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Home , Candida Alvarez, David Antonio Cruz, Jack Whitten, Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Kira Lynn Harris, Lois Rice

The Studio in Magazine Winter/Spring 2012 The Magazine Winter/Spring 2012 The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine Winter/Spring 2012 The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine Winter/Spring 2012

Letter From the Director

In our recent publication, Harlem: A Century in Images, my friend and colleague Elizabeth Alexander wrote that “today’s Harlem lives ghosted by its past.” Indeed, this neighborhood and this museum are steeped in a rich and complex history that informs—but does not limit—the present, and the future.

I am reminded every day of the over one hundred artists from Charles Abramson to who, as artists in residence, created fantastic work in this building and our previous home at 2033 5th Avenue. I am aware of the incredible context that creates for our newest residents, Njideka Akunyili, Meleko Mokgosi and . I am inspired by the brilliant directors that led this institution before me, including my immediate predecessors Dr. , and Dr. . And most of all, I am exhilirated by the generations of creative luminaries that have lived, worked and created Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders in Harlem.

Our 2011–12 season coincides with the centennial of the birth of one of the brightest of those luminaries: . Over the course of The Bearden Project, an ambitious and unusual exhibition initiative overseen by Assistant Curator Lauren Haynes, we’ve asked dozens of artists to create work inspired by Bearden’s life and art. If you’ve been to the Museum or visited our exhibition site, thebeardenproject.studiomuseum.org, you know what diverse and unexpected creations make up what called “a sparkling cross-generational Bearden shout-out.” But over the course of this project we’ve discovered more than exciting new artworks. It seems that everyone has a Bearden story, and it’s been a great joy to uncover the specific and myriad ways that this iconic artist touched so many lives. I’ve heard amazing anecdotes from friends, artists, writers, visitors and Museum staff detailing how Bearden encouraged them personally or through his art.

You can read some of these stories on the exhibition site and Studio Blog, and I invite you to share your Bearden story! Email thebeardenproject@ studiomuseum.org to add to our growing archive.

I feel so lucky to live and work in a place where extraordinary ghosts mingle with longtime habitués and emerging creative talents. I’ll see you around, and definitely uptown.

Thelma Golden Director and Chief Curator Winter/Spring 2012 2 What’s New Recent Acquisition

Hurvin Anderson Mrs. S. Keita – Turquoise, 2010 Museum purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition Committee 11.1.2 Museum Features

What’s Up?: Exhibition Schedule 04 Surrealism in the Caribbean 58 The Bearden Project: 06 Meet the AIRs 62 Celebrating an Icon Studio Visit: Crystal Z. Campbell 66 Spring Preview: Caribbean: 12 In Conversation: and 70 Crossroads of the World Naima J. Keith Kira Lynn Harris: Drawing on Bearden 14 Aesthetic of the Cool 74 Collected. Ritual 17 Who, What, Wear 18 VideoStudio: Rodney McMillian / 22 Studio Jr. Spring Preview: 24

Spring Preview: Shift 26 Narrative Art with Pat Cummings 78 Bearden Plays Bearden 27 Studio Lab 30 Harlem Postcards 34 Spotlight on Education: Group Tours 38 Spotlight on Education: Arts & Minds 39 Friends Spotlight on Education: 40 ETW Interview Gala 2011 84 The Art of Participation 41 Wein Prize Honoree 88 Member List 89 Supporter List 94 Beyond Membership Info and Form 97 Visitor Info 100 Elsewhere 45 A Beautiful Thing 49 Blackpower Mixtape 50 If You Like 52 Review: Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader 55 Remembering Ruth Williams 56 Winter/Spring 2012 4 Museum Museum 5 What’s Up? Exhibition Schedule Winter/Spring 2012

Check studiomuseum.org for the latest on our exhibitions and programs

November 10, 2011–March 11, 2012 The Bearden Project VideoStudio: Rodney McMillian / Robin Rhode

Kehinde Wiley Collected. Ritual Conspicuous Fraud Series #1 (Eminence), 2001 Museum purchase November 10, 2011–May 27, 2012 made possible by a gift from Anne Kira Lynn Harris: The Block | Bellona Ehrenkranz 02.10.14 Who, What, Wear: Selections from the Permanent Collection

March 29–May 27, 2012 Shift: Projects | Perspectives | Directions Ralph Lemon

Always on View Harlem Postcards : Give Us A Poem : Untitled (Flamingo George) Winter/Spring 2012 6 The Bearden Celebrating Project an Icon

by Lauren Haynes, Assistant Curator

In honor of the centennial celebra- tion of Romare Bearden’s birth, the Studio Museum is inviting artists to create new works of art inspired, influenced or informed by the life and work of one of the most impor- tant artists of the twentieth century. The Museum is sharing these works with the public through The Bearden Project, a dynamic exhibition initiative that will grow and change throughout the centennial year.

