Black Art Project Discontinues Posting to Its Current Blog

TO OUR READERS

Black Art Project (BAP) has ceased posting its blog articles. Although, articles will no longer be added to the Home Page, we will continue to update the page focusing on Select Art Exhibitions in 2018. Those posts appearing on the following pages of the BAP Blog: Home, Booklists, and Museum Collections will remain accessible as archival sources. We are assessing the vision for BAP. This assessment may call for redefining the scope which may include a narrowed or an even more expansive scope based on gaps currently identified in the literature relating to black art. The goal in this reassessment is to determine how and in what way the Black Art Project might be better utilized and accessed for the upcoming decade, producing a more effective product to serve the needs of its followers, friends, and those with varying interests in black art. The blog has met its original intent of introducing viewers to upcoming art exhibitions, artists talks, reviews, and other auxiliary materials relating to visual culture. It is exciting to think of how we might move forward and grow the vision with a focus on the black visual arts.

For the past ten years, it has been a pleasure to bring you closer to the world of black art. Over that time span, there has been an increase in the breadth and depth of material available to readers relating to black art, so thank you for your support by reading the posts provided by BAP. We are most appreciative. Again, thank you.

Select Upcoming Art Talks, Symposiums in 2018 (February through April)

Bentonville, Arkansas
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Symposium 2018: Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power

 Benny Andrews, Did the Bear Sit Under a Tree, 1969,
copyright Estate of Benny Andrews.

"The symposium features exhibition artists and curators who will provide an insightful round of conversation reflecting on art, politics, music, and community in the age of Black Power."  The symposium is sold out. However, you can view the livestream  on you device. Check back on February 3rd for the livestream link.

Date: Saturday, February 3, 2018
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Hutchins Center  for African  and African American Research
Black Portraiture[s] IV: The Color of Silence

Black Portraiture[s] IV: The Color of Silence takes place fifteen years after an initial colloquium was convened at Harvard University on African American art. This is "the eighth conference in a series of conversations about imaging the black body. Artists, activists, and scholars are invited to reflect on the visual expressions of national imaginaries and political ideologies that negate racial differences and render black subjects invisible."

Date: Thurs., March 22, 2018 | Fri., March 23, 2018 | Sat., March 24, 2018

Time: 6:00 p.m. | 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. | 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Location: Harvard Art Museums | TBA | Harvard Art Museums

Claremont, California
Pomona College Museum of Art
Talk with Curator Lisa Henry 

Mickalene Thomas, Le leçon d'amour, 2008, C-print, 47.5" x 59.
Copyright Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist;
Lehamann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Independent curator Lisa Henry will discuss the power of social media to reimagine and recontextualize historic narratives. Henry will debut her Instagram photo essay of images of her mother, one of the first black models in the US. This talk is a related event accompanying the currrent exhibitions, MUSE: Mickalene Thomas Photographs and tête-à-tête which are on view January 25 through May 13, 2018. 

Date: Thursday, April 26, 2018

Time: 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

College Park, Maryland
David C. Driskell Center
Artist Talk: Amy Sherald

Amy Sherald

This event is presented at the David C. Driskell Center in collaboration with The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and the University of Maryland's Department of Art. "Through her portraits, Amy Sherald explores the ways people construct and perform their identities in response to political, social, and cultural expectations, offering a critical view of African American cultural history and the representation of the African American body."

Date: Thursday, March 29, 2018

Time: 6:30 p.m.

College Park, Maryland
David C. Driskell Center
Seventeenth  Annual Distinguished Lecture in the Visual Arts
in Honor of David C. Driskell Series
Speaker: David R. Brigham, PhD.

David R. Brigham is President and CEO of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). "His talk addresses arts and education, training artists for the 21st century, strategies for impacting and diversifying the canon, changing the face of museums, and diversity's centrality to the mission of our nation's arts institutions."  

Date: April 5, 2018

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Columbus, Ohio
Columbus Museum of Art
Artist Talk: Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems, from Family Pictures and Stories, 1981-82.
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

This is a related program for the exhibition, Family Pictures, that is on view February 16 through May 20, 2018 at the Columbus Museum of Art.

Date: April 5, 2018

Time: 4:30 p.m.

Location: Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University

Columbus, Ohio
Columbus Museum of Art
Artist Talk: Deana Lawson 

Deana Lawson, Mohawk Correctional Facility: Jazmin and Family, 2013. Pigment Print.
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Museum Purchase with funds provided by
The Contemporaries.

