{"id":12953,"date":"2022-07-15T14:02:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T14:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=12953"},"modified":"2022-07-16T23:59:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T23:59:43","slug":"why-abstract-art-matters-to-black-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=12953","title":{"rendered":"Why Abstract Art Matters to Black Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

Why Abstract Art Matters to Black Americans<\/h1>\r\n
By Yvonne Bynoe<\/pre>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Is it Black art if there no Black people in it?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n
It would seem that the answer is obviously YES, insofar that any art created by a Black person, including abstract works, is an expression of who they are, what they believe, and what they have experienced. Nevertheless, this question has been central to the challenge of Black abstract artists in attracting the attention of galleries and Black art lovers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
The art that has become most associated with African-American art is figuration, where a discernible, realistic subject is rendered in the work. These are works that center Black figures and\/or environments and symbols and situations typically identified with Black Americans. Art writers and scholars certainly erased Black abstract artists from the canon. However, one of the chief reasons for the marginalization of Black abstract artists is rooted in the history of Black Americans in the United States.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
While abstract art was gaining traction in Europe in the early 1900s, Blacks were living in the segregated United States where lynchings were rampant, domestic terriorists such as the Klu Klux Klan operated with impunity, and opportunities for education and upward mobility were extremely limited. Moreover, crude caricatures of Black Americans as lazy, sloven, immoral and intellectually inferior were regularly used in White-owned newspapers, magazines, and films to justify maintaining the racial status quo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Given the substantial struggles that Black Americans faced, African-American leaders championed art that supported social and political advancement. As early as 1911, Dr. W.E.B DuBois, a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P) promoted Black writers in its publication, <\/span>The Crisis. <\/span><\/i>The publication<\/span> also used the works of Black visual artists to counter the stereotypical depictions of African-Americans. DuBois famously wrote in <\/span>Criteria of Negro Art <\/span><\/i>(1926):<\/span><\/p>\r\n
All art is propaganda, and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not propaganda. But I do care when propaganda is confined to one side while the other is stripped and silent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n
Howard University professor, Dr. Alain Locke, often called the Father of the <\/span>Harlem<\/span><\/i> Renaissance<\/span><\/i>, disagreed with DuBois saying that \u201cPropaganda perpetuates the position of group inferiority.\u201d DuBois, however, had an influential platform and he held sway with White progressives of the day, which included art patrons, so his vision about the function of Black visual art became the standard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
This is not to say that Black artists in the United States don\u2019t have a long and rich history with abstract art. Norman Lewis (1909-1979), for instance, was an early participant in the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States. Lewis was born in New York and began his career in the 1930s as a social realist. He employed a figurative style and painted subject matter such as bread lines, evictions, and police brutality to bring attention to injustices experienced by Black Americans.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
However, after more than a decade, Lewis abandoned social realism, concluding that painting \u200b\u201can illustrative statement that merely mirrors some of the social conditions\u201d was not going to facilitate change. Around 1946, Lewis began exploring abstraction, and, in April of 1950, he participated in the Artists Sessions held at Studio 35 in New York, which established him as the only African-American in the burgeoning Abstract Expressionist movement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