Though they represent a broad range of stylistic vantage points and work in a variety of media, all of the artists in The Bearden Project have been impacted by Bearden’s legacy. Some of the artists in the exhibition, including Charles Gaines, Faith Ring- gold and , knew him. Others attended lectures and talks given by him when they were young artists just beginning their careers, and still others never met him, but closely studied his work. Bearden was one of the first black artists that many people—not just the artists in this exhibition—ever encountered, and his legacy continues to have a vital presence. Below is a sampling of statements that the participating artists wrote in response to their

Nzuji De Magalhães involvement in The Bearden Project. Give Me the Strength, 2011 Courtesy the artist Nzuji De Magalhães Born 1976, Luanda, Angola Lives and works in Costa Mesa, CA

Romare Bearden’s work dealt with Opposite the occurrences of his own time and Stacy Lynn Waddell space. The struggles and joys were No Place Like (detail), 2011 Courtesy the artist critical moments that he poignantly

Winter/Spring 2012 8

The Bearden Celebrating Project an Icon

captured and transcribed in his His attention to materials transcend- pieces. Equipped with his vision, ed the medium, and there are times technique and statuesque when I really believe that I am no figures, he documented events now longer looking at a collage, but at accepted as part of black history. a relief or even a . He is an artist that I have looked to in Give Me the Strength is a piece my own work, and he continues to that represents Bearden’s imagery. inspire me, as I know he continues The woman reflects on her past, to inspire new generations. present and legacy, which hopefully she will leave behind for her future. Nicole Miller This woman has a humble, “church Born 1982, Tuscon, AZ lady”–like appeal, filled with sym- Lives and works in bolic entities engraved in her attire. , CA In her head, she carries the burden of her ancestors’ long and painful Layers of images reveal to me a sense past, while her jacket is covered of process in Bearden’s work. I can with the mended patches of for- visualize his thoughts through images gotten history found later in life. intertwined between subjectivity and Bearden’s approach of collecting the iconic. They seem to say, “Things Kori Newkirk and adding mementos in his work are complicated, but I am piecing Untitled, 2011 spoke of the people around his com- them together.” Bearden was both a Courtesy the artist munity. Today, his work continues witness and a creator—an example to represent many of these same of the artist’s place in the “call and The rock. Does it form the founda- realities and Give Me the Strength response” dance between maker and tion as it shatters the window? embodies his legacy of honor and viewer, back and forth again. The paper. and communal. humble admiration for future artists Light as a feather, heavy as lead, to follow. Kori Newkirk history on its surface. Born 1970, Bronx, NY Wayne Hodge Lives and works in The scissors. Cold and sharp, a slice Born 1976, Roanoke, VA Los Angeles, CA a cut. The microphone forged from Lives and works in Harlem, NY a weapon and tool. The clear-eyed crystalline fracture The genius of Bearden is the way of blackness. The burden and the Urgent beats on a drum to urgent in which he constructed worlds of privilege of it all. digital beats remixed and sampled amazing depth and form. I am always to create anew. amazed to see an original work, as I Tapped into the inner mad scientist, get lost in the many layers of the im- Dr. Frankenstein, truth and storyteller. The hand that caresses raised age. He is both a master storyteller A whisper in your ear, a shout from into a fist. and grand architect. the hills and the rooftop. . . cause an His worlds are both mirrors and echo that never fades but returns Who is holding the mirror and who X-rays of our own that fantastically as fierce as ever. is reflected back? There is no fire render things that are familiar. next time . . . the fire is now. Museum 9

