Pause a while
#CaptionedBlackArt | Thursdaysº
Captioned Black Art
Your Curated Art Museum
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“We’re taking a stand. The students at West Charleston High School are no longer sitting idly by while our school slides down the academic gutter. You can try to take our band and our library and our drama and our teachers away, but you can’t take our souls. And our souls will never let the powers that be take the arts from us. Our souls are on fire.”
— Kwame Alexander, He Said, She Said
A Snippet:
Did you know that American author Kwame Alexander not only gets down with the word and pen, but also with aromas, forks, knives, and spoons?
For delicious proof, in May 2021, Kwame Alexander contributed a 4.5 star-rated recipe to Bon Appétit magazine, entitled, “Barbara’s Picnic Fried Chicken”—named after his late mother, Barbara.
Learn more (and get the recipe below):
208. “Dance Composition No. 35” (1978)
“The idea is to get someone to try and pause a while. Try to just get them to stay with that painting . . . don't just burst past it. That's the idea.”
— Eldzier Cortor
Did you know?
Did you know that Eldzier Cortor (born in Richmond, Virginia, and raised in Chicago, Illinois) was a painter and master printmaker best known for his celebratory depictions of African-American women?
Eldzier Cortor studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the 1930s worked as an easel painter for the Works Project Administration (WPA), depicting the lives of African Americans in Chicago’s South Side, helping to establish the SouthSide Community Art Center.
In the 1940s, two separate fellowships from the Rosenwald Foundation allowed Cortor to study on the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina, where he found inspiration in painting the island’s African American inhabitants, the Gullah.
Focused primarily on the female figure, Cortor once stated, “The Black woman represents the Black race.”
209. “Golden”
“Machine learning seems futuristic but, strange to say, it helps artists like me to rediscover humanity.”
— Dr. Nettrice Gaskins
Did you know?
Did you know that Dr. Nettrice R. Gaskins is an African American digital artist (with a doctorate in Digital Media) who uses AI-generated images to create stunning portraits of famous Black figures?
In her work, Dr. Gaskins explores, “Techno-vernacular creativity” and “Afrofuturism.”
Dr. Gaskins earned a BFA in Computer Graphics with Honors from Pratt Institute in 1992, an MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994, and her doctorate in Digital Media from Georgia Tech in 2014.
Dr. Gaskins is a 2021 Ford Global Fellow and the assistant director of the Lesley STEAM Learning Lab at Lesley University, as well as an advisory board member for the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech.
210. “Philis III” (2023)
“Art is the only way I know how to speak and air my opinion.”
— Oliver Okolo
Did you know?
Did you know that Oliver Okolo has emerged as one of the most exciting artists working out of Nigeria, whose portrayal of Black people in confident and assertive gazes challenges racism?
Born in an agricultural area of Central Nigeria in 1992, Oliver Okolo uses charcoal and paint to capture the subjects of his striking portraits.
He refers to his practice as, “classical contemporealism,” a term meant to reflect his blending of classical and contemporary styles.
Nigerian artists, Clement Nwafor and Barry Yusufu, in addition to Ghanaian artist, Amoako Boafo, are a few of Oliver Okolo’s many creative influences.
Don’t just burst past it
(Breathe In . . . Breathe Out)
Pause a while
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