posted by Kree Thawley
The mainstream art world is regrettably not the most inclusive realm – not currently and definitely not historically. We see it in creative and cultural institutions and through demographics and representation regarding artists, gallerists, and curators. In a survey of major American museums, it was found that 85% of works were created by white artists and that within the remaining 15% of artists of color, only 1.2% were black (4). Additionally, 87% of works were created by men, leaving women severely underrepresented (2). This is simply unacceptable – allowing curators who are mostly white and male to continue displaying the work of their likeness in well-known institutions only perpetuates the idea that their stories reign supreme and are most suitable to present to the public. Put simply, it’s a feedback loop that perpetuates systemic sexism, racism, and misogyny. In future blog posts I’ll definitely be touching more on the disparity that exists in the art world regarding gender and sexuality, but in honor of Black History month I’d like to focus briefly, only because there is no way to dive via blog post wholly or deeply enough, on some historical facets of the development of black art. To have any semblance of a full or rich understanding of the contemporary, we must familiarize ourselves with the past.
Exhibition poster for Two Centuries of Black Art, organized by Los Angeles County Museum of Art, guest curated by David C. Driskell. Source: https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/two-centuries-black-american-art
In 1976, David Driskell curated Two Centuries of Black American Art, at LACMA, helping to define and bring into the mainstream canon, black art. The exhibition featured painting, illustration, crafts, sculpture, and decorative arts, by black artists during the period of 1750 to 1950, serving as the first comprehensive collection and public display of African American art (6). It was a huge success and ended up being the most attended US-born art exhibition at the time (4). Contextually speaking, the exhibition came into fruition at the tail end of the Black Arts movement, which was the creative counterpart to the Black Power Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. During this time, black artists and intellectuals organized to study, discuss, and make plans surrounding the cross-section of black art and politics (5). But contrary to the timing of Driskell’s exhibition, one of its main motives was to dispel the notion that black art was a new concept. By going all the way back 200 years prior, it provided a framework for considering how, creatively and otherwise, black culture developed separately and uniquely from dominant culture.
There is much power in the creation of visual works, the art of storytelling, poetry, the composition of sounds, and in any other inspired inclination that people innately have. These mediums are conduits for documenting and sharing our histories, our stories, our joys, and our struggles, all culminating in the expression of our distinctly human experience. Black artists have been creating in this sense long before they were brought to America and enslaved on stolen land. And as such, they had to find ways to attempt to continue to do so, even when their rights, freedom, and basic humanness were ripped away from them. From an arts standpoint, it comes as no surprise that we don’t see a massive movement or flourishing regarding creative black culture until much later. Even with slavery abolished after the Civil War, it was difficult for blacks to simply exist and get by – the South was by no means an inclusive climate and they were viewed as second-class citizens, while other more tolerant parts of the country were booming in an industrial sense and gleaming with the possibility of work, freedom, and an improved standard of living. As such, the turn of the century marked a Great Migration of black people to these industrial cities, like Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York (1). While cultural movements centering around black culture blossomed in all these areas, nothing quite compares to what happened in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, which ended up having the highest concentration of black people. In 1918, an incredibly significant creative era manifested – the Harlem Renaissance, during which the neighborhood became a focal point for painting, sculpture, music, dance, poetry, and literature. It became a beacon of hope and inspiration and a framework for pride, activism, and cognizance of the black experience. It was the beginning of a collaborative vision and execution of a “black aesthetic,” with its recognizable themes woven through all the varying art forms (3). The Harlem Renaissance and its impact on the rest of the country and its future was substantial, as it became a “self-portrait of African American life, identity, and culture… transmitted to the world at large, challenging the racist and disparaging stereotypes of the Jim Crow South” (1).
Photograph of the Wall of Respect, circa 1967. Jeff Donaldson papers, 1918-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
With the crash of the stock market in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression, it comes as no surprise that along with the rest of the country, the Harlem Renaissance slowly lost its momentum. As a result, we don’t see another massive explosion of black culture until the Black Power Movement and Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. These movements, sparked largely in part by the assassination of Malcom X, were deeply intertwined and related and as such, much of the art created during this time examines the junction point of culture, creativity, politics, and identity (5).
Sources:
A new African American identity: The Harlem Renaissance. (2018, March 14). Retrieved from https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/new-african-american-identity-harlem-renaissance
Get the facts about women in the arts. (2020, July 22). Retrieved from https://nmwa.org/support/advocacy/get-facts/
Lee, P. (2016, September 7). The history of the Black Arts movement. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/black-arts-movement-art
Pollard, S. (Director). (2021). Black Art: In the Absence of Light. HBO.
Robinson, S. (2018, November 27). A very abbreviated version of black art history. Retrieved from https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2018/11/20/a-very-abbreviated-version-of-black-art-history/
Two centuries of Black American Art. (2010, December 28). Retrieved from https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/two-centuries-black-american-art