I fear a world without art
#CaptionedBlackArt | Thursdaysº
Captioned Black Art
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“Out under the moon and the stars, alone with his son that eighth night, Omoro completed the naming ritual. Carrying little Kunta in his strong arms, he walked to the edge of the village, lifted his baby up with his face to the heavens, and said softly, ‘Fend kiling dorong leh warrata ka iteh tee.’ (Behold—the only thing greater than yourself.)”
– Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family
A Snippet:
Did you know that it is commonly thought that Dr. Carter G. Woodson selected February for Negro History Week—which would eventually become Black History Month—to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping Black history)?
Learn more (and find out who those two great Americans were) . . .
46. “Kid Ike” (2006)
“I loved when I walked into LACMA as a kid and seeing Kerry James Marshall's grand barbershop painting. But it was thrown into very sharp relief when thinking about the absence of other black images in that museum.”
— Kehinde Wiley
Did you know?
Did you know that, in 2017, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley were selected by former President Barack Obama (Wiley) and former First Lady Michelle Obama (Sherald) to paint their official portraits, becoming the first African-Americans ever to receive presidential portrait commissions from the National Portrait Gallery?
In Kehinde Wiley’s own words, “I grew up in South Central Los Angeles in the late 80’s and was very much a part of the environment that was driven by some of the defining elements of hip-hop: the violence, anti-social behavior, streets on fire.”
“I was fortunate because my mother was very much focused on getting me, my twin brother, and other siblings out of the hood. On weekends I would go to art classes at a conservatory. After school, we were on lockdown. It was something I hated, obviously, but in the end it was a lifesaver.”
“In art school, I just liked being able to make stuff look like other stuff. It made me feel important.”
“As an undergrad at the Art Institute of San Francisco, I really honed in on the technical aspects of painting and being a masterful painter. And then at Yale it became much more about arguments surrounding identity, gender and sexuality, painting as a political act.”
47. “De Style” (1993)
“I gave up on the idea of making art a long time ago, because I wanted to know how to make paintings; but once I came to know that, reconsidering the question of what art is returned as a critical issue.”
— Kerry James Marshall
Did you know?
Did you know that, in 2018, disgraced hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs was revealed as the buyer of a Kerry James Marshall painting (“Past Times”) that fetched $21.1m at auction through Sotheby’s—the sum believed to be the highest sale price ever paid for a work by a living African-American artist?
Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, having moved in childhood to South Central Los Angeles. He received his BFA from the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1978, where years later he would be awarded an honorary doctorate (in 1999).
Marshall has taught painting at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago and, in 1997, was awarded the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, typically referred to as the “Genius Grant.”
In 2017, Marshall was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.
48. “Beulah’s World” (1968)
“In the late 1940s, I met black artists for the first time: Al Hollingsworth and Earl Hill. Earl Hill used to have life drawing sessions at his Bronx studio. Al Hollingsworth was a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist. He was a graduate of Music and Art High School and had been making a living as a syndicated cartoonist since he was twelve years old.”
— Faith Ringgold (on Al Hollingsworth and Earl Hill)
Did you know?
Did you know that Earl Hill, born in New York in 1927, spent much of his youth in Bells Mill, a small town in rural Virginia, but returned to New York in order to attend New York University, where he studied art with influential Black artist and educator Hale Woodruff?
Earl Hill graduated in 1951 with a degree in education and went on to obtain his master’s degree from the City College of New York in 1960.
Hill taught art appreciation in public schools in New York, Baltimore, and the Virgin Islands.
His work from the 1960s emphasizes the humanity of everyday individuals, featuring figures engaged in everyday activities: such as gardening, sitting, or thinking.
Earl Hill retired from teaching in 1984, and went on to be with the Lord from his home in Freeport, New York. He was only 57 years old.
Now ain’t the time to fade
(Breathe In . . . Breathe Out)
I fear a world without art
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