This is a related program for the exhibition, Family Pictures, that is on view February 16 through May 20, 2018 at the Columbus Museum of Art.

Date: May 17, 2018

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Location: Columbus Museum of Art

Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA)
Artist Talk: James Van Der Zee's Harlem  

"Richard Koenig, Professor of Art at Kalamazoo College, will explore the work of James Van Der Zee, a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, who broke the barriers with his photographs of black New Yorkers. Koenig will discuss Van Der Zee in relation to photographer Dawoud Bey's work, currently on view in Harlem, USA and Harlem Redux, along with a selection of Van Der Zee's work. Harlem, USA and Harlem Redux will be on view at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts through April 11, 2018.  

Date: Thursday, February 22, 2018

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA)
Book Discussion: South of Pico: African American Artists
in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s

The discussion will be led by Jo Ann Mundi at the KIA Library. South of Pico "is an exploration into how the artists in Los Angeles' black communities during the 1960s and 1970s created a vibrant, productive, and engaged activist arts scene in the face of structural racism."  

When: Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Location: KIA Library 

Los Angeles, California

University of Southern California (USC)

Fisher Museum of Art 

Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures

Senga Nengudi, R.S.V.P., 1977, sculpture activated by Maren Hassinger,
dimensions variable. Photo Credit: Herman Outlaw.

Symposium
April 14, 2018 

USC Fisher Museum of Art will present a day-long symposium that was inspired by the exhibition Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures, currently on view at the museum through April 14, 2018. This symposium is a collaboration between the USC Fisher Museum with the California African American Museum, USC Roski School of Art and Design, and USC Dornsife's Department of Art History."The symposium will offer both new and familiar audiences an opportunity to explore and experience the work of Senga Nengudi, as well as investigate its intersections in contemporary art and performance. Panels, screenings, and a performance will bring together artists, students, activists, curators, writers, and intellectuals for a day of dialogue and discovery."

Stanford, California

Stanford University

Cantor Arts Center, Auditorium

Art Practice Talk Series: Jonathan Calm

Jonathan Calm

The upcoming speaker in the Art Talk Practice Series, Jonathan Calm, is a visual artist and assistant professor in Photography at the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. Calm's "interests include urban architecture and housing and he is currently developing new work around the representation of African-American automobility, featuring performance, reenactment and portraiture to evoke the tension between moving and still images and bodies.

This lecture, African-American Automobility: The Dangerous Freedom of the Open Road, shares the same title as the exhibition that Calm has on view at the Stanford Art Gallery through March 18, 2018. 

When: Thursday, March 8, 2018
Time: 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Location: Cantor Arts Center, Auditorium 

Syracuse, New York

Everson Museum of Art

Film Screening /Talk: AfriCOBRA: Art for the People

Everson Museum of Art features a film screening of AfriCOBRA: Art for the People and a talk with AfriCOBRA artist Napoleon  Jones-Henderson. "This poignant documentary  features rare interviews and the dynamic work of Chicago's AfriCOBRA artists and founder Jeff Donaldson. There will be a conversation with AfriCOBRA artist and scholar Napoleon Jones-Henderson as he discusses  the contributions of AfriCOBRA to the 1960s Black Arts Movement." The talk will follow the film screening.

Date; February 22, 2018

Time: 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Location: Homer Auditorium

Washington, D.C.

National Gallery of Art

Public Symposia: Boundary Trouble: 

The Self-Taught Artist and American Avant-Gardes

     Horace Pippin, Interior, 1944, oil on canvas overall: 24 1/8" x 30 3/16"x 1/16 " 

framed: 32" x 38 1/2" x 2 5/8" 

National Gallery of Art, Washington. 

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer P. Potamkin, 

in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

This program is held on the occasion of the exhibition Outliers and American Vanguard Art. Papers will explore subjects including religion, gender, and cross-disciplinary art practices, which are central to the intersection of American mainstream art with the work of an eclectic range of self-taught artists."  View the program.

Date: February 16, 2018  | February 17, 2018 

Time: 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. | 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Location: East Building Auditorium

West Palm Beach, Florida

Norton Museum of Art

Curator's Talk: Cheryl Brutvan

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Drawing into Painting

Cheryl Brutvan discusses Basquiat and his emphasis on drawing throughout his career as in the work on view at the Norton Museum of Art. Jean-Michel Basquiat: Drawing into Painting is on view

February 8 through March 18. 2018. 