The Bearden Celebrating Project an Icon

Robert Pruitt American life that was different from Born 1975, Washington, DC my time and space, yet so hauntingly Lives and works in Houston, TX familiar. Seeing his work today reminds me of how nostalgia for a I have always found great value in time long past for Romare Bearden’s engagement with is almost always a double-edged the Group artist collective. sword. One can almost hear jazz This group grew out of, and respond- musicians practicing scales in those ed to, the politics around race in packed urban scenes through the its moment. The collective emulated sharp scale shifts of cut magazine similar movements and groups of images and Color-aid paper. The its time, but as an artist group, it figures have a familiar swagger and laid the groundwork for many of style. Joy and poverty are not con- the cultural and social organizations tradictory, nor is beauty passive. In I am personally fond of: AfriCOBRA, other works, black figures find them- the Black Arts Movement, the selves the subjects of quintessen- AACM, etc. His involvement with tially Western romantic narratives. this collective suggested to me an investment in community and a I am extremely inspired by Bearden need to communicate the varied and as a maker of things, for all his touch- complex black condition. His own es, rips and cuts, each one never to work, particularly the and be replicated. However, what really , seem to mirror this hits me in the gut is his works’ long need to disseminate and transmit standing as some of the relatively our multitude of experiences. Within few (even today) representations of those layers of jumbled images and the black presence in our major in- faces are echoes of a diverse but stitutions of art—bold, romantic and shared account, and it is this method non-subjugated black presences. of storytelling that I have found the most influential. Born 1956, Los Angeles, CA William Villalongo Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA Born 1975, Hollywood, FL Lives and works in , NY I recall Romare Bearden’s The Robert Pruitt Conjuring Prevalence of Ritual catalogue Woman, 2011 My high school art classes intro- having a place of reverence in our Courtesy the artist duced me to Romare Bearden’s work. home. I was in high school at the At that point, he was one of the few time, struggling with the things African-American artists I had ever sixteen-year-olds struggle with and heard of. I remember being struck his work helped me make sense of with awe, as if some metaphysical my identity. The strength of family, force was allowing me a glimpse the shared rituals of food, music and into the past to a vision of African- dance, all took on a new importance. Winter/Spring 2012 10 Museum 11

The Bearden Celebrating Project an Icon

I was immediately enamored with I was nine or ten. We saw his work his art and hence spent a good deal at The Studio Museum in Harlem of my first years in college emulat- and later at the Whitney Museum ing his work. Sadly I never had the of American Art. Romare Bearden opportunity to meet Bearden, but I came into my conciousness before continue to be thrilled every time Michelangelo, before Picasso, before I get to see one of his gems in de Kooning, Ryman, Wittgenstein or “the flesh.” Cronenberg. He SEEMED so impor- tant. My grandmother thought so. Shinique Smith The thought so. Maybe he Born 1971, Baltimore, MD was too important. I couldn’t fathom Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY it back then. And now I still cannot. How did he stomach his role as the My earliest memories of looking of the American at art, seriously and intently, come art world? And where did he put all from when I was a child growing the bits of himself that could not be up in Baltimore. I spent hours star- accepted as part of the so-called ing at reproductions of Romare “African-American experience”? And Alison Saar Bearden’s work that my grandmother if each Bearden-bit is, in some sense, Bain Froid, 2011 Courtesy the artist had on her walls. She loved him and a separate and distinct Bearden then we would make special trips to the how might you rank and number to “see the these bits? With what bit would you Beardens.” She would talk about his start and conclude? Would you end work and say his name with a certain with Bearden’s death or his legend? deep tone and joyful inflection—I If you ended with his legend, how could feel that the images affected would you conclude it? her deeply. They held the same patterns, the same cloth of our sur- roundings. He had captured life’s joys, hardships and common quiet with a whimsy that made it all seem beautiful. She decorated her home with him and filled my mind with fabrics and collage, and he filled my heart with a romance for the figure and the everyday. This work is dedicated to memory of them both.

