Select Art Exhibitions: Highlights for Spring 2012

This highlight features a few exhibitions that open this spring (second quarter of 2012). Presenting the exhibitions as they approach their opening dates assures a freshness and currency of information for the visual art enthusiasts. For a more comprehensive coverage of ongoing exhibitions in 2012, look to the right sidebar of the blog. This sidebar is updated on a weekly basis by either adding newly discovered exhibitions or removing those that are closely approaching their expiration date. Because a number of important traveling exhibitions from previous months are still on tour in 2012, they are not featured in these highlights; however, they are accessible from the sidebar.

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.

Brooklyn, New York

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art

(MoCADA)

The Box That Rocks: 30 Years of Video Music Box and the Rise of Hip Hop Music and Culture is an exhibition of contemporary art that celebrates the global influence of Video Music Box, and the show’s historic contribution to urban music and culture. The exhibition features photography, painting, mixed-media, video installation, and interactive digital art. 

The Box That Rocks will be on view at MoCADA through May 28, 2012.  

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston University, Sherman Gallery



Tony Gray

 Tony Gray: The Panther Series is on view at the Sherman Gallery, School of Visual Arts at Boston University. "This solo exhibition presents recent work and continuations of ongoing series in which Gray explores representations of African American men and women in popular culture and mass media. Through painting and mixed-media works on paper, Gray presents an Afro-centric worldview through which to address social and racial issues."

 The Panther Series will be on view through May 20, 2012.

Chicago, Illinois

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Rashid Johnson, Death by Black Hole: The Crisis,
2010, Steel, black soap, wax, books,
shea butter, plant, space rocks,
mirror, gold paint, stained wood,
96 1/2 x 76 1/4 x 30 in.,
Courtesy Gagosian Gallery,
Image courtesy of the artist
and David Kordansky Gallery,
Los Angeles, CA

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents Rashid Johnson’s first major solo museum exhibition, Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks, which will survey the first ten years of his career. This exhibition of the Chicago-born artist "opens up a dialogue with historically important figures ranging from W. E. B. DuBois and Sun Ra to Miles Davis and Public Enemy. The title of the exhibition is taken from a 1969 album by avant-garde musicians Art Ensemble of Chicago, who performed with a variety of percussive found objects, spanning musical styles to radically redefine the rules of jazz. Inspired by their message, Johnson pays homage to these creative pioneers of his hometown and channels their nonconformist vision for his generation of artists."

Rashid Johnson: Message to Our Folks will be on view April 14 - August 5, 2012. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition. 

Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

The Soul of a City: Memphis Collects African American Art will be on view at Brooks Museum of Art from June 9 - September 2, 2012. This exhibition puts its hand on the pulse of collecting in Memphis, highlighting the variety of paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, and mixed media works from the 20th and 21st centuries in both private and public collections.

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica Museum of Art

Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe is the first major solo museum exhibition for the artist. It opens at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on April 14 and will be on view through August 19, 2012.



Mikalene Thomas, Qusuquzah, Une Très
 Belle Négresse #3, 2012, Rhinestones, acrylic,
oil, and enamel on wood panel, 96" x 80",
Courtesy of the artist, Lehmann Maupin Gallery,
New York, and Susanne Vielmetter,
Los Angeles

 In Origin of the Universe, Thomas "introduces a new model of trans-generational female empowerment as she explores interior and exterior environments in relation to the female figure. The exhibition consists of 15 works in a variety of sizes and media that examine art historical constructs of feminine identity, sexuality, beauty, and power.

Origin of the Universe will travel to the Brooklyn Museum from September 28, 2012 to January 20, 2013. A full-color, illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition.   

Washington, DC

Smithsonian American Art Museum

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond consists of 100 artworks by forty-three Black artists that are from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s rich collection of African American art.

The artists, working in various styles, address a diverse array of subjects. Their artworks present a vision of America from an African American perspective.

Some of the artists included in African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond are as follows: Benny Andrews, Richmond Barthé, Romare Bearden, Roy DeCarava, Thornton Dial, Sr., Melvin Edwards, Roland Freeman, Sargent Johnson, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Robert McNeill, Marilyn Nance, Gordon Parks, James Porter, Alma Thomas, and others. This exhibition is a part of the Smithsonian's Traveling Exhibition Program, and will be on tour at other museums through the coming years. "More than half of the featured works...are being exhibited and circulated by the museum for the first time, and ten works are recent acquisitions." 

African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond will be on view, 1st floor West, American Art Museum, from April 27 - September 3, 2012. A catalogue accompanies this exhibition.

