Read complete books and articles on: African-American Art

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: African-American Art

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists » Read Now
by Jontyle Theresa Robinson. 176 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

To commemorate the opening of their new museum, Spelman College presents an unprecedented exhibition of the work of contemporary African American women artists. Twenty-five of the most outstanding African American women artists have contributed their work to the exhibition "Bearing Witness,"...
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To commemorate the opening of their new museum, Spelman College presents an unprecedented exhibition of the work of contemporary African American women artists. Twenty-five of the most outstanding African American women artists have contributed their work to the exhibition "Bearing Witness," celebrating the opening of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art and the 115th anniversary of the college. Works in all mediums are included here-- paintings, sculptures, fiber art, mixed mediums, and prints-- created by some of today's most exceptional artists, among them Lorna Simpson, Faith Ringgold, Carrie Mae Weems, and Betye Saar. Because of its history as the first institution of higher learning for black women, Spelman has become a Mecca, a true wellspring of strength and sustenance for African American women. It is only fitting that these artists gather to honor Spelman College, which has long nurtured the creative and educational vision of black women. The arts have always held a central place at Spelman. The college has an impressive fine arts tradition that began with the assemblage of one of the first college-held collections of works by black artists. The tradition continues with the opening of the college's new Museum of Fine Art, the centerpiece of the new Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center. The museum's 4,500 square feet of exhibition space is designed to house the college's internationally recognized collection of paintings, prints, and photographs, as well as an impressive grouping of African sculptures and textiles. The museum also includes a conservatory, one of the few in the country devoted to preserving African American artworks. With the founding of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the college has made certain that the arts will continue to play an integral part in the education of African American women well into the next century.
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2.

Primitivist Modernism: Black Culture and the Origins of Transatlantic Modernism » Read Now
by Sieglinde Lemke. 183 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This book explores a rich cultural hybridity at the heart of transatlantic modernism. Focusing on cubism, jazz, and Josephine Baker's performance in the Danse Sauvage, Sieglinde Lemke uncovers a crucial history of white and black intercultural exchange, a phenomenon until now greatly obscured by a...
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This book explores a rich cultural hybridity at the heart of transatlantic modernism. Focusing on cubism, jazz, and Josephine Baker's performance in the Danse Sauvage, Sieglinde Lemke uncovers a crucial history of white and black intercultural exchange, a phenomenon until now greatly obscured by a cloak of whiteness. Considering artists and critics such as Picasso, Alain Locke, Nancy Cunard, and Paul Whiteman, in addition to Baker, Lemke documents a potent cultural dialectic in which black artistic expression fertilized white modernism, just as white art forms helped shape the black modernism of Harlem and Paris. Coining the term primitivist modernism to designate the multicultural heritage of this century's artistic production, Lemke reveals the generative and germinating black cultural Other in the arts. She examines this neglected dimension in full, fascinating detail, blending literary theory, social history, and cultural analysis to document modernism's complex absorption of African culture and art. She details numerous ways in which African and African American forms (visual styles, musical idioms, black dialects) and fantasies (Baker's costume and dance, say) permeated high and mass culture on both sides of the Atlantic. So-called primitive art and high modernism; savage rhythms and European music hall culture; European and African American expressions in jazz; European primitivism and the racial awakenings of African American culture: paired and freshly examined by Lemke, these subjects stand revealed in their true interrelatedness. Insisting on modernism's two-way cultural flow, Lemke demonstrates not only that white modernism owes much of its symbolic capital to the black Other, but that black modernism built itself in part on white Euro-American models. Through superbly nuanced readings of individual texts and images (fifteen striking examples of which are reproduced in this handsome volume), Lemke reforms our understanding of modernism. She shows us, in clear, invigorating fashion, that transatlantic modernism in both its high and popular modes was significantly more diverse than commonly supposed. Students and scholars of modernism, African American studies, and cultural studies, and those with interests in twentieth-century art, dance, music, or literature, will find this book richly rewarding.
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3.

History and Memory in African-American Culture (Chap. 15 "Art History and Black Memory: Toward a 'Blues Aesthetic'") » Read Now
by Genevieve Fabre, Robert O'Meally. 326 pgs.

