African American Art Harlem Renaissance Civil Rights Era and Beyond by Rj Powell

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African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond.
Book by Richard J Powell and Virginia Mecklenburg.
Published in … Read more African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond.
Book by Richard J Powell and Virginia Mecklenburg.
Published in conjunction with the related exhibition, on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, April 27, 2012 through September 3, 2012.
African American Art Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond offers a rich vision twentieth-century visual culture. An essay by Richard Powell sets the stage: his analyses of works by Sargent Johnson, Reńee Stout, Elder Cortor, and Alma Thomas give the reader a rubric for considering other works that range from Harlem Renaissance to the decades beyond the civil rights era, a period that saw tremendous social and political change. The forty-three artists include here worked in every style current during those decades, from documentary realism to abstraction, from expressionism to postmodern assemblage. They consistently touch universal themes, tut they also evoke specific aspects of the African American experience- the African diaspora, Jazz, and the persistence power of religion.

Virginia Mecklenburg assembled engaging entries on the one-hundred paintings, sculptures, and photographs by forty-three black artists that comprise the catalogue of this exhibition. All of the artists in the exhibition are drawn from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's rich collection of African American art. More than half of the featured works including paintings by Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, and Loïs Mailou Jones, and photographs by Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, Roland Freeman, and Marilyn Nance, are being exhibited and circulated by the museum for the first time; ten works are recent acquisitions.
A beautifully illustrated survey of African American art of the twentieth century, including many never-before-seen works by the most important artists of the period. African American Art presents a powerful selection of paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs by forty-three black artists who explored the African American experience of the twentieth century. Embracing many universal themes and also evoking specific aspects of the African American experience such as the African diaspora, jazz, and the power of religion, the artists worked in styles as varied as documentary realism, abstraction, and postmodern assemblage of found objects. Drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's rich collection of African American art, the works include paintings by Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, Thornton Dial Sr., Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, and Lois Mailou Jones, and photographs by Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, Roland Freeman, Marilyn Nance, and James Van Der Zee. More than half of the artworks in the exhibition are being shown for the first time. In Richard Powell's text, his usual keen insights into meaning and metaphor enrich the reader's understanding of the artworks in their historical setting and contemporary culture." from the Publisher's website.
Published by Skira, Rizzoli, 2012.
Paperback.Oversized softcover in printed wraps.
Dimensions: Folio (12.25 x 1 x 10.25 inches)
Condition: Good, Clean text free of marks.
Gorgeous exhibit catalog printed on thick heavy paper.
255 pp. See less