NOTE: For a more comprehensive coverage of ongoing exhibitions in 2012, look to the right sidebar of this blog. Remember, this sidebar is updated on a weekly basis.

Swann Galleries: Printed and Manuscript African Americana, Sale 2271

Swann Auction Galleries' Printed and Manuscript African Americana Sale was held on March 1, 2012, bringing in $986,054 with buyer's premium, and selling approximately 74% of the 534 lots. The number of lots in this most recent sale was approximately 25% larger than each of the previous sales over the past ten (10) years. This is an encouraging sign that consignors are comfortably on board with the auction process and possibly see benefits to selling.

This 17th annual auction offered a wide range of materials that were grouped into broad subject areas that included, but was not limited to the following categories: slavery and abolition, civil rights, black power, Africa, art, Black Panthers, education, Marcus Garvey, literature and poetry, military, music and more.     


Wyatt Houston Day, Swann African Americana specialist, said "Yesterday's sale was the most successful auction of African Americana that Swann has ever had. We are pleased to see so much important historical material acquired by institutions." As I reviewed the results of Sale 2271, I agree with Wyatt and find satisfaction in knowing that this important historical material has been acquired by institutions. In an environment, such as a museum, an archive, an historical and culture center, and the like, there are basic expectations that the materials will be properly cared for, will be available for researchers, and will be accessible to the general public through exhibitions. 

The following are a few examples of the lots that were acquired by institutions. In all instances, except lot 294 (Alain Locke), these items were among the top lots that sold.

Lot 296: Dorothy Porter Wesley Papers

This archive of writings, consisted of "research notes and in many cases original 19th and 20th century manuscript and or documentary material for her numerous articles, and books, together with her correspondence files, including retained copies (in some instances) of her letters, with books and ephemera." There were 85 cartons that had an auction estimate of $50,000 - 75,000. Lot 296 was the second highest selling lot and sold for $43,200 with buyer's premium. In 2010, James Amos Porter's African-American Art History Reference Archive, Dorothy Porter's husband, was auctioned in Sale 2204 and acquired by Emory University. 

Lot 262: Ida B. Wells

A first edition of A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States (1895) far surpassed its high estimate of $6,000 and sold for $25,200. Described in the catalogue description as the utmost rarity; "there are only three copies of A Red Record located in American institutions; others listed are on microfiche."  For a detailed overview of this item, see Lot 262.



Lot 523: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

This scarce representative collection of Pullman Porter memorabilia, dating from the turn of the 20th Century through the 1950s, had a high estimate of $2,500; however, it sold for $20,400 with buyer's premium. The collection included an "original Pullman Railroad Platform step stool, a vintage Pullman Porter's cap with brass buttons, with the metal Pullman Porter tag attached to the front, a Pullman Company towel, the original booklet with the terms of agreement between the Pullman Company and their Porters, Attendants, Maids..., and other items. See details of Lot 523.

Lot 421: Tuskegee Airmen

This collection consisted of an album of 177 photographs from the Tuskegee Airmen (332nd Fighter Group) based in Italy. This exceptional collection of photographs includes many of Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. Most of the photographs were shot at Ramitelli Air Force base. It is worth noting that the lot had an auction estimate of $2,000 -3,000, and it sold for $19,200. Read and see more at Lot 421.

Lot 271: Race Riots

This small but rich archive of material consists of approximately 200 pieces, focusing on race riots, Red Summer of 1919 and the Elaine, Arkansas riot. "The term Red Summer was coined by NAACP activist, writer and poet James Weldon Johnson. It described the bloody race riots that erupted in over three dozen American cities during the long, hot summer of 1919."

Lot 271 had a high estimate of $8,000; however, it sold for $14,400 with buyer's premium. Read more of the Race Riots archive.

Lot 294: Alain Locke on Black Studies 

Although this lot did not reach its low estimate of $3,000, its value is of significance because its contents, totaling 16 pages, proposes a Black Studies Department at Howard University in 1913. This places Locke ahead of the curve in suggesting the establishment of a Black Studies curriculum at an academic institution. Locke's vision was the guiding light for the establishment of what is today The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. According to the catalogue description of this lot, "these five documents follow the establishment and progress of the Founders Library at Howard University. The first part is a letter, addressed to the Board of Trustees, dated February 3, 1913, outlining in five points how and why a Negro-Americana Library and Studies Department should be set up at the school." Lot 294 sold for $2,880. 

