Because I like to know a something about the Celebration Days I post, I tried to follow up on the International Month of Black Women in the Arts. While I was unsuccessful at running down who declared February as the month, how it was acclaimed and by whom, I spent quite a while researching black women in the visual arts and found a number of wonderful artists working in various media.
Visual artists get little attention and few accolades from the public in general. Unfortunately, most Americans have little knowledge of contemporary artists of any sort unless visual arts are of particular interest to the individual. Of those who do get attention, black women artists tend get the least amount of the limelight. And I'm sure the Visual Arts field is not the only place this occurs.
Even if you're not into art, I hope you will appreciate the marvelous talents of these women. All of them have received many awards and are exhibited nationally and internationally. At least, drop some of their names at a party and see if your friends know anything about them. Watched for glazed over eyes and then enlighten them.
MICKALENE THOMAS
Even if you're not into art, I hope you will appreciate the marvelous talents of these women. All of them have received many awards and are exhibited nationally and internationally. At least, drop some of their names at a party and see if your friends know anything about them. Watched for glazed over eyes and then enlighten them.
MICKALENE THOMAS
Artist Mickalene Thomas (born in Camden, New Jersey, 1971) is known for her depictions of African-American women which express her multifaceted insights on "what it means to be a women." Her elaborate collage paintings use mixed media comprised of rhinestones, acrylic and enamel, the inspiration arising from her study of art history and classical genres of landscape, portraiture, and still life. She also works in the mediums of photography, collage, printmaking, video art, sculpture, and installation art.
According to Artnet.com, her works, often based in photography "utilize both the aesthetics of Western painting and the heavily sexualized blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Through appropriated imagery the artist addresses issues of femininity, race, and beauty alongside personal histories and childhood memories." She also draws inspiration from pop art and visual culture to examine ideas around femininity, beauty, race, sexuality, and gender.
According to Artnet.com, her works, often based in photography "utilize both the aesthetics of Western painting and the heavily sexualized blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Through appropriated imagery the artist addresses issues of femininity, race, and beauty alongside personal histories and childhood memories." She also draws inspiration from pop art and visual culture to examine ideas around femininity, beauty, race, sexuality, and gender.
KARA WALKER
 American born Kara Walker (1969) is best known for room-size tableaux of cut paper silhouettes that focus on the "underbelly" of racial and gender tensions in America i.e. racism. She addresses controversial themes such as history, race, sexuality, power, and repression. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Atlanta College of Art and her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. According to TheArtStory.org, "Fresh out of graduate school, Kara Walker succeeded in shocking the nearly shock-proof art world of the 1990s with her wall-sized cut paper silhouettes. At first, the figures in period costume seem to hearken back to an earlier, simpler time. That is, until we notice the horrifying content: nightmarish vignettes illustrating the history of the American South." Thematically, she is a history painter "with a strong subversive twist" who helped revive the tradition of European painting of scenes based on historical or literary events. Her long titles are appropriate to this tradition. |
LORNA SIMPSON
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950, Lorna Simpson received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York. By the time she graduated with her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, the art world considered her a pioneer of conceptual photography.
Motivated by the need to redefine photography for "contemporary relevance, Simpson was producing work that engaged the conceptual vocabulary of the time, as clean and spare as the closed, cyclic systems of meaning they produce."
"Her initial body of work alone helped to incite and significant shift in the view of the photographic art's transience and Malleability" text quotes: lsimpsonstudio.com.
Motivated by the need to redefine photography for "contemporary relevance, Simpson was producing work that engaged the conceptual vocabulary of the time, as clean and spare as the closed, cyclic systems of meaning they produce."
"Her initial body of work alone helped to incite and significant shift in the view of the photographic art's transience and Malleability" text quotes: lsimpsonstudio.com.
In her 2016 multimedia series (India ink and screen print on clayboard), the work entitled Polka Dot & Bullet Holes #2 "a bifurcated image juxtaposes a woman’s polka-dot dress with a constellation of bullet holes. The circular fissures serve as bleak foils to the stylish garment, the stark contrast of expressing one’s identity and losing it, swiftly and utterly. The austerity of the print only makes it more unnerving; the discomfort of knowing something is a symbol without knowing what it symbolizes. It’s the eeriness of a dress spotted on the side of the road, its wearer nowhere to be seen." Priscilla Frank, Art Critic, Huffington Post.
WANGECHI MUTU
Artist and sculptor Wangechi Mutu was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1972. She is an important contemporary African artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
She pieces magazine imagery with painted surfaces and scavenged materials into collages which depict the split nature of cultural identity while referencing history, fashion, and contemporary African politics. Her work is her own form of storytelling.
Exhibits of her work have been shown worldwide. Her first solo exhibition at a major North American opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in March 2010. Her first US solo exhibition opened at the Nasher Museum of Art in March 2013
She pieces magazine imagery with painted surfaces and scavenged materials into collages which depict the split nature of cultural identity while referencing history, fashion, and contemporary African politics. Her work is her own form of storytelling.
Exhibits of her work have been shown worldwide. Her first solo exhibition at a major North American opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in March 2010. Her first US solo exhibition opened at the Nasher Museum of Art in March 2013
If you are interested in learning more, here are some other outstanding artists to look up, just to name a few.
● Emma Amos ● Carrie Mae Weems
● Ellen Gallagher ● Amalia Amaki
● Joyce J. Scott ● Alison Saar
● Faith Ringgold ● Elizabeth Catlett
● Sandra Rowe ● Julie Mehretu
Resources
http://www.atlanta.net/events/national-black-arts-festival/
https://www.facebook.com/nationalblackartsfestival/
http://www.forharriet.com/2013/02/15-black-women-visual-artists-you.html#axzz4YDaYjX6m
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickalene_Thomas
http://www.artnet.com/artists/mickalene-thomas/
http://mickalenethomas.com/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/kara-walker
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-walker-kara.htm
http://www.lsimpsonstudio.com/
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/global-culture/identity-body/identity-body-united-states/v/lorna-simpson
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lorna-simpson-interview-salon-94_us_57eeb9cde4b082aad9bb375b
● Emma Amos ● Carrie Mae Weems
● Ellen Gallagher ● Amalia Amaki
● Joyce J. Scott ● Alison Saar
● Faith Ringgold ● Elizabeth Catlett
● Sandra Rowe ● Julie Mehretu
Resources
http://www.atlanta.net/events/national-black-arts-festival/
https://www.facebook.com/nationalblackartsfestival/
http://www.forharriet.com/2013/02/15-black-women-visual-artists-you.html#axzz4YDaYjX6m
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickalene_Thomas
http://www.artnet.com/artists/mickalene-thomas/
http://mickalenethomas.com/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/kara-walker
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-walker-kara.htm
http://www.lsimpsonstudio.com/
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/global-culture/identity-body/identity-body-united-states/v/lorna-simpson
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lorna-simpson-interview-salon-94_us_57eeb9cde4b082aad9bb375b
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