Collections: History, Literature, Entire Library

As Nathan Huggins once stated, altering American history to account fully for the nation's black voices would change the tone and meaning--the frame and the substance--of the entire story. Rather than a sort of Pilgrim's Progress tale of bold ascent and triumph, American history with the black parts...
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As Nathan Huggins once stated, altering American history to account fully for the nation's black voices would change the tone and meaning--the frame and the substance--of the entire story. Rather than a sort of Pilgrim's Progress tale of bold ascent and triumph, American history with the black parts told in full would be transmuted into an existential tragedy, closer, Huggins said, to Sartre's No Exit than to the vision of life in Bunyan. The relation between memory and history has received increasing attention both from historians and from literary critics. In this volume, a group of leading scholars has come together to examine the role of historical consciousness and imagination in African-American culture. The result is a complex picture of the dynamic ways in which African-American historical identity constantly invents and transmits itself in literature, art, oral documents, and performances. Each of the scholars represented has chosen a different "site of memory"--from a variety of historical and geographical points, and from different ideological, theoretical, and artistic perspectives. Yet the book is unified by a common concern with the construction of an emerging African-American cultural memory. The renowned group of contributors, including Hazel Carby, Werner Sollors, Veve Clark, Catherine Clinton, and Nellie McKay, among others, consists of participants of the five-year series of conferences at the DuBois Institute at Harvard University, from which this collection originated. Conducted under the leadership of Genevieve Fabre, Melvin Dixon, and the late Nathan Huggins, the conferences--and as a result, this book--represent something of a cultural moment themselves, and scholars and students of American and African-American literature and history will be richer as a result.
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4.

Passionate Visions of the American South: Self-Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present » Read Now
by Alice Rae Yelen. 351 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

A sumptuous collection surveying a half century of self-taught art from the American South. Distributed for the New Orleans Museum of Art.
5.

Critical Issues in American Art: A Book of Readings (Chap. 13 "Lifting the 'Veil': Henry O. Tanner's The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor") » Read Now
by Mary Ann Calo. 328 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

"For anyone who has labored long in compiling a photocopy reader for their introductory courses in American art, this anthology offers a balanced & inexpensive alternative. Mixing thematic with artist- & object-based reading, Critical Issues in American Art represents a variety of new approaches to...
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"For anyone who has labored long in compiling a photocopy reader for their introductory courses in American art, this anthology offers a balanced & inexpensive alternative. Mixing thematic with artist- & object-based reading, Critical Issues in American Art represents a variety of new approaches to American art which will challenge students without bewildering them." Angela Miller Washington University "A stimulating & useful resource for teachers & students that will broaden our understanding of American art." Matthew Baigell Rutgers University
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6.

Images of Blacks in American Culture: A Reference Guide to Information Sources (Chap. 1 "Aspects of Black Imagery in American Art, 1700-1900") » Read Now
by Jessie Carney Smith. 392 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

"The 10 essays here explore the images of blacks in historical contemporary American culture. Negative and stereotypical images of blacks have been deeply embedded in our art, music, literature, film, theater, and other forms of expression. On the other hand, as the preface states, black artists and...
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"The 10 essays here explore the images of blacks in historical contemporary American culture. Negative and stereotypical images of blacks have been deeply embedded in our art, music, literature, film, theater, and other forms of expression. On the other hand, as the preface states, black artists and others have also celebrated images of strength, beauty, and achievement.' Reflecting the complexity of the relationship between the races, these two elements are often intertwined. This reference work explores these images, both positive and negative, and their historical development and impact on both black and American culture. . . . Its unique qualities are the discussions and sources for studying and understanding those artifacts as well as the provision of a historical perspective on the images." Reference Books Bulletin
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7.

The Double Vision of Clarence Major, Painter and Writer, in African American Review » Read Now
by Lisa C. Roney. 11 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...surviving visual art tradition was...seeking a uniquely African-American perspective in...couldnt see in African-American art: ... we have...weird example of Art: My...
8.

Jacob Lawrence - Stories of the Soul, in World and I » Read Now
by Janice L. Kaplan, Susan Osmond. 8 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
9.

Reading the Painterly Text: Clarence Major's "The Slave Trade: View from the Middle Passage.", in African American Review » Read Now
by Linda Furgerson Selzer. 22 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...identity through art. In contrast...growing out of the African American folk idiom...potential of art by depicting...through which African American culture...
10.

Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney » Read Now
by David Leeming. 221 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Described by those who knew him best as a Buddha, a Merlin, and "a cross between Brer Rabbit and St. Francis of Assisi," the artist Beauford Delaney was anything but ordinary. James Baldwin, his closest friend, wrote that "He has been starving and working all of his life--in Tennessee, in Boston, in...
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Described by those who knew him best as a Buddha, a Merlin, and "a cross between Brer Rabbit and St. Francis of Assisi," the artist Beauford Delaney was anything but ordinary. James Baldwin, his closest friend, wrote that "He has been starving and working all of his life--in Tennessee, in Boston, in New York, and now in Paris. He has been menaced more than any other man I know by his social circumstances and also by all the emotional and psychological stratagems he has been forced to use to survive; and, more than any other man I know, he has transcended both the inner and the outer darkness." Indeed, these themes--grinding poverty, excruciating psychological torment, and the transcendence of inner and outer darkness through the light of his art--give shape and drama to Beauford Delaney's most extraordinary life. In Amazing Grace: A Biography of Beauford Delaney David Leeming, author of the acclaimed life of James Baldwin, tells the story of one of the most important black artists of our time with an affection, tact, and insight all too rare in recent biography. In chronicling Delaney's remarkable trajectory from a strong religious family in Knoxville to his death in an Parisian insane asylum, Leeming maintains a dual focus on Delaney's troubled inner life--his complicated homosexuality and the "voices" that would drive him mad--and his vibrant external life--his friendships with an amazing range of writers, artists, and musicians. Delaney seems to have known everyone, from Henry Miller, Jean Genet, Countee Cullen, and Elizabeth Bishop to Al Hirshfield, W.C. Handy, Alfred Steiglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Louis Armstrong, and virtually every other significant creative figure in New York and Paris. In many ways, Delaney's life focuses the major currents of twentieth century art. Leeming quotes generously from the journals, notebooks, letters, and critical reviews, tracing Delaney's movement away from representation--the street scenes and portraits of his "blues aesthetic"--into the abstract paintings where his dominant concern is with the "architecture" of color and a religious sense of light that "held the power to illuminate, even to redeem and reconcile and heal." Along the way, we're treated to a wealth of delightful anecdotes--Delaney in the manner of a Zen master telling James Baldwin to look at the water standing in a gutter; William de Kooning trying to tell Delaney how to market his work better and Delaney responding by rolling his eyes, patting de Kooning on the shoulder, and saying "Bless you, child"; Delaney immersed in the cafe life of Greenwich Village and Montparnasse, painting in his unheated studio in a parka and wool hat, giving away to friends and strangers what little money came to him. Amazing Grace illuminates both the work and milieu of a major black talent and gives us a portrait of a man spiritually devoted to his art, a man we would have very much liked to know and who, after closing the book, we feel we have known.
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11.

Barbara Chase-Riboud, Sculptor » Read Now
by Anthony F. Janson, Peter Selz. 146 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This richly illustrated volume presents the first comprehensive overview of Barbara Chase-Riboud's 30 year career as a sculptor and draughtsman, showing how history, spiritualism, archaeology and the Baroque tradition have influenced her work.
12.

Re-dressing History, in African Arts » Read Now
by Nancy Hynes. 7 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
13.

Subject/Subjectivity and Agency in the Art of African Americans, in The Art Bulletin » Read Now
by Lowery Stokes Sims. 4 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...whole.(6) Members of the African American art community who affirmed the...Within and without the African American art community, the existence...Americans. In the larger...
14.

Women Artists of Color: A Bio-critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas » Read Now
by Phoebe Farris. 502 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Critical essays on 20th-century female artists of color focus on how these distinguised artists achieved success, what makes their work important--both to the art world and to their specific communities--and what influences their work is likely to have in the future. The artists are representative...
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Critical essays on 20th-century female artists of color focus on how these distinguised artists achieved success, what makes their work important--both to the art world and to their specific communities--and what influences their work is likely to have in the future. The artists are representative of four ethnic groups: African American, Asian Pacific American, Latin American, and Native American. Parallels drawn explore the similarities and differences among the artists. The early feminist art movement of the 1970s concentrated on gender with less consideration given to race or class, yet to many artists of color, ethnicity factors significantly into the shaping of their identities and to the content of their art. Women artists of color have expanded the scope of protest art, fusing the past and current history with gender and race and deconstructing stereotypical mainstream representations of their gender and ethnic identities. This presentation of artists balances older and deceased artists with the younger, emerging artists. The artistic mediums span the gamut from traditional painting and sculpture to newer forms such as video, conceptual, and performance art.
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15.

What Is Black Art?, in Art Journal » Read Now
by Steven Nelson. 4 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library
16.

African-American Traditions in Song, Sermon, Tale, and Dance, 1600s-1920: An Annotated Bibliography of Literature, Collections, and Artworks » Read Now
by Eileen Southern, Josephine Wright. 372 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

"As any well-organized, carefully annotated bibliography does, this work by Southern and Wright brings order out of chaos. The 2,328 entries identify books, articles, sermons, pamphlets, and broadsides, among other formats, all centered on black folk culture with emphasis on the manifestations of...
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"As any well-organized, carefully annotated bibliography does, this work by Southern and Wright brings order out of chaos. The 2,328 entries identify books, articles, sermons, pamphlets, and broadsides, among other formats, all centered on black folk culture with emphasis on the manifestations of that culture from 1600 to 1920 through song, dance, games, sermons, and illustrations. . . . This carefully done and useful bibliography is recommended for libraries on all campuses where there is an interest in the black experience." Choice
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