For those of us who are art enthusiasts, it is worth noting that the highest selling lot in Sale 2271, was in the art category. The Slaves, Lot 106, is a rare contemporary copy of an iconic image which is "one of several notable images produced during the period of intense activism to abolish slavery in the West Indies." This painting was in the personal collection of artist Merton Simpson, and was acquired by a collector for $72,000. 

Sonya Clark: Artist Talk

The theme of this post may be stated quite simply. It grew out of a sense to understand the artist, Sonya Clark, and the motivating force behind her work: purpose, drive, discovery and the like. Sonya was trained in the fiber arts. She weaves ideas and symbols into her thought provoking and demanding works of art which are created from ordinary objects/things (hair, combs, yarn, coins, a piece of cloth). These objects evolve into fresh, different, and creative works of art that fascinate me in their recreated sculptural forms. According to Sonya, our individual and collective stories are held in the object; "I work in series to reframe the object as a mediated compilation of our stories. In this way, the everyday thing becomes a lens through which we may better see one another."  

For the past few years, I have kept up with Sonya Clark through her monthly email updates and from reading various catalogues purchased during this period. However, about two weeks ago, I had an opportunity to personally meet and speak briefly with her at the opening reception of NEXT Generation exhibition at Contemporary Wing (Washington, DC). For me, this was an exciting and positive experience.... 

This Artist Talk resulted from an exhibition,The Global Africa Project, at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD, New York) last year. The Global Africa Project surveyed the rich pool of new talent emerging from the African continent and its influence on artists around the world.  

Mixed-Media Sculpture        Questions         Call and Response

 

Ancestry       Hair        Combs         Material Culture

 

Roots        Influence   

 

    

Select Art Exhibitions: Highlights for 2012

This begins the ninth year that the Black Art Project has presented on a national scale art exhibitions of artists of African descent. This post will simply highlight a few of those exhibitions that will have an opening date during the first quarter of 2012. Quarterly posts will follow, featuring subsequent exhibitions, as they approach their opening dates. These quarterly posts will assure a freshness and currency of information for the exhibition aficionado. Because this post is simply a highlight, look to the right sidebar of the blog for a more comprehensive feature of exhibitions in 2012. This sidebar is updated on a weekly basis by either adding newly discovered exhibitions or removing those that are closely approaching their expiration date.  

A number of important traveling exhibitions from the previous year are still on tour in 2012. Although they are not featured in these highlights, they are accessible from the sidebar. 

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.


 

Atlanta, Georgia

High Museum of Art



Bill Traylor, Untitled, ca 1939 - 1942,
Poster paint and pencil on cardboard,
11¾" x 7¾", High Museum of Art, Purchase
with funds from Mrs. Lindsay Hopkins, Jr.,
Edith G. and Philip Rhodes,
and the Members Guild



This traveling exhibition, Bill Traylor: Drawings from the Collections of the High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, premieres at the High Museum of Art on February 5, 2012 and will be on view through May 13, 2012. The exhibition, featuring more than 60 works drawn from both collections, highlights some of the best examples of Traylor's work that is rarely seen outside of the southeastern United States. Bill Traylor "features representative works from Traylor's various genres, including human and animal figures and depictions of his memories of plantation life."

William Traylor was born into slavery sometime between 1852 and 1856, and he died in 1949. The artist began drawing when he was eighty-five years old, and produced more than 1,200 drawings within the next decade of his life. Traylor’s work has been represented in at least 30 solo exhibitions and 85 group shows since the late 1970s.  

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ackland Art Museum

Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper is on view March 30 - July 1, 2012 at the Ackland Art Museum. Thornton Dial's drawings are his most prolific body of work, and this exhibition features 50 of his earliest drawings from 1990-1991 which is defined as a pivotal moment in his artistic career. "The works in the exhibition - characterized by flowing lines, color washes, and images of women, fish, and tigers - provide a touchstone of Dial's creative process."

Thornton Dial is most recognized for his large scale, multi-media assemblages, as was reflected in two recent exhibitions: Thornton Dial: Disaster Areas (Bill Lowe Gallery, 2011) and Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial (Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2011). This current exhibition, at the Ackland Museum of Art, provides an opportunity for the viewer to explore the drawings, which are a lesser known but important portion of Dial's oeuvre.


A fully-illustrated catalogue accompanies Thornton Dial: Thoughts on Paper.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Harvey B. Gantt Center for

African-American Arts and Culture

James Phillips, jitterbug Waltz Series: CT,
Acrylic on paper, 30" x 40"

Rhythm-A-Ning: James Phillips, Charles Searles and Frank Smith is on view through June 30, 2012 at the Harvey B. Gantt Center. Works by the three artists featured in this exhibition "visually reflect the qualities and characteristics of jazz. Each artist - in his own way - has improvised with color , rhythm, patterns, and forms to abstractly produce work which can soar and challenge...."



  Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts 



Mose Tolliver (Mose T), Model T with creature,
Acrylic on plywood



Paintings by Mose Tolliver will be on view through March 4, 2012 at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibition includes a selection of the twenty-six paintings from the 1970s to the 1990s that are owned by the Museum. 

Mose Tolliver, who is usually referred to Mose T, was one of Montgomery’s most prolific and best-known self-taught artists.  "The subjects of Tolliver’s paintings were largely established by the early 1980s, and included first birds, then animals, people, and fantastic creatures that were products of his vivid imagination.  Unable to stand without crutches due to an industrial accident in the 1960s, he usually painted small works that could be supported on his lap, or laid flat on the floor."




Newark, Delaware
University of Delaware

University Museums

Mechanical Hall

Barkley L. Hendricks, Iconic Dexter,
2008/9, Archival pigment inkjet, 60" x 42",
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery,
New York

Magical Visions: Ten Contemporary African American Artists is on view February 1 - June 29, 2012 in Mechanical Hall at the University of Delaware / University Museums. This exhibition brings together the work "of artists who have pioneered significant changes in media, including assemblage, fiber, painting, photography, printmaking, quiltmaking, and sculpture to video with performance." The following artists are included in Magical Visions...: Terry Adkins, Sonya Clark, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, Barkley L. Hendricks, Kalup Linzy, Odili Odata, Karen Olivier, Faith Ringgold, and Williams T. Williams. 

There will be an opening reception with Guest Curator Keith Morrison on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 from 5 – 6:30 pm. Please RSVP at universitymuseums@udel.edu or 302/ 831-8037. 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA)

Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building

Fisher Brooks Gallery

Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit is on view January 28 - April 15, 2012 in the Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building, Fisher Brooks Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. This much anticipated and long awaited exhibition will elevate Tanner's reputation through scholarship and bring his works together for the first time in a generation.



Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Seine, Looking
Toward Notre Dame, 1896, Oil on canvas,
14 7/8" x 20 1/8", Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld
Gallery, LLC, New York, NY

Henry Ossawa Tanner... focuses on the career and life of the artist that includes "the pioneering African-American artist’s upbringing in Philadelphia in the years after the Civil War; the artist’s success as an American expatriate artist at the highest levels of the international art world at the turn of the 20th century; Tanner’s role as a leader of an artist’s colony in rural France and his unique contributions in aid of American servicemen to the Red Cross efforts in WWI France; his modernist invigoration of religious painting deeply rooted in his own faith; Tanner’s depictions of the Holy Land and North Africa interpreted through comparison with contemporary French orientalist painting and photography; and the scientific and technical innovations of the artist’s oeuvre."

A catalogue accompanies this traveling exhibition. See gallery images and letters from the PAFA Archives; and Henry Ossawa Papers at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Archives. 

For information regarding the reception and ticket(s) to view the exhibition, see: event

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building

Annenberg and Tuttleman Galleries

After Henry Tanner: African American Artists since 1940 is on view January 28 - April 15, 2012. This exhibition is a permanent collection installation drawn from PAFA's examples of work by African American artists. After Henry Tanner complements the Tanner retrospective and speaks to Tanner's enduring legacy for artists working today. 

NOTE:  Take a look at the right sidebar of the BAP blog for a more comprehensive listing of exhibitions in 2012; over 60 exhibitions are currently featured. Enjoy!

Artist Visit: Don Griffin

On a rainy, windy, and overall dreary day, I boarded a MARC train a couple of weeks ago for an undeterred, scheduled visit to Baltimore to meet with artist, Don Griffin and his representative, Diana Harris. The resulting visit in the artist's home/studio was a complete contrast to the weather; his space was filled with art, art supplies, warmth, and infused with jazz and lively conversation. This physical background was the perfect setting for spirited, stimulating, and engaging dialogue in which the three of us spent hours viewing and discussing some of the series of works that Don created over the past few years. The conversation vacillated between discussing the artist's creations, including interpreting and analyzing his art, to extended discussions about the art world with a focused interest on the art market. Expansive territory was covered as we pulled back the layers on the artistic process, marketing, galleries, collectors, museums, auctions, and the like.




