Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits at MoAD

April 4, 2009 – June 14, 2009

“Let your Motto be resistance! Resistance! RESISTANCE! No opposed people have ever secured Liberty without resistance” – abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet, 1843

Garnet’s words have found their way into the title – and the essence – of the inaugural exhibition of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Presented by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits” opens at MoAD on April 4 and will be on view until June 14, 2009. The exhibition consists of 70 modern prints selected from the National Portrait Gallery’s collections highlighting 150 years of African American resistance in the U.S.

In the context of photographs, resistance took many forms. Working with a growing circle of African American intellectuals and professionals, photographers often challenged the prevailing view of blacks as intellectually and socially inferior. Dramatic images of labor leader A. Philip Randolph (1948) and activist Malcolm X (1963) spotlight those who confronted racism and social injustice head-on. Other highlights include images of boxing legend Joe Louis (c. 1935), Josef Breitenbach’s image of singer Sarah Vaughan (1950), Dan Weiner’s photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. (1956) and Irving Penn’s image of opera icon Jessye Norman (1983).

“Let Your Motto Be Resistance” was organized by the National Museum of African American History and Culture in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery and the International Center of Photography in New York and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

The exhibition, national tour and catalog were made possible by a generous grant from lead sponsor MetLife Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Council of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“Let Your Motto Be Resistance” is based on the exhibition of the same name that featured 100 original photographs, and was presented at the International Center of Photography (May 11 - Sept. 9, 2007) and the National Portrait Gallery (Oct. 9, 2007 – Mar. 2, 2008).

Kehinde Wiley "World Stage: Brazil" Exhibition Preview

Book of the Week: "African-American Art (Oxford History of Art)"-SHARON F. PATTON

From Publishers Weekly
Patton has written an excellent and comprehensive introduction to the historical development of African American visual art. She provides much new information on the art making of both slaves and freemen in the 18th and 19th century while later providing a broad art-historical context for black modernists. Pointing out that crafts did not necessarily precede fine art making during slavery, she examines African retentions (and Indian influences) in 18th-century black ceramics and architecture; black women and quilting; abolitionism and the rise of black landscape painters like Robert Duncanson; and sculptor Edmonia Lewis's black expatriate neoclassicism. Turning to generally better- documented 20th-century black artists, Patton arguably provides the first clear discussion of the relationship (both social and aesthetic) of black modernists to the prevailing mainstream artists and art movements of their time. As is perhaps inevitable, Patton's discussion of the contemporary art scene, while quite competent, is defined as much by the artists she fails to mention as by those she chooses to include. Well researched, scrupulously documented and organized, this lucidly written, fully illustrated book also includes numerous useful sidebars defining art movements, issues or individuals.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (June 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192842137
• ISBN-13: 978-0192842138
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches

SOURCE: Amazon

Printingmaking and African-American Art with Dr. Richard J. Powell/DUKE

Richard J. Powell, professor of art at Duke University, will talk about the African American experience in graphic arts on Thursday. It’s a lecture on printmaking at Paine College Candler Memorial Library at 1:30 p.m. on April 2.

Now, if you are like me and don’t know what printmaking is, well, printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting.

Each piece produced is not a copy but considered an original since it is not a reproduction of another work of art. Printmaking is not chosen only for its ability to produce multiple copies, but also for the unique qualities process creates.

Here’s a little history on Powell: He attend Morehouse and Howard University before he earned his doctorate at Yale. He’s also editor in chief of Art Bulletin.

To learn more about Richard j. Powell, visit richardjpowell.com. Or go to the lecture.

Artist of the Day: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT/"UNTITLED"

Crudely drawn figures, handwritten phrases and scientific formulae are jumbled together on a multi-colored background, forming a visual cacophony of colour and shapes. The primitive and childlike images reflect Basquiat's links with graffiti art. The painting seem to be a distillation of the New York underworld of the artist's roots, evoking its multi-ethnic, hip-hop culture and reflecting the fast-moving, chaotic reality of the city's street life through a series of disconnected images and written fragments.

Basquiat was part of a loosely associated group of so-called graffiti artists, some of whom worked in New York's subways, and indeed he started his own short-lived career by daubing graffiti on public walls. His international reputation was rapidly established and rose with meteoric speed - fuelled by the art boom of the 1980s - until his death from a drug overdose at the age of 26.

SOURCE: The Art Book

The Akron Art Museum presents the Global Artistry of Leo and Diane Dillon ~ Colorful Book Illustrations

AKRON, OH - From the well loved characters of Dr. Seuss to Kadir Nelson’s historic portraits, the Akron Art Museum has a tradition of showing the work of world-renowned children’s book illustrators. This spring, the museum will continue that tradition by hosting an exhibition of work by the esteemed illustrating duo Leo and Diane Dillon, titled The Global Artistry of Leo and Diane Dillon. The exhibition will be on view March 28 – June 21, 2009 in the Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation Gallery.

The husband and wife team have made an outstanding contribution to children of all cultures, producing spectacular illustrations together since 1957. Their illustrations are incredibly distinctive and all bear the couple’s trademark clean lines, innovative color use and attention to detail, as well as a warmth which radiates through each image, filling their characters with life.

The Dillons have earned many awards throughout their prolific career including two back to back Caldecott Medals for “Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears” and “Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions,” four New York Times Best Illustrated Awards, four Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards, two Coretta Scott King Awards and the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal.

The pair both attended Parsons School for Design in New York City in 1954, and upon seeing one another’s work, even before being introduced, recognized and envied the other’s talent. Upon meeting, they formed a competitive friendship, which evolved into a relationship and then a loving marriage and successful artistic partnership.

In an interview with Karen Haber for Locus Magazine, Leo explains the development of their collaboration: “I’m constantly surprised at how our work is melding more and more as the years go on. In the beginning it was a conceived plan for us to work in a particular style we both could master. So in reality we were both working for someone else: the style.”

Diane goes on to explain the development of what they call the “third artist,” saying, “we could look at ourselves as one artist rather than two individuals, and that third artist was doing something neither one of us would do. We let it flow the way it flows when an artist is working by themselves and a color goes down that they didn’t quite expect and that affects the next colors they use, and it seems to have a life of its own.”

The couple’s works are essentially concerned with the shared experiences of the human condition – specifically with the idea that regardless of race and culture, “we have a lot in common. It is our beliefs that divide us. We have little control over what life brings us but we can change our thoughts.” Another facet of their works is a concern with artistic expression. “Art in its many forms has survived to inform us of lives long gone. Art inspires, lifts our spirits, and brings beauty to our lives. We wish to pay homage to it and to the people who created it.”

The exhibition’s display coincides with the 22nd annual Virginia Hamilton Conference at Kent State University. The conference, which will feature the Dillons as speakers, was established to provide a forum for the discussion of multicultural themes and issues in literature for youth. This exhibition is made possible by a generous gift from The Sisler McFawn Foundation.

Visit The Akron Art Museum at : http://www.akronartmuseum.org/

SOURCE: AKN

HSF " DOWN TO EARTH + NY STRINGS"

APRIL 6, 2009 - 6.30 - 10.30 pm
DOWN TO EARTH + NY STRINGS two sound installations by ANDREA BELFI & STEFANO PILIA

www.harlemstudiony.org