{"id":11341,"date":"2022-01-28T09:10:12","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T09:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=11341"},"modified":"2022-01-24T12:11:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T12:11:38","slug":"tales-from-the-b-a-sket-black-art-sketches-for-the-contemporary-art-lover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=11341","title":{"rendered":"Tales from The b.a.SKET: Black Art Sketches for the Contemporary Art Lover"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Tales from The b.a.SKET: Black Art Sketches for the Contemporary Art Lover<\/h2>\r\n
By D. Amari Jackson<\/pre>\r\n
This week, we reach into the b.a.SKET and pull out the institutional protests of yesteryear, the ones that paved the way for the artistic representations and successes of today…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n
Sometimes, despite all our targeted protests and efforts, we fail to make a difference.<\/p>\r\n
Other times, we do.<\/p>\r\n
A little over a half-century ago, amidst passionate cries of \u201cBlack Power\u201d and a national backdrop of civil unrest, Black artists in New York engaged in a series of art strikes and demonstrations aimed at the woeful lack of representation and skewed imaging of women and people of color by city museums. For a four-month period in 1970, the Ad Hoc Women Artists\u2019 Committee\u00a0 picketed the Whitney Museum of American Art every Sunday, demanding that at least half of the artists in the museum\u2019s approaching biennial celebration be women. This bold request was initiated by Ad Hoc member, Michele Wallace, an outspoken activist who also represented WSABAL, or Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation. Wallace\u2019s demand was pulled from WSABAL\u2019s manifesto, which stated that 50 percent of artists in American art exhibitions should be women, and these exhibitions should \u201creflect the ethnic distribution of the metropolitan area in which the show is being given.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Joining and guiding Wallace in her organizational efforts was her mother, prominent painter, writer, sculptor, and performance artist, Faith Ringgold. A cofounder of Ad Hoc and WSABAL,\u00a0 Ringgold and her daughter were regulars outside the Whitney, chanting and picketing the institution\u2019s dismal failure to include artistic representations of and by women and people of color.<\/p>\r\n
Ad Hoc pulled no punches. In the fall of 1970, the group issued a fake press release on the Whitney\u2019s behalf, announcing the museum had agreed to comply with Ad Hoc\u2019s 50 percent mandate. After the Whitney publicly refuted the false announcement, the group of activists infiltrated the building, placing eggs and sanitary products labeled \u201c50 per-cent\u201d throughout. At the official opening of the 1970 Biennial, the activists disrupted the proceedings by blocking gallery entrances, whistle blowing, chanting, and engaging in a sit-in. For her part, Ringgold was arrested in November 1970.<\/p>\r\n
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Jan van Raay (American, born 1942). Faith Ringgold (right) and Michele Wallace (middle) at Art Workers Coalition Protest, Whitney Museum, 1971. Courtesy of Jan van Raay, Portland, OR, 305-37. \u00a9 Jan van Raay<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Nonetheless, the impact of their efforts was felt. While only 5 percent of the artists showcased at the 1969 Whitney Painting Biennial were female, 22 percent of the artists included in the museum\u2019s 1970 Sculpture Biennial were women.<\/p>\r\n
The Whitney ultimately acknowledged the impact of Ringgold, Wallace, and their fellow protesters. Museum administrator, Stephen Weil, subsequently told the press that the Whitney was now \u201cbending over backwards to not<\/em> to ignore requests from women.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
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\"\"Amari Jackson<\/b> is a creator, author, TV\/web\/film producer, and award-winning journalist. He is author of the 2011 novel, The Savion Sequence; creator\/writer\/coproducer of the 2012-2014 web series The Book Look; writer\/coproducer of the 2016 film Edge of the Pier; and current writer\/coproducer of Listen Up! on HBCU GO\/Roku TV. He is a former Chief of Staff for a NJ State Senator; a former VP of Communications & Development for the Jamestown Project at Harvard University; and a recipient of several writing fellowships including the George Washington Williams Fellowship from the Independent Press Association. An active ghost writer, song writer, martial artist, and journalist, his writings have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications.<\/p>\r\n
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