Black Art Project (BAP): Booklist

BAP Booklist, the latest feature from the Black Art Project, will highlight recently published books that have an African American art focus. Identifying titles as they are recently published or in pre-publication status is crucial for those building a library that has some focus on African American art. Publishing trends are such that these titles are generally released in small runs, numbering from a few hundred to no more than 2,000 copies, so it is better to purchase the title sooner rather than later to be assured of securing a first edition copy. Once the title is out of print and the main source of securing a copy becomes the secondary market, then the price escalates. African American art books are usually published by smaller presses, academic presses, or museum/gallery presses, and are generally not mass distributed.  The marketing strategy for these books is not as extensive as books that fall within the social sciences or humanities, and certainly not to the degree of fiction books.

Although there has been a continuation of the trend to publish more fine art books, focusing on African American art, those numbers are still not large and may be considered dismal in relationship to publications focusing on American art. However, their numbers have increased, and the following are a few of the latest titles to consider for your book shelf:

• Chapin, Mary Weaver. The Prints of Warrington Colescott: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1948-2008. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin  Press in collaboration with Milwaukee Art Museum, 2010. $85.00             

This exhaustive catalogue covers every known print work of Warrington Colescott through 2008."The catalogue documents and depicts all 354 of Colescott’s editioned prints, providing title, date, media, dimensions, and selected exhibition history and collections for each print, along with comments and anecdotes by Chapin and Colescott." The 352 page catalogue has 415 color illustrations. The Prints of Warrington Colescott...is a rarity in the field of African American art where very few titles (a catalogue raisonné) of this nature exist. This catalogue is the companion to the Milwaukee Art Museum's exhibition, Warrington Colescott: Cabaret, Comedy, and Satire, which is on view through September 26, 2010. For more details on the exhibit, visit http://www.mam.org/.