Date: February 8, 2018

Time: 6:30 p.m. 

6 Artists on Black Identity

"Where am I in this story?" Watch artists such as Wangechi Mutu, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Chimamanda Adichie discuss how black people are (mis-)represented in today's society and culture. The following artists are featured: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kerry James Marshall, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Sammy Baloji, Taiye Selasi, and Wangechi Mutu. 

Because I enjoyed viewing, listening to, and revisiting this piece from the Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, I wanted to share it with followers. ...Short but packed with truths.

RESPONSE to York College RE: "Rewind by Paul Rucker"

Currently on view at York College of Pennsylvania, Rewind by Paul Rucker has been "limited to students, faculty, staff, and selected invited guests." This powerful exhibition with a race based focus has been deemed "controversial." It includes a collection of Ku Klux Klan robes in various colors of both solid and print fabrics, including traditional African patterns. There are also pieces of racist ephemera that includes lynching postcards and Klan newspapers. 

Limiting the viewership of Rewind screams missed opportunity for York College of Pennsylvania. Supporting this exhibition to the fullest extent would have  demonstrated a leadership role in the community by providing a platform for positive engagement between the student body, faculty, and the local community. This could have been a big win and a victory for the college. It is unfortunate that  the administration of York College was not willing to face and embrace the tough topics around racism, violence, hate crimes, and the inequitable treatment of blacks as American citizens. Black Art Project (BAP) was appalled at the level of sensitivity and uncomfortableness at an institution of higher learning who chose to deny access of a wider audience to view the creative expression exhibited by Rucker's Rewind. Such creative expression offers an opportunity for engagement and dialogue on social, political, and 

Paul Rucker’s “REWIND” exhibition
at the York College Art Galleries.
Courtesy of Ryan Stevenson.

racially charged  issues. Rewind could serve as part of a catalyst for change and growth, resulting in healing and resolution of some racial issues.

In a case such as this, we must ask the hard question of whether this represents a form of censorship? BAP's response to that question would be an unequivocal yes. Although the exhibition has remained intact without the removal of any items, censorship occurs when materials, such as those in an art exhibition, are restricted to a particular audience based on any characteristic deemed by authorities, in this case at York College, as appropriate for establishing the restriction. In the case of Rewind, access has been "limited to students, faculty, staff, and selected invited guests." Bear in mind, that the York College Galleries has an open access policy which is stated on their website: "We invite you to see our ongoing free public exhibitions!" Further, "All events are free and open to the public."

Rather than limiting access to the exhibition, BAP would have preferred reading that York College created a number of accompanying programs, proceeding and after the installation of the exhibition, that prepared the viewer to clearly understand the meaning and thought behind the artist's intent. The college could have gone even further by providing dialogue that included an intended educational context of the exhibition for York College and its communities.  

Although only seen by a limited audience at York College, Paul Rucker has had a positive exhibition simply by the fact that his creative expression elicited some unease and discomfort, and has gained some positive press and support on social media platforms. Although this exhibition is ending in a few days, BAP hopes that in the future, the college thinks seriously about embracing an exhibition such as this, and provide support for it on the college's website, provide an opportunity for an extensive interview with the artist by a professor and/or student, sponsor a panel discussion which would be open to all communities, and publish a fully illustrated catalogue that includes critical essays. It is a bit late to do any of this for Rewind during the remaining time that it is on view at York College. However, for this current exhibition, York College's administration could offer Paul Rucker a public apology. It would be a decent and honorable gesture at this time, particularly after having invited him to their campus to exhibit his works, then limiting access to the exhibition.  

Further readings: 
REWIND exhibition by by Paul Rucker

Hate, social injustice take center stage in York College exhibit called 'Rewind'    

A College Decided That This Anti-Racist Art Show Was Too ‘Provocative’ for the Public 

American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom and Censorship Q and A

Artist Talk: Titus Kaphar...Can Art Amend History?

"Titus Kaphar makes paintings and sculptures that wrestle with the struggles of the past while speaking to the diversity and advances of the present. In an unforgettable live workshop, Kaphar takes a brush full of white paint to a replica of a 17th-century Frans Hals painting, obscuring parts of the composition and bringing its hidden story into view. There is a narrative coded in art like this, Kaphar says. What happens when we shift our focus and confront unspoken truths?"