In the mid-1950s, when the modern Civil Rights movement was forming, African-American artists, as prior generations, were encouraged to make representational work that depicted African-American uplift.<\/span> With the ascent of the Black Power Movement in the mid-1960s and its associated Black Arts Movement, the mandate became stronger for Black American artists to create art that could be used in the battle for racial and political justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Amiri Baraka was a founding figure of the Black Arts Movement and his poem \u201cBlack art\u201d is often called the manifesto for the movement. Although DuBois may not have agreed with Baraka’s tart language or the strident tone of \u201cBlack Art,\u201d the message of the poem aligns with what he said in <\/span>Criteria of Negro,<\/span><\/i> namely that the only legitimate function of art by Black artists is to be a tool for group progress.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Baraka, in his essay “The Black Arts Movement,” describes the Black Arts Movement as wanting<\/span> \u201c<\/span><\/i>an art of struggle, an art that is related to the reality of our history, and the real life of the world, particularly of the Afro American people\u2026\u201d Subsequently, the art that was deemed most authentically Black or most politically aware was figuration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
During this period, White galleries and museums were grudgingly opening their doors to African-American artists and they sought Black artists who were creating figurative works to represent and exhibit. Moreover, the emerging cultural institutions\u00a0 African Americans founded or that supported African-American artists didn’t believe that abstract art was relevant to Black Americans. As a consequence, Black abstract artists\u2014including the aforementioned Norman Lewis, Alma Thomas, Richard Mayhew, Howardina Pindell and a host of others\u2014were largely ignored by both the art world and by Black American audiences.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Since 1990, art patron Pamela Joyner has been working diligently to raise the visibility of Black abstract artists beyond merely acquiring work. She has been a fierce advocate for museum exhibitions and the scholarly interrogation of mid-century Black abstract artists. She stated, \u201cWe are endeavoring to put people on walls in a way that not only the art world, but the community, might not naturally think of. It’s not immediately obvious that since the 1940s African-Americans have been making transformational abstraction.” <\/span>Among the artists she cites are Ed Clark, who is acknowledged as the first artist in the modern era to work on shaped canvases; Jack Whitten, who was doing squeegee paintings in the 1970s (at least a decade before Gerhard Richter); as well as Sam Gilliam, who created groundbreaking large scaled drape paintings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Going back to Dr. Alain Locke’s admonition, Black Americans should ask if a liberated people would intentionally constrain their expression in the visual arts? Furthermore, what are Black Americans losing culturally by not engaging with and acquiring abstract works by Blacks?<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Abstract work is challenging for many people because it requires that you interpret the work for yourself. It means looking at the shapes, lines, colors and paint application to determine what feelings or thoughts, if any, the work elicits for you. Similar to music, two people can hear the same exact song yet have vastly different responses to it because they are each filtering the lyrics and rhythm through their separate frames of reference. In all candor, the same could be said for many figurative works. Abstract work isn\u2019t more sophisticated than figurative works; it’s simply a different artistic vehicle that Black artists can and should use.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Since Black Americans are not a monolith, it stands to reason that our visual art isn’t one either.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The renowned art historian, curator and artist, David C. Driskell has been quoted as saying that abstract art doesn’t portray what we see in the real world but instead is what “one creates from the imagined world.” He adds that pure abstraction shows \u201dthe essential quality, the bare bones, the structure underneath what we see every day.\u201d Driskell’s body of work as an artist includes abstract as well as figurative works.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
The newly launched Black Art in America Gallery in East Point, Georgia has an array of abstract works currently on exhibit. Below is a small sampling that can serve as an entry point into your journey into abstraction.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
If you can\u2019t visit the gallery, you can access additional information, including pricing and payment plans, on these works and others by calling (678) 847-8735 or visiting: <\/span>https:\/\/shopbaiaonline.com\/collections\/black-art-in-america-opening-exhibithttps:\/\/shopbaiaonline.com\/collections\/black-art-in-america-opening-exhibit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
David C. Driskell (1931- 2020)
“Purple Door For Vince<\/a>“
5.5 x 7.25 inches image size, 16 x 20 inches matted size, pastel, ink and collage on paper — framed<\/p><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
Kevin Cole UNTITLED<\/a>
18 x 24 x 2 \u00bd\u00a0 inches, mixed media — framed<\/p><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
