Saar’s work is a poignant depiction of this nation’s fraught history of race relations and gender politics, and this exhibition demonstrates the need for more major retrospectives of her.
African American
Posted inArt
Collectors of Color on the Importance of Supporting Under-Recognized Artists
In Los Angeles, a group of forward-thinking collectors is focused on building and championing diversity through the work they select.
Posted inArt
Remembering Sandra Bland in Thailand
CHIANG MAI, Thailand — When I first heard about Sandra Bland I was in the Seoul airport, en route to Thailand where I would begin my journey across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Posted inOpinion
The Awkward Laughing Moment of Charles Ramsey’s Hero Tale
CHICAGO — The latest internet fodder for comment threads and message boards is Charles Ramsey, a man who helped rescue three Cleveland women who were thought dead more than a decade ago. Providing quotes to the pageview-hungry internet media (“I was eatin’ my McDonald’s.”) and others like that have helped to mark Ramsey as a total hero. As of less than 24 hours ago, Ramsey was trending #6 on whatthetrend.com. Yet watching this video calls to mind the problematic stereotype of the “hilarious black neighbor,” as noted by Slate …
Posted inBooks
Now Dig This! Too Obtuse to Read?
At roughly 350 pages, Now Dig This! Art & Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, is a conceptually massive, literally heavy and generally ambitious catalogue that questions our expectations of what an exhibition catalogue should be.
Posted inArt
The Fantastic and Revelatory Story of Art and Black LA
On first glance, some may wonder why MoMA PS1, a New York contemporary art museum, has just opened a historical exhibition of art from Los Angeles. But as MoMA PS1 curator Peter Eleey explained at the press preview last week, the show in question, Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980, actually has a connection to the New York institution.
Posted inPerformance
On Black Dance: Shifting Movement, Words, Identities
I am watching a black man gyrate in front of me in a thong over gray briefs. A tuft of synthetic, orange hair peeks out from the front of the triangular fabric. His nearly-shaven head glistens as beads of sweat trickle down his face. His dark eyes stare intensely at us.
Posted inOpinion
The Problems With the Smithsonian’s New Civil Rights History Through Art
Starting with the landmark Plessy v Ferguson case of 1896 and continuing until the 2009 inauguration of the first US President with African heritage, the Smithsonian has launched Oh Freedom! Teaching African American Civil Rights through American Art at the Smithsonian. But why so few women and where are the LGBT people?
Posted inArt
Looking Upon African Leaders Through Objects
Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculpture opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City this September with a display of 100 masterpieces borrowed from collections outside of Africa. At face value I thought the exhibition title sounded like an attempt ingratiate African art objects in to a positive and inspirational realm. This, along with the earthy brown color of the exhibition signage, felt clichéd. However I vowed to maintain an open mind as dealing with Africa as a continent loaded with colonial history, really creates a “damned if you do damned if you don’t” scenario for many curators.
Posted inArt
African Diasporan Art on Brooklyn TV
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art has launched a new half-hour program, MoCADA TV, on Brooklyn’s BCAT TV network, an arts-focused public channel.
Posted inArt
The Black List is A-Listed: An Interview with Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders about The Black List: Volume III, his increasingly popular documentary series on the African American It-list, which premiered February 8, 2010, on HBO.