BAP: Celebrating Seven Years on Twitter

For seven years (2004-2010), I compiled and published the print version of the Guide to Black Art Exhibitions (ISSN 1559-5129) through the Black Art Project (BAP). A number of those archival print editions are accessible online via Scribd. In addition, select print editions of the Guide are a part of the reference or archival collections of such institutions as the Library of Congress, Smithsonian American Art/Portrait Gallery Library, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library, the New York Public Library (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), Chicago Public Library, the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, Detroit Public Library, Newark Public Library, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), and others.

After the print version of the Guide ceased publication, I had to create another vehicle through which I could channel information relating to Black art exhibitions. To achieve that goal, I looked toward creating a blog page that would focus on a large, but select number of exhibitions during any given year. In addition to the blog page, I decided that each exhibition would be announced via Twitter at some time during its exhibition cycle. Twitter would become the marketing informational source. In the beginning of this social media venture, I committed myself to learning how Twitter might afford me an opportunity to connect with an inter-generational group of readers from a cross-section of the world. The goal was to greatly expand and grow the readership beyond those readers who had access to the print publication. With that as my focus, I was open to explore and made a personal commitment to try Twitter for a year to determine if it would meet BAP needs of sharing and connecting more readers to the world of Black visual artists. 

June 20th marked seven years, that I said hello to a new adventure (Twitter), not having the slightest idea of how to implement the goal that I had conceived and envisioned. Back in June of 2010, I was willing to face a bigger challenge that required me to stretch my skill set in a direction of becoming familiar with new platforms to share information electronically. Within a few months, I was comfortable with Twitter and am still learning the vocabulary and symbols of this micro-blogging tool as an informational source. From the beginning, it has been and will remain my intent to focus 90-95% of the tweets towards the visual arts, covering all aspects of the art world. 

The success of creating and promoting an online Guide to Black Art Exhibitions did not simply rest in my enhancing my technological skills as a blogger, but is based to an even larger extent on a large number of individuals, groups, and organizations that follow BAP on the Blog and particularly on Twitter. Their consistent willingness to like, mention, retweet, and share tweets to their circle of friends, family, acquaintances, and others have been greatly appreciated. I look at those followers as a part of an international family who mutually support Black visual artists, and understand their importance and the impact that they have made to enhance the quality of the visual experience. So, I personally thank all BAP followers for any support that you have provided over the past seven years. It has been greatly appreciated. #gratitude #SupportBlackArtists 

Terry Dixon: Kinetic Abstraction

Terry Dixon in his studio in Guangzhou, China 

Chicago based artist, Terry Dixon, is working on one of his most ambitious and critical new bodies of artwork to date in his art studio in China. Dixon is doing a three month artist residency in the city of Guangzhou, China. Terry is known for the combination of his photography work juxtaposed with his paintings and signature line creations, and intense colors, but this time around he just wants to focus on his line work, color, texture and patterns.

fig. 1: Terry Dixon, Kinetic Abstraction #1, 2017, mixed media on linen, 60" x 168". Photo by Terry Dixon.  

This 60" x 168" mixed media on linen (fig. 1) is one of Dixon's biggest paintings in his career to date. The painting will be the focal piece in his upcoming solo exhibition, Kinetic Abstraction, that will be opening in China on July 2, 2017

photo by Terry Dixon

at the Redtory Art and Design Factory. Kinetic Abstraction  is based  on the connectivity of lines, patterns and shapes. Kinetic means movement and the lines in the artwork create motion on the surface of the canvas. The lines, patterns and painted shapes are intertwined within each other, creating a maze structure to the viewer's eye. The mixed media techniques create a dynamic world of entry and exit points inside the surface of each art piece. When viewing each piece, there is something new that is seen within the different layers of the work because of the intricate creation of the line design. Artist Terry Dixon has a background in animation and his paintings show a heavy influence in his world of abstracted movement. A large portion of his abstract paintings are all intuitively created and are inspired by the rhythm of electronic and jazz music. His intuitive creations take you through a dynamic visual exploration of lines, patterns, colors, shapes and sound.  

DETAIL: Kinetic Abstraction #1

DETAIL: Kinetic Abstraction #1

DETAIL: Kinetic Abstraction #1

DETAIL: Kinetic Abstraction #1

The following images are the artist, Terry Dixon, completing artwork for his upcoming exhibition, Kinetic Abstraction, in Guangzhou, China. To learn and see more about artist Terry Dixon visit his website.