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. 

Swann Galleries: African-American Fine Art Sale 2378

Swann Auction Galleries will feature Ascension: A Century of African-American Art on April 2, 2015. This auction, Sale 2378, is the latest in a series of Swann's African-American Fine Art auctions, and it consists of 178 lots. The theme of Ascension, the act of rising to an important position or a higher level, continues the recognition and elevation of African-American art to its rightful place in American art history. 

As we celebrate Women's History Month, this post highlights works by select women artists featured in Sale 2378 as representative samples of a broader spectrum of African-American women artists. It is a tribute to all African American women artists, acknowledging and recognizing the contributions that they have made to the field of American art. 

As time passes, I hope to see more female artists included in auctions such as this, as well as main stream art auctions. As one of the crucial vehicles in bringing awareness to the collector, auctions play a crucial role; and through this awareness, the collector can make a significant impact in changing the structure of the art world. For the future, lets envision a newly informed collector, wielding power in collection building, that moves in the direction of more female and racial inclusion. This newly informed collector will deconstruct the existing western structure, emphasizing American white males. The end result leads to a more representative and inclusive sample of  American art in our galleries and museums.     

In addition to the artists highlighted in this post, Ascension: A Century of African-American Art, features works by Barkley L. Hendricks, Charles White, Romare Bearden, Edward Bannister, Thomas Watson Hunster, Henry Ossawa Tanner, James A. Porter, Delilah William Pierce, Richmond Barthé, Betye Saar, Allan Freelon, Hale Woodruff, Dox Thrash, Sargent Johnson, Jack Whitten, Faith Ringgold, Eugene J. Martin, Sam Gilliam, Edward Clark, Hank Willis Thomas, and others. 

Beulah Woodward, Maudelle. Painted terra cotta, mounted on a wood base, circa 1937.
Approximately 12" high. Image: Swann Galleries

Lot 21, Beulah Woodward, Maudelle

This beautiful bust is a very scarce example of this early Californian sculptor's work. In this sensitive portrayal, Woodard displays a powerful realism - particularly in the careful modelling of her subject's features. Maudelle Bass (1908 - 1989) was a professional dancer and artist's model. Lot 21 has an estimate of $10,000 - $15,000. Price Realized with Buyer's Premium: $12,500.

Loïs Mailou Jones, Lobsterville Beach. Oil on linen canvas, 1945. 26" x 32". 
Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto.
Signed and inscribed "Howard University, Washington, DC"
in ink, and titled in chalk on the upper stretcher bar, verso.
Image: Swann Galleries

Lot 39,  Loïs Mailou Jones, Lobsterville Beach   

This painting, Lobsterville Beach, is an impressive Impressionist canvas and one of the largest landscapes by Jones that Swann Galleries has located of a Martha's Vineyard subject. This lot has an estimate of $30,000 - $40,000. Price Realized with Buyer's Premium: $62,500.

Laura Wheeler Waring, Untitled (Still Life with Tulips and Figurine).
Oil on canvas board, circa 1940-45. 23 3/4 " x 19 3/4".
Signed in oil, lower left. Image: Swann Galleries

Lot 40,  Laura Wheeler Waring, Untitled (Still Life with Tulips and Figurine)

During her distinguished career Waring created a number of landscapes and still lifes. This painting, Still Life with Tulips and Figurine, is in the impressionistic style characteristic of a large portion of her works. From a private collection in Massachusetts, this lot has an estimate of $8,000 - $12,000. Lot was Unsold.

Mavis Pusey, Untitled. Oil on burlap canvas, circa 1968. 42" x 52½".
Signed in oil, lower left recto. Signed in pencil, lower right verso. Image: Swann Galleries

Lot 89,  Mavis Pusey, Untitled

This striking modernist abstraction, Untitled,  is typical of Mavis Pusey's distinctive late 1960s canvases. She was born in Jamaica and immigrated to New York at the age of 18 to study at the Art Students League. Lot 89 has an estimate of $15,000 - $25,000. 
Lot was Unsold.