Kevin Cole “For the Sisters that Carry the Burdens of Sistas (Florence Griffith Joyner)<\/a>“<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Kevin E. Cole: “Truth is my work is a colorful reminder of promises unkept, imperialism still institutionalized, and stealth deceit that has stolen the dreams and birthrights of twenty generations of a once proud people. It stands in contrast to the canon just as Normal Lewis\u2019 work stood in contrast to those who framed early abstract expressionism\u2026The narrative is embedded like html code. It is not what one sees, but it can be decoded…”<\/span><\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
UNTITLED<\/a> Louis Delasarte
36 x 30 inches acrylic on paper — framed<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Delsarte’s work is in several institutional collections including the Hammonds House Museum and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA , the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the National Gallery of Art in Bermuda.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
He received his B.F.A from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and an M.FA. from the University of Arizona. Delsarte has taught painting and drawing at numerous institutions for many years. Currently he teaches arts and humanities at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
Downs, “Conversations In The Abstract #114<\/a>“<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Downs: “By speaking clearly in a non object idiom, the goal is to make art that reflects modern day life. My process consists of layering spontaneous random marks that are sometimes completely obscured. By working and reworking surfaces, I expose the varying depth of color which creates spaces that expand and contract, communicating the work’s shifting moods.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
The current series \u201cConversations In The Abstract\u201d, arose from a stroke Downs experienced in 2015. Downs\u2019 perception of life as an artist changed. The stroke brought on strange and unusual conversations in his mind, which he can only describe as abstract.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Downs has been painting professionally for over 40 years and has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work has been included in group shows with noted artists such as Andre Miripolsky, Mark Mothersbaugh and Karl Benjamin. Downs’ works are included in private collections throughout the world.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
Najjar Abdul-Musawwir
UNTITLED (Banjo Series #4)<\/a>
16.5 x 59 inches, various wood assemblage sculpture<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Najjar Abdul-Musawwir (b.1958) is Chicago, Illinois based artist who has exhibited throughout the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe. He currently works as an Associate Professor of studio arts and art history in the School of Art and Design and Africana Studies at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
In advocating that more Black American art lovers and collectors explore abstraction, we will briefly return to Norman Lewis to show that abstract artists weren’t necessarily apolitical. Though his painting style changed, Lewis remained committed to social injustice throughout his career. In the aftermath of the March on Washington in 1963, Lewis formed the SPIRAL collective with Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, and Hale Woodruff to make a contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. In works such as “America The Beautiful” and “Bonfire” that depict gatherings of the Klu Klux Klan, Lewis uses abstraction to directly engage with the socio-political issues of the 1960s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n
Note: Criteria of Negro Art was published in <\/span>The Crisis <\/span><\/i>in October 1926. DuBois initially spoke these words at a celebration for the recipient of the Twelfth Spingarn Medal, Carter Godwin Woodson. The celebration was part of the NAACP’s annual conference and was held in June 1926.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
Browse and shop for fine art from our growing network of artists, collectors, estates, galleries \u2014 specializing in works by Black American artists with great values on premier art.<\/p>\r\n
START COLLECTING ART<\/h1>\r\n
Sign up for our\u00a0free\u00a0email course<\/u><\/a>\u00a0on how to begin your collection.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
\"Yvonne\"YVONNE BYNOE<\/strong> is the founder of the curated online platform @shelovesblackart which highlights visual art from the African diaspora to encourage more people of African descent to collect art. She is a cultural critic, author of several popular books on popular culture.<\/span><\/p>\r\n
 <\/p>\r\n
Would you buy stock in BAIA if you could?<\/strong>\u00a0Well we invite you to join us in becoming a monthly supporter, starting at just $3 a month YOU become a stakeholder and begin to help us transform lives through art. We are growing the BAIA team and will use your contributions to hire more team members for the purpose of creating more educational and marketing resources for schools and universities about african american artists both past and present. Such art initiatives and educational programming like Blacklite with Steve Prince, Relating to Art with Dr. Kelli Morgan, and BAIA BITS would not be possible without the ongoing support of our Patreon members. Please consider becoming a monthly Patreon member today!<\/p>\r\n
