families. The last figure symbolizes the dreamer who looks out towards higher and nobler vistas, the modern city, for his race. He represents the preachers, teachers, artists, and musicians of the group. The beam of light that cuts through the center of the picture symbolizes divine inspiration.”’
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By Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe (born in Accra, Ghana; now lives & works in Portland, Oregon), “Akwete," 2021, oil on canvas, 40 × 30 inches (101.6x76.2 cm), Rubell Museum, Miami, ©️ Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe. #art #blackart #blackartist #blackartists
More info on the artist in ALT.
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A Black Prince Dreams of Africa, Cliff Joseph, 1968
Yesterday was Juneteenth. I'm glad we're celebrating it, we have a sick history and progress is important to celebrate. Still a lot of progress to be made for all to live free ❤️
#art #blackArt #africanAmericanArt #juneteenth #love #freedom #peace #humans
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“Painting was the miracle, the final act of defiance through which I exorcised the pain and reclaimed my sense of place, my moral compass, and my love for life.”
Ficre Ghebreyesus (b. 1962, Eritrea)
http://www.ficre-ghebreyesus.com/artist-statement -
After I left this exhibit, everything else looked gray by comparison.
Woody DeOthello (b. 1991, Miami)
“coming forth by day”
Peréz Art Museum Miami -
By African American artist Romare Bearden (1911−1988), Guitar Magic, 1986, collage & watercolor on board, The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. © 2025 Romare Bearden Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society. #art #blackart #blackartist #blackartists #collage
From the Bearden Foundation: ‘Bearden takes us backstage to the glamour, grit, and grace of Black performance. Bearden understood that jazz wasn’t just sound. It was a repository of memory—a form of Black historical consciousness. The improvisational nature of jazz mirrored the adaptability required of Black Americans, who had to continuously remake identity and community in the face of change and displacement. Much of Bearden’s art functions the same way. His collages are full of migrating trains, front porches, street corners, and jukeboxes—images loaded with the weight of history. In these works, jazz becomes a stand-in for cultural endurance. He once said, “The artist has to be something like a whale, swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs.” Bearden devoured both visual and musical traditions, then recombined them in ways that felt utterly new.’
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By Geoffrey Holder (1930-2014), “Carmen,” oil on masonite board, ca. 1960, 47 1/2 x 36 in. (120.7 x 91.4 cm.), photo: Swann Auction Galleries, April 2, 2026. #arthistory #blackart #blackartist #painting #oilpainting
From the auction listing: “Geoffrey Holder was born in Trinidad in 1930 and moved to New York City in 1952 after being invited to teach choreography at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance. By 1954, he had his first successful one-man show in New York at the Barone Gallery and won a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Arts in 1956. Despite his talent as a painter, Holder is best known as an actor and dancer. He was a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet from 1955-56. He also had many roles as an actor and was featured in such movies as Doctor Dolittle (1967), Live and Let Die (1973), and 7 Up commercials. He was also a costume designer for Prodigal Prince (1967), The Wizard of Oz (1975), and Firebird (1982). His artwork has been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Museum of the City of New York, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, and the Barbados Museum.”
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An article about the art presented at the new Obama Presidential Center. Quote: “When the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) opens on June 19, the 19.3-acre campus, located in Chicago’s Jackson Park, will feature an arts program on a scale to rival many contemporary art institutions.” #blackart #blackartists #art #obama
https://www.artbasel.com/stories/obama-presidential-center-art-institutions-us
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“In my world,” Bey says, “clay is the medium of the global majority.”
My buddy Sharif Bey left his position at Syracuse University and is moving back to his hometown of #Pittsburgh. He’s commemorating the transition with a show called “Homecoming” at Carnegie Museum.
https://carnegiemuseums.org/carnegie-magazine/summer-2026/a-return-home/
#art #BlackArt #ceramics #pottery -
By African-American artist Laura Wheeler Waring (1877-1948), After Sunday Service, ca. 1940, oil on Canvas, 30 x 14 1/2 inches (76.2 x 36.8 cm), collection of the Petrucci Family Foundation. #arthistory #art #blackartists #blackart #womanartist #womenartists
From The Art Story: “With Edmonia Lewis, Meta Vaux Warrick, and Augusta Savage, Waring is one of the foremost Black American female artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Taking her stylistic lead from the likes of Monet, Manet, Corot and Cézanne, Waring emerged, with Aaron Douglass and Beauford Delaney, as one of the most influential portrait painters associated with the Harlem Renaissance, the influential movement in African American literary, artistic, and cultural history that thrived between 1918 and the late 1930s. Challenging racial stereotypes, she built her reputation on portraits of prominent African Americans which she executed with consummate skill and imagination. Waring is equally respected for her life-long dedication to the advancement of Black culture and history through her role as director of arts education programs at America's oldest Black teaching institutions.”
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Your art history post for today: by African-American artist Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948), Woman with Bouquet, ca. 1940, oil on canvas, Brooklyn Museum. #arthistory #blackartists #blackartist #blackart #womanartist #womenartists
From the museum: “With hand on hip and confident bearing, this woman is self-assured and elegant. She was probably from the Philadelphia area, where the artist Laura Wheeler Waring lived and worked. Like Waring’s other portraits of sophisticated or dignified working-class African Americans, this painting countered the many racial stereotypes that were prevalent at the time. Waring’s work, with its strong color palette and energetic brushwork, flourished during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, a period of great African American artistic and cultural production.”
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You're in luck! Join us Wednesdays in June for the Website Workshop! 🌐 Each week, we'll cover a different aspect of website creation: planning, design, and creation -- all using #opensource #FOSS software like #Penpot and #Publii.
Learn more and register at https://www.candide.media/website-workshop
#workshop #portfolio #BIPOCartists #BIPOCart #IndigenousArtists #IndigenousArt #BlackArt #BlackArtists
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By African-American artist Charles Ethan Porter (1847-1923), Pink and Red Roses in Clear Vase, ca. 1880, watercolor, 13 5/8 × 10 in. (34.6 × 25.4 cm), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. #art #blackart #blackartists #painting #oilpainting #blackhistory
From the museum: “Charles Ethan Porter has often been left out of the history books, but his contributions to American art deserve recognition. A contemporary of sculptor Edmonia Lewis, Porter is considered the first known professional Black artist to focus on still lifes. His works, featuring delicate floral arrangements and fruit, built on earlier American still life traditions with incredible detail and realism.
After taking drawing lessons as a child and studying painting in high school, Porter was accepted to the National Academy of Design in 1869. He is believed to be the first Black student to attend the premier art school. Aware of the racial barriers in the art world, Porter remained determined to showcase the skill and talent of Black artists.”
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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.”