Elizabeth Catlett, Glory. Cast bronze with a copper-colored patina, on a wooden base,
1981. 14" x 9½" x 10". From the first part of the total edition of 9,
which was later completed in 2006.
Initialed "EC" and dated, rear lower edge. Image: Swann Galleries

Lot 146, Elizabeth Catlett, Glory  

The sitter for this bust is Glory Van Scott, performer, dancer and educator, who gained fame as the principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham, Agnes DeMille, and Talley Beatty dance companies and as a performer on Broadway in the 1960s and 1970s. Lot 146 is the fourth known cast of this bust and it has an estimate of $25,000 - $35,000. Price Realized with Buyer's Premium: $57,500

Carrie Mae Weems, You Became Playmate to the Patriarch and Their Daughter.
Diptych of Chromongenic prints, with etched text on glass, 1995.
Both: 23½" x 19½". Both signed, dated and numbered 2/10 (left panel) and
1/10 (right panel) in pencil on the flush mounts, verso.
From the series From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried. Image: Swann Galleries

Lot 167, Carrie Mae Weems, You Became Playmate to the Patriarch and Their Daughter

Another set (each numbered 7/10) of these images were offered in the Photograph auction, April 24-25, 2006, at Christie's New York. In that sale the pair had an estimate of $3,000 - $5,000, and reached a realized price of $15,600. 

Fast forward to Sale 2378. Lot 167, You Became Playmate to the Patriarch and Their Daughter, has an estimate of $15,000 - $25,000. Price Realized with Buyer's Premium: $23,750.

Kara Walker, The Emancipation Approximation (Scene 18).
Color screenprint on Somerset 500 gram paper, 1999-2000. 44" x 34".
Initialed, dated and numbered "XVII/XXV" in pencil, verso.
 Published by Jenkins Sikkema Editions, New York.
From The Emancipation Approximation portfolio.

Lot 169, Kara Walker, The Emancipation Approximation (Scene 18).  

Lot 169 is one screenprint (scene 18) from the set of twenty-six screenprints. Another edition of this print appeared in the Modern and Contemporary Editions auction at Phillips on June 8, 2011 with an estimate of  $6,000 - $8,000 and sold for $10,625. 

Lot 169, The Emancipation Approximation (Scene 18), has an estimate of $6,000 - $9,000. Price Realized with Buyer's Premium: $23,750.   

The works will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries, to check dates, see Preview Dates.  An illustrated auction catalogue, with information on bidding by mail or fax, is available for $35 from Swann Galleries, Inc., 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, or online.

For further information, and to make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please contact Nigel Freeman at 212-254-4710, extension 33, or via email at nfreeman@swanngalleries.com.                                                     

Live online bidding is also available via invaluable.com. Thanks to Swann Galleries for the use of images and written material in the catalogue.

Further Readings:
Elizabeth Catlett

Elizabeth Catlett / New York Times

Loïs Mailou Jones

Loïs Mailou Jones / Callaloo Interview with Charles H. Rowell

Loïs Mailou Jones / Smithsonian American Art Museum...

Mavis Pusey

Kara Walker / Sikkema Jenkins and Co.

Kara Walker / Walker Art Center

Laura Wheeler Waring

Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems / Shainman Gallery

Beulah Woodward

Select Upcoming African American Art Exhibitions: Highlights for 2013

This highlight features a few exhibitions that will be on view this coming year, 2013. Presenting the exhibitions as they approach their opening dates assures a freshness and currency of information for the visual art enthusiasts. A number of important traveling exhibitions from 2012 or earlier will still be on tour in 2013, and they are accessible from the sidebar of this Blog, Highlights of African American Exhibitions....  This sidebar is updated on a weekly basis by either adding newly discovered exhibitions or removing those that are approaching their expiration date. Its intent is to provide comprehensive coverage of current ongoing exhibitions on view for the current quarter of the year.


Black Art Project (BAP) welcomes any information or leads that you might have relating to Black art exhibitions, particularly regional exhibitions that are not traditionally marketed on a national scale. BAP will verify the accuracy of any information submitted. Thank you for any assistance that you provide.

 Belmont, California
Wiegand Gallery
Notre Dame de Namur University 

Mr. Imagination, Ghost Dress - 2000
Wire mesh, mother of pearl buttons - 48 x 36 x 36 inches
Created in 2011 for "The Roots of the Spirit" exhibition at L'Espace Re-Evolution, Venice, Italy.

The Roots of the Spirit: Lonnie Holley, Mr. Imagination, Charlie Lucas, Kevin Sampson will be on view at the Wiegand Gallery from September 15 to November 15, 2013. This exhibition was originally on view at L'Éspace Re-Evolution (Venice, Italy) where these four artists were invited by the American Folk Art Museum to exhibit during the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.

Each of these artists "has acknowledged that divine intervention played an essential role in showing them their path. With the conviction of their African legacy, they began making art that honored their ancestors as an antidote to death and private grief. To witness Kevin Sampson’s shrines to deceased friends and relatives; the ancestor thrones of Lonnie Holley and Mr. Imagination; and Charlie Lucas’ metal sculptures that honor his grandparents by their material and method, is seeing through the eyes of the artists’ ancestors. Art is their testament to memory, healing and ultimately spiritual renewal."

Read more about these artists and view their works at The Roots of the Spirit.