Review our list of rewards for becoming a BAIA\u00a0Patreon<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\/ patron supporter. Your monthly contribution has lasting benefits. \u2014 \u201cWhat will your legacy be\u201d \u2013 Dr. Margaret Burroughs<\/p>\r\n
Thank you new and recurring monthly<\/span> Patrons<\/h1>\r\n
Deloris and Eddie Young, Esther Silver-Parker, Eugene Foney, Zadig & Voltaire, Petrucci<\/b>Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, John and Melanie Guess, Frank<\/b>Frazier, Houston Museum of African American Culture, Leslie Fields, Jim Nixon, Dr.<\/b>Michael Butler, Mary \u201cMadea\u201d Jones, Carolyn L. Mazloomi, <\/b><\/strong>Terry Whitt Bailey, Brenda k robinson, Greg Head, Deborah J Jackson, Deborah Griffin, Kimberly Wilson-Lawson, Gail Rogers, Natalie F Lawrence, Yvonne R Carter, Gillian Crocca Photography,\u00a0Eliesha Nelson<\/strong>, Gracie M Jamiah, Lyndale Pettus, Rev. Anita Marshall<\/strong>,\u00a0E L Greene, Devon Simpson, Sylvie Meyers, Edward Johnson, Jimmy S. Clark, Jr., Robert & Susan King, Jacqueline Boggan, Nanno Smith, Dindga McCannon, Jenae Gayle, Donald M Rubin, Maya, Jessica Bickett, Jewell T. Williams, Derek Nichols, Diana Mbr, Shavaughn Buckley, Jalisa Whitley, Kassi De Luna, Eric T McKissack, Tsedey Betru, Cheryl, Polk, Victor W Brown, Alnita Ann Holder, Sharon Butts, Gregory M Glore, Tanya Desdunes, Vernestine Laughinghouse, Arelia Jones, Shakira Pollard, Kimberly Esmond Adams, Patric McCoy, Bridget Griffin, Rayhart, Mikal Aziz, Patricia Goodwin, Rebecca Smith, Rita Alston,\u00a0Chris McNew<\/strong>, Sharyn Welch, Eunice Sykes, Paula DeJoie, Patricia S. Kearse, Cyderia Gates, Anita Askew Wharton, LaShanda Chirunga, Kree8tive DJ, Cynthia Hargrove, S Johnson, Darris L Shaw, Willa Bandler, Valerie A. Cooper, Paige Jernigan, Monique Johnson, Djibril N\u2019Doye, Zawadi, Paul Daniel Curtis, Dr. Karen Patricia Williamsm, Brenda Joyner, Christina, Robert Taylor, Takisia Whites, Stephanie Stephens,\u00a0Atiya Slaughter<\/strong>, Renee Williams Jefferson, Hope Elliott, Elaine Buchsbaum, Rosemarie Rogers, Frazier and Myra O\u2019Leary, Velma McLaurin-Bell, Judy Nyquist, Kate Gadd, R Simpson, Crystal Green, Denise Rogers, Tara, Faye Edwards, Trina Virginia Brooks, jack, Beverly S Ware, Raven Walthor, Paige Jernigan, Gregg Y., Loretta Y Blakely, Barbara Hayes, Sonia Pollard, Vince Leal, Lisa Tomlinson, Diane E Leifheit, Art Now After Hours, Suzette Davis, Alison Woods, PB Fine Art Appraisal, Peter Prinz, Vickie Townsend-Carter, Lindiwe Stovall Lester, Arturo Lindsay, Raynard Hall, Toby Sisson, Bernard W. Kinsey, Leslie Smith, Nelly Maynard, Terri Bowles, Otto Neals,\u00a0Ted Ellis<\/strong>, Bill Cook, SylviaWong Lewis, Donna Paxon, Nancy Maignan, Kimberly Smith, Tracy Russ, Gwen Meharg, Johnnie Mae Maberry, Zishan Evans, Arbrie Griffin Bradley, Sandra Sautner, Barbara Brown, Bronwen Hodgkinson,\u00a0Sonia Deane<\/strong>, January Hoskin, Quinton Foreman, Terri Pease, Annette Grrr, Elayne Gross, Ann Tankersley, Jacqueline Konan, Jerome Moore, India Still, Kim Dubois, Edwina King Diva E, Charlotte Bender, Phyllis Stephens, Judith Hamilton, Francene Greene, Caryliss R. Weaver, Sharmon Jane Hilfinger, Bill and Deborah Nix,\u00a0Joyce A<\/strong>, Wanda Baker-Smith, Emily Jean, C Harris, Morris Howard, Marie L Johnson, Ayoka Chenzira, Jean Gumpper, Dr. Darlene White,\u00a0Dr. Sandra Boyce Broomes<\/strong>, Michele C. Mayes, Rita Crittenden,\u00a0Beverly Grant<\/strong>, Linda B. Smith, Judith Bergeron, Emily Hegeman Cavanagh, Teri L,\u00a0Claudia Bell<\/strong>, Cooky Goldblatt, Danni Cerezo, Sarah Caputo, Christina Levine, Jessica Beckstrom, Pamela Hart, Tellis, Louise Berner-Holmberg, Carla Sonheim, Alison Deas, Monikapi, Ashley Littlefield, Pearlie Taylor, Marina Kovic, Sarah Rooney, Mitchell Shohet, Cheryl B Blankman, Petrina Burkard, Sarah Drury, Megan LaCroix, Kellyn Maguire, Sophia Bellino, Cory Huff, Wilhelmina Barker, Shelley Danzy, Rosalyn D. Elder, Karen Pinzolo, Desiree Dansan, Deborah Paige-Jackson, ALKEBU LAN IMAGES Bookstore, DeLores M Dyer, Shelia, Susan Ross, Carlton Cotton, Joan L. Ward, Jocelyn Benita Smith, Paul Robinson, Janice Orr, Patricia D Dungy, Shawn Rhea, Cheryl Odeleye, Runez M Bender, Karen Y House, M Belinda Tucker, Dr. Yonette Thomas, Diana Shannon Young, Harold Moore, Shurvon Haynes, K.Coleman, Dana Todd Pope, M. Rasheed, Jamal Love, Annette, Manuelita Brown, Gale Ross, KL Martin, Patricia D Dungy, Patricia A Thomas, Carolyn J Grantham, Lyla Correoso_thomas, Judith Braggs, Cheryl Odeleye, Jean ODonnell, Saundra Woods, D. Amari Jackson, Aisha J. Thomas, Lisa Brathwaite, Marcia T Gibson, Kathryn Anderson Weaver, Deadybones, Genevieve Marsh, Rene Lee, Deborah L. McCullough, Claudia Gibson-Hunter<\/span><\/p>\r\n
 <\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n
We Appreciate Your Support<\/p>
Share this:<\/h3>