Black Artists

This article reviews works of contemporary female artists of Ethiopian origin active in the Israeli art field. I analyse the subjects in their work and argue these artists are presenting their attitudes towards the 'white gaze'. Though constantly subjected to it by the Israeli hegemony and the Western masculine discourse, they are notably decreasing their consideration of it. They broaden the restricted field of action that seems designated for them and alter its boundaries. Drawing on theorists of gender, postcolonial theory and theory of art, I demonstrate how these artists are promoting an agenda that reflects their lives as black women in Israel. Influenced by recent socio-political changes and a decline in representations of black women on TV and in visual arts, these artworks were increasingly exhibited in solo and group exhibitions.

This chapter explores the intersection of art, race and sexual politics in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, where artists of colour have generally been all but invisible to the overwhelmingly white arts establishment. The focus is on artist Vanessa German, who describes herself as a citizen artist. Her sculptural works reflect the legacy and contemporary realities for African Americans living with white racism. She also established the ARTHouse for local kids, to help them see how they can create communication and new futures. German is contextualised as part of a dynamic culture of Black artists in the city, productive of work addressing gendered and raced identities, including the #notwhite collective, Alisha Wormsley and Chris Ivey. I use Stuart Hall’s theories of assemblage of diasporic cultures and subjectivities to amplify legibility for their diverse work, and his theories of conjuncture to identify the moment producing it.

RESUMO Neste artigo analiso alguns episódios da vida do pintor Estevão Silva (1845-1891) para discutir questões relativas à relação dos artistas do Rio de Janeiro de fins do século XIX com as instituições e a arte de seu tempo. As situações vividas por Silva permitem entrever o surgimento, já nos anos 1870, de uma nova geração de artistas, que não se alinham mais com os projetos das elites monárquicas, mas buscam caminhos próprios. Nesse processo, também a criação artística assume função política. Além disso, este artigo discute a falência da Academia Imperial de Belas Artes como instância de julgamento do mérito artístico, e, por extensão, como instituição de ensino de artes naquele conturbado período da história do império. A trajetória de Estevão Silva ilumina os impasses e conflitos que permeavam a prática artística no final do século XIX carioca. Abstract Palavras-Chave Estevão Roberto da Silva (1845-1891); modernidade no Brasil; pintura histórica; exposições de arte;

Ten adults—men and women, black and white—fight, flee, or die over the twelve-foot span of American People Series #20: Die as an interracial pair of children cowers unnoticed in their midst. While Faith Ringgold was painting this apocalyptic vision in a Manhattan studio in the summer of 1967, civil unrest convulsed black neighborhoods across the United States and protests against the war in Vietnam escalated. Art historian Anne Monahan explores the mural’s orchestrated chaos and its multiform inspirations, from contemporary anxiety about black revolution, through the writings of James Baldwin and Leroi Jones (soon to be Amiri Baraka), to iconic canvases by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock then on view at The Museum of Modern Art.

Each volume in the One on One series is a sustained meditation on a single work from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art. A richly illustrated and lively essay illuminates the subject in detail and situates the work within the artist’s life and career as well as within broader historical contexts. This series is an invaluable guide for exploring and interpreting some of the most beloved artworks in the Museum’s collection. 48pp; 35 illus.

This essay looks at Renee Green's multidisciplinary art practice under the framework of Jamaican artist and activist Sylvia Wynter's concept of intellectualism. By analyzing the artist's process and methodology in creating "Import/Export Funk Office" (1992), it looks at the ways in which Green weaves Black intellectual property into her installations.

As an African American studies and television scholar, I found the late summer of 2014 to be a disconcerting time. The twenty-four-hour news cycle covered the unfolding events in Ferguson, Missouri, and throughout the country as increasing instances of police brutality were brought to light. Nothing was more disruptive to the post-race rhetoric so evident in US society during the Obama era than the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The grassroots campaign founded after the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was burgeoning into an active political movement. The organization gained more visibility after the police shooting death of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, as unrest spread through the city and protestors from the Black Lives Matter movement staged a "Freedom Ride" to Ferguson. Media outlets reported on the militaristic police response to the unrest as protestors and the press were arrested and assaulted with tear gas and rubber bullets in scenes reminiscent of the bygone days of the Civil Rights South. Simultaneously, the networks advertised the upcoming fall season. You could not turn on ABC without incongruously viewing either footage from Ferguson or numerous lighthearted commercials for the premiere of #TGIT/ Thank God It's Thursday, the three-hour prime-time block set aside for "ShondaLand" programming: Grey's Anatomy (ABC, 2005-), Scandal (ABC, 2012-), and How to get Away with Murder (ABC, 2014-). The lineup was as official a declaration as a network could give that one black woman-Shonda Rhimes-had become the most powerful showrunner on television. In that season, ABC also released two new sitcoms, Blackish (2014-) and Cristela (2014-2015). Cristela was the first program to be created, written, and produced by a Latina:

This essay, included in Art Papers Spring 2020, "Art of the New Civil Rights Era," examines the significance of Black art exhibitions in both historical and contemporary discourse on the American art historical canon. "The Moment is not Sufficient" considers recent group exhibitions focused on Black artists and their overall significance at the present "moment."

de stijl | PODIUM FOR ART is proud to present One / Sixth, which features work by the six black alumni of the University of Texas at Austin’s Masters of Fine Arts program.  The fraction one-sixth can imply the measurement of time and space.  This seemingly insignificant numeric also gestures toward a noteworthy, fractional state of diversity and inclusion.  The exhibition One / Sixth offers a visual tenor that highlights shades, cadences, and durations of temporality writ large.  Here, the schism between the myths of linear progress in society and education, and the challenges of cultural exclusion and its attendant circular sense of time has amounted to One / Sixth.

In unique ways, the respective works of these six artists explore time in various media and contexts. Janaye Brown’s “pro-filmic” videos capture and transform mundane phenomena into meditative moments that encourage mindfulness on the viewer’s part, reducing the velocity of modern life and its constant flow of images.  Christina Coleman’s sculptures of synthetic hair, which heavily signify race, and Walter Kisner’s collages, which ponder the musical qualities of abstraction, both painstakingly adopt the time- and hand-intensive traditions of craft.  Robert Pruitt’s portraits of family and friends evoke Afrofuturism, as they richly borrow material from popular science fiction, comic books, and black revolutionary cultures.  Zoë Charlton’s fantastical drawings of racial subjects meld portraits into landscapes, illustrating a variety of alienations, mutations, and voyeurisms that precipitate intersectional identities.  Steven Jones’ sculptures have evolved from drawings on maps and mosaic processes, which evoke a measure of time and meditation.
In addition, a printed catalog supplements One / Sixth.  Fully illustrated with works from the show, the catalog features critical essays written by cultural critic and doctoral candidate, Jared Richardson.