Don Griffin, Paperworks 6.10 Vol 2 Plate 14,
 2010, Mixed media collage on paper,
18" x 18"

Don Griffin studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland. He has an extremely large body of work that falls into the category of abstraction. If he has to be categorized, he considers himself a "third generation" Abstract Expressionist. However, there were a number of works viewed that were figurative abstractions which happen to be productions created during his "off time," meaning that time that he is not engaged in his primary discipline, Abstract Expressionism.

Don's mixed media works incorporate found objects in many formats; there is a strong sense of recycling or green art. His works span the spectrum of subdued blacks, browns, and whites to his most recent incorporation of vibrant colors all guided by and in support of the theme of the series on which he is working. The recycled items include newspapers, pages from books, corrugated boxes, and peeled labels that serve as a substrate and background field of the work. According to Don, "a common thread between all the works are the Tracks or Ladders which are seen as sometimes subtle and other times predominant. Viewers see the icons as both Tracks and Ladders. In either case, whatever is seen represents a journey in some sense. To me, the Tracks represent a horizontal passage being connected to the earth, while the Ladder represents a vertical journey and more of a spiritual upward journey."

 


Don Griffin, Night Fall in Brazil
 (Nyte Life Series), 2011,
Mixed media on paper, 11" x 15"

The Nyte Life series is comprised of 10 mixed media works on paper, featuring the "Black Suited Man" as derived from the Passport to Equinox audio visual installation. In the words of the artist, "In Passport to Equinox, three black men were faceless with their backs towards the viewer and seeking knowledge through life's journeys. They ponder the vicissitudes of the black man, the isolated artist, creating and living in the real world, interacting and functioning productively despite conflict." The "Black Suited Man" experiences all phases of the Nyte Life. The variant colors represent the environs of the imagination with "the Man" being the constant... as he perseveres.  




Don Griffin, Nights on Broadway (Nyte Life Series), 2011
Mixed media on paper, 11" x 15"




Don Griffin, Concierto de Aranjuez
(Public Notice Series), 2011,
Mixed media collage on paper, 22" x 30" 

Another featured series, Public Notice, is the visual experiences of various techniques that the artist has explored. In this series, there is a predominant use of commercial labels from corrugated boxes, accentuating the artist's use of found and recycled materials that have been thrown away. According to Griffin, "The red line, featured in the series, is the continuity or the interconnectedness of all the pieces. Some of the works in the series are imagery inspired by visual artists like Basquiat or Twombly whose work I've studied in the past and others by my current contemporaries. Along with the artists, there are musicians and rhythm and blues vocalists' influences found throughout the series. The very first work evolved from a jazz composition entitled Concierto de Aranjuez, and it set the stage for the balance of the works to follow." 




Don Griffin, Acts of Dispensation (Public Notice Series),
2011, Mixed media collage on paper, 22" x 30"

Additional samples of Don Griffin's most current series of art work may be seen with accompanying descriptions at Baker Artist Awards. If you are interested in seeing more of Don Griffin's works or need specific questions answered, contact him at Donrgriff@aol.com.
  

ADDENDUM: African American Collections in Select Museums

Several additional museums, Akron Art Museum, Columbus Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Chrysler Museum of Art, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art, have been added to the Museum Collections page; the additional collections are listed under ADDENDUM: Museum Collections. To access, simply click on the page section, Museum Collections and scroll down to the ADDENDUM.

The museums listed on this page, Museum Collections, were selected  from a list of accredited art museums affiliated with the American Association of Museums. The list features those museums that include a searchable database that provides online access to their collections using the search term, "African American" as a descriptor. Enjoy! 

African American Collections within Select Museums

This is a short post to introduce a new page, Museum Collections, to the Black Art Project blog. Museum Collections will be continually updated to reflect collections with an African American art focus that have been identified in Galleries and Museums across the country. These institutions represent simply a few that are committed to showcasing the works by Black artists who are included in their overall collections.



The goal of Museum Collections is to make these images accessible to students, scholars, and the general public in order to encourage research and discussion on aspects of Black art and artists. This list in not comprehensive and is a work in progress that will expand as other institutions with online access to their collections have been identified. Not only is accessibility a key factor, but being able to search the collection with African American as a descriptor is crucial.

The following link is a sample of what is included on Museum Collections:

Savannah, Georgia

SCAD Museum of Art

The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art

(Under the list of selected works at the Website, click "Load more" to see other works of art.)

Jacob Lawrence, Library Series, The Schomburg,
Gouache on paper, 26" x 20"

The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art
(Under the list of selected works at the Website,
click "Load more" to see other works of art.)