{"id":9911,"date":"2021-07-23T12:22:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T12:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2021-07-23T22:38:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T22:38:18","slug":"empowered-by-innovation-jazz-spirituality-nature-ancestors-and-experience-abstract-art-transcends-decades-of-pushback-in-the-black-community-and-the-canon-meet-the-masters-and-emerging-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=9911","title":{"rendered":"Empowered by Innovation, Jazz, Spirituality, Nature, Ancestors, and Experience, Abstract Art Transcends Decades of Pushback in the Black Community and the Canon: Meet the Masters and Emerging Artists Leading the Triumphant Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Natasha Gural<\/pre>\nWorking in abstraction has always been rife with complexity and conflict for artists who are Black and confronted with challenges to represent Blackness, including pressure to address social turmoil and upheaval while navigating global migrations and diasporas. Moe Brooker, Downs, Ronald J. Walton, and Imani Bilal are among the many diverse artists in the United States transforming the marketplace\u2019s perception of Abstract Art. Respectively, they create work that celebrates individual freedom and autonomy, while overcoming racial stereotypes and constraint within the Black community to promote positive imagery that\u2019s explicitly focused on collective struggle.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re advancing the journey led by Norman Lewis, who began as a social realist painter ahead of World War II before his robust embrace of abstraction amid brawny backlash by White gallery owners. Lewis\u2019 work is expressive and free-form, while firmly entrenched in African-American identity. Jazz Band<\/em> (1948) is a masterpiece that marks a seismic shift in art history. Evoking improvisation, the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment in jazz with an affinity for bebop, Lewis\u2019 calculated scrawls foreshadowed the technique that catapulted Cy Twombly\u2019s career about a decade later. Music, notably jazz, continues to play an intrinsic role in Abstract Art created by artists who are Black.<\/p>\n
Brooker\u2019s bold and vibrant abstract canvases invite our gaze to explore ambits of mark-making and recessive space, by layering and juxtaposing patterns that engage and excite the viewer\u2019s eye and mind in a lively narrative.<\/p>\n
Originally trained as an academic realistic painter, Brooker created in that style for some 15 years before \u201csome things began to happen to me, relative to color. I would often go to the back of the art museum in the evening, and just look at the sky, and some of the most amazing color relationships and combinations would come. I find nature to be the most wonderful, wonderful colorist in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n