{"id":4334,"date":"2018-10-04T13:32:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T13:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=4334"},"modified":"2018-10-10T01:02:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T01:02:03","slug":"from-negro-art-to-post-black-art-black-art-criticism-is-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=4334","title":{"rendered":"From Negro Art to Post-Black Art, Black Art Criticism is Essential\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Negro Art to Post-Black Art, Black Art Criticism is Essential\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Shantay Robinson\u00a0<\/span><\/pre>\n
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BAIA Philly Fine Art Show Attendees<\/p><\/div>\n
A few years ago, arts writer, Taylor Renee Aldridge asked her Facebook friends, \u201cWhere are all the black art critics?\u201d The question did not yield any tangible answers, so she and her collaborator, Jessica Lynne decided to do something about it. They started the online journal, ARTS.BLACK<\/i>, for which I have published an article. While black art critics aren\u2019t spilling out of the seams of art magazines, black criticism is essential to the field of black art-making because it not only documents the canon, but offers an assessment of works being produced. The legendary Spiral Group made up of artists like Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, and Reginald Gammon held only one group exhibition and there was no critical coverage, so there is no record of the important artworks they created for this show. The lack of critical attention by mainstream publications is disappointing, but allows black art critics an opportunity to speak for the artists that can be best served by a first-hand understanding of the complexities of the black experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The seminal and first comprehensive work of black art history, Modern Negro Art <\/i>written in 1969 <\/i>by James Porter, who was an artist and influential teacher at Howard University for over forty years, tells of African American art pre-World War II where he writes about Robert S. Duncanson, Edmonia Lewis, and Henry O. Tanner. Before this text, little was known about the pre-WWII black artist. Without this text, these black artistic treasures might be lost to history. But with this text, Porter was able to recount the history of these important artists and provide access to the black population interested in learning about the practices of these preeminent black artists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
While the foundation of black art is cemented by seminal texts like African American Art and Artists<\/i> by Samella Lewis who writes of black art history since slavery, African-American Art<\/i> by Sharon F. <\/i>Patton who recounts black art history from the 1700s, <\/i>and Creating Their Own Image<\/i> by Lisa Farrington who tells of African American female art history, history, not criticality has been the intentions of these works. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Without black art critics, the Black Arts Movement might have been a moment in the wind. But because of critics we are able to appreciate the vitality and force of artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Journals such as\u00a0Liberator<\/i>,\u00a0The Crusader<\/i>, and Freedomways<\/i>\u00a0provided conversations around the art being produced. Because of critics, the movement traveled from New York City and New Jersey out west to Chicago and on to the Bay Area. Because of the word, the work of black artists around the country was able to be understood and appreciated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
In recent years, a new generation of young black art critics has emerged. Among them, Taylor Renee Aldridge, Jessica Lynne, Antwaun Sargent, and Jasmine Weber. Their voices are so necessary in creating discourse surrounding black artists, especially young black ones. Creating space for the intentions of artists who are attempting to enter into the highest rungs of the art world is like translating language. These critics understand the language young black artists speak and can express that to the larger art cultural world with profundity. Without these translations, the work of black artists may fall on blind eyes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Exhibition of Alfred Conteh’s work curated by Dr. Maurita Poole currently on view at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum. Photo by Najee Dorsey<\/p><\/div>\n
The following lists books of art criticism:<\/p>\n