William Pope.L Born 1955, Newark, NJ Lives and works in Chicago, IL Opposite Brenna Youngblood It’s On! (again and My grandmother introduced me to again) (detail), 2011 Courtesy the artist the work of Romare Bearden when Winter/Spring 2012 12 Spring Caribbean: Crossroads Preview of the World

by Katherine Finerty, Curatorial Intern

Groundbreaking in scope and shaping Caribbean expression. collaborative nature, Caribbean: While the influences of Spanish, Crossroads of the World will explore French, Dutch, English and both historic and contemporary art South and East Asian societies will related to the Caribbean and its be thoroughly explored, Caribbean modern history, acknowledging ultimately seeks to stress the impact the region’s diversity of voices to of indigenous and African cultures reveal a truly diasporic vision. As on Caribbean identity. a joint project between El Museo del Six years in the making, Carib- Barrio, the Queens Museum of Art bean’s multi-venue exhibitions and and The Studio Museum in Harlem, citywide programs will be open this exhibition will expand both to the public starting in June 2012. historical and visual representations This project’s ambition is further of the Caribbean, ultimately portray- exemplified by the extensive com- ing the region as a confluence of mitment and cooperation of an multiple cultures. By revealing the unprecedented number of curators, interconnections between internal scholars and staff members contrib- Arnaldo Roche Rabell and external cultural influences, uting to the development of a We Have to Dream in Blue, 1986 Caribbean seeks to make new links momentous publication, school Collection of John Belk between traditional and evolving curriculum and comprehensive and Margarita Serapion Courtesy Walter art aesthetics, as well as diverse symposia relating to the exhibition Otero Gallery, museum audiences. themes. The principal curators, ex- San Juan, Puerto Rico All three venues for the exhibition perts and art historians include are situated in urban communities Edward Sullivan (on twentieth-centu- that have many people of Caribbean ry Latin American art), Gerald Alexis origin or descent, a population that (on Haitian art), Virginia Perez-Ratton has developed largely through (on Anglophone Caribbean art), immigration and cultural exchange. Lowery Stokes Sims (on Cuban and These settings endow this exhibition American art) and Yolanda Wood with unique local relevance, in Pujols (on Caribbean and Cuban art). addition to global breadth and Each museum will approach two dis- impact. United by their parallel tinct themes: “People” and “Places.” missions of progressive, creative At El Museo, Patriot Acts will investi- representation and local outreach, gate the complex formations of na- El Museo, the Queens Museum and tional and local identities within the the Studio Museum will present paradoxical landscape and waters of distinct but interrelated exhibi- the Caribbean, and Counterpoints tions empowering indigenous and will juxtapose models of coloniza- diasporic voices. Through dynamic tion with the sharply contrasted theoretical, art historical and exhibi- outcomes of social, economic and tionary frameworks, each museum political development. The Queens will investigate the variety of inter- Museum will present Kingdoms of national cultures that have served This World to address the transcul- as both impositions and inspirations turation resulting from European Museum 13

Spring Preview Caribbean: Crossroads of the World

contact and conquest, highlighting a selection tackling the demoniza- stereotypes of the past and present, how performance, spirituality and tion of black people since the Haitian the Studio Museum aims to enable the body came to serve as modes of Revolution—a phenomenon that has contemporary artistic visions to cre- survival, resistance and celebration fueled the myth of the inherently ate a nuanced and empowered rep- that can still be seen today in violent black man that our society resentation of the Caribbean today. aesthetic forms such as Carnival. still faces. Using , abolition- Caribbean: Crossroads of the Fluid Motions will explore the literal ism and the Haitian Revolution as World seeks to be as diverse as the and symbolic significance of the wa- historical foundations, the exhibition rich cultural history of the Caribbean ter framing the Caribbean as a point will explore cultural manifestations itself. By examining notions of “hy- of constant encounter and move- and confrontations of this stigma in bridity” through the region’s trans- ment. Departing from this history, modern ideologies such as the New nationalism and cross-fertilization, Fluid Motions will also interrogate Negro, Negritude and postcolonial- the creative expression presented how the region is currently framed as ism. This theme will be expanded will break borders and establish new a “paradise of disguise”—an idealiza- through Land of the Outlaw, which routes for a more fluid understand- tion of luxury, bliss and tourism confronts the conjured aesthetic of ing and appreciation of the Carib- that ominously conceals the tragic danger and fear originally perpetu- bean within global culture. truths of economic, political and ated by outlaw slave traders and social corruption. treasure seekers who represented Finally, at The Studio Museum black people as ruthless devils, zom- in Harlem the theme of “People” will bies and sorceresses. By confronting be represented in Shades of History, these disturbing and rampant racial

Alexandre Arrechea White Corner (Esquina Blanco), 2006 Collection of , NY Winter/Spring 2012 14 Kira Lynn Drawing on Harris Bearden

by Lauren Haynes, Assistant Curator

For the Studio Museum’s newest I began looking for antecedents, and LH: Does your installation focus on installation in the Project Space, while I was able to find art by white any particular parts of The Block or interdisciplinary artist Kira Lynn Har- women artists with a little digging, the whole thing? ris has created The Block | Bellona, finding evidence of African-American a reimagining of Romare Bearden’s artists proved more challenging. KLH: I look at various sections, not The Block (1971), his iconic, six-panel, Finally, one day I happened to be necessarily in the same layout as the eighteen-foot-long collage depict- hanging around the art studios as art original. However, as light is one of ing life in Harlem. In honor of this students do and, leafing through a the main investigations of my prac- installation, Assistant Curator Lauren random art magazine, I came across tice, I hope to integrate that crazy Haynes posed a series of questions a feature article on Bearden. He was oversized light bulb. That’s a bit more to Harris about her installation and the first professional African-Ameri- literal than I tend to get, but I also like her experiences with Bearden’s art. can artist I learned about. I later trans- that it’s as much a nod to Picasso’s ferred to University of California at Guernica (1937) as a way to incor- Lauren Haynes: Why did you choose Santa Cruz, where I made such a proj- porate one of my main interests in a to do a Project Space installation ect of researching women artists and space in which light will be notable about Romare Bearden? And why African-American artists and, by ex- mostly for its absence. focus on The Block specifically? tension, feminism and black history. My fellow students became genuinely LH: What was your first experience Kira Lynn Harris: Using The Block confused as to my actual major. using chalk? What made you want as a touchstone seemed natural to work in that medium? in terms of my own work and art In graduate school at CalArts, this practice. Most, if not all, of my work developed into the study of critical KLH: I honestly don’t even remember addresses architectural spaces and studies and postcolonial theory. my first encounter with chalk! Almost the phenomenology of those spaces. Ironically, rather than making these certainly it was as a child in kindergar- I’ve also created several works that investigations the focus of my own ten. That being said, who didn’t want center on Harlem, my home since art practice, I instead became ever to be able to write on the classroom fall 1998. Those works include sound, more concerned with formal issues, chalkboard when young? Of course, video and photographic pieces, all subjective experience and the phe- a lot of kids now know only dry erase investigating some aspect of Harlem nomenological. Somehow, knowing and Smart boards. So anyway, chalk as a lived aesthetic experience. What the richness and variety of art- certainly resonates with childhood is different here is working with build- making by African Americans and and learning in many ways. More ing exteriors, rather than my usual other marginalized artists helped central to my own practice, however, interior spaces. me feel free to investigate issues is the ephemerality of the medium. other than those addressing what Most of my work is site-specific, LH: When was your first experience Walter Mosley dubbed “the nature experiential and fleeting—requiring with Bearden’s work? of our own chains.” 1 Instead, my the viewer to actually be present work enters into territory usually to see the piece at all. Such transient KLH: My first encounter with Bearden deemed the “universal,” territory work also carries with it an inherent and his work was during my under- almost always reserved for the urgency in anticipation of its loss. grad years at Occidental College in “universal” subject/artist—an artist

Los Angeles. I’d recently decided to described by artist Adrian Piper, Opposite major in art and realized it might be in an incredibly funny riff, as the Kira Lynn Harris: The Block | Bellona a very tough go as a profession for “het WASP male, the pampered (installation view), 2011 anyone, especially a woman of color. only son of doting parents.” 2 Photo: Adam Reich Museum 15 Winter/Spring 2012 16

Kira Lynn Drawing on Harris Bearden

Kira Lynn Harris was born and raised in Los Angeles, received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1998 and completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1999. In addition to a 2001–02 residency at the Studio Museum, Harris has held residencies at the Center for Photography in Wood- stock, New York; Omi International Art Center in Ghent, New York; and the Lower Cultural Council. Her work has been shown at institutions across the world, including the CUE Art Foundation in New York (2009), Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2007), Delaware Center for Contemporary Art (2006), MoMA PS1 in New York (2005) and the Studio Museum. Harris lives and works in Harlem.

The Project Space is a dynamic loca- tion dedicated to site-specific works Kira Lynn Harris installing LH: Science fiction is a big aspect and projects at the Studio Museum. The Block | Bellona, 2011 Photo: Seger Bonnebakker of your practice. Are there any This facet of the Museum’s exhibition sci-fi elements in your Project program continues our commitment Space installation? to activating multiple architectural sites throughout the building—such KLH: Yes, absolutely there are sci-fi as the lobby, atrium and façade—that references, both implicit and explicit, provide artists with laboratories for specifically to the work of Harlem innovative contemporary art projects. native Samuel Delany, whose writings The Project Space was inaugurated range from speculative fiction to in 2006 with Equalizer, an installation critical essays to memoirs and letters. by Odili Donald Odita and, in 2008, My interest in Delany’s work has to featured Like it Like that, an installa- do with his exploration of themes tion by Shinique Smith. such as perception, memory, mythol- ogy and language. Like my choice of 1 Walter Mosely, “Black to the Future” The Block, referencing New York Times, November 30, 1999 The Block | Bellona is generously supported by the work of Delany, as I also did in 2 Adrian Piper, “Some Very FORWARD Remarks” a grant from the Lambent an installation at CUE Art Foundation in Out of Order, Out of Sight: Selected Writings Foundation Fund of Tides in Art Criticism 1967–1992 (Cambridge: MIT Foundation. in 2009, seems natural. Press, 1996), XXXV. Museum 17 Collected. Ritual

by Naima J. Keith, Assistant Curator

Collected. Ritual explores the perfor- traditionally non-artistic materials are process, Saar transformed objects mative and process-oriented aspects combined into three-dimensional by investing them with alternative of making art and examines ritual structures—to create both small narratives—effectively ritualizing as an act of special—and sometimes pieces resembling shrines and large them. The completed art became mythical—significance. The works scale installations. While attending remnants of this ritual experience. in this exhibition were chosen for the National Conference of Artists For others, such as William Pope.L the artists’ innovative engagement in Chicago in 1970, Saar and artist (b. 1955), ritual layering is an evident with ritual, whether through artistic (b. 1943) visited the artistic process. Since 1978, practices that use symbolic actions, Field Museum’s African art collection. Pope.L has staged more than forty or the day-to-day act of art making The spiritual power and cumulative “crawls,” in which the artist literally itself. This exhibition, organized by aesthetic of several African ritual art crawls through city streets on Assistant Curator Naima J. Keith, traditions inspired Saar to produce his belly, back, hands, and knees explores the connections between what she regards as her “ancestral in an attempt to draw attention to art and ritual through twenty-five works,” which mimicked African the plight of those members of works of art from the permanent col- processes of accumulation and society who are least empowered. lection, that span the last thirty years. ritualization. For many artists, the His “Skin Set Drawings,” rife with For many artists, including Betye 1960s and 1970s brought a renewed complexity and humor, speak to Saar (b. 1926), interest in ritual and interest in African art. Saar felt a broader, frailer human questions on spirituality led to experimentations stronger connection to an ances- prejudice and racism, which Pope.L with collage and assemblage, tral past and in later years sought frequently addresses. As the artist including visual musings on African, to capture emotional and spiritual put it: “I believe art re-ritualizes Caribbean and African-American power in her artistic process through the everyday to reveal something mysticism. Since the 1960s, Saar symbolic steps she called her fresh about our lives.” has used assemblage—in which “ritual.” Through this predetermined

Betye Saar Window of Ancient Sirens, 1979; Gift of Wynn and Sally Kramarsky, New York 82.6.1

The Studio Museum in Harlem’s permanent collection is supported with public funds from the following government agencies and elected representatives:

The Department of Cultural Affairs; New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; The City of New York; and Council Member Inez E. Dickens, 9th Council District, Speaker Christine Quinn and the New York City Council. Winter/Spring 2012 18 Who, What, Selections from the Wear Permanent Collection

by Lauren Haynes, Assistant Curator and Naima J. Keith, Assistant Curator

Who, What, Wear: Selections from In Samuel Fosso’s Self Portrait, the the Permanent Collection looks at young artist is posed in a tight shirt, evolutions in self-expression, fashion, dark glasses and high-waisted pants. artistic technique and societal ideals He isn’t looking into the camera, of beauty, as seen through the Studio but is focused on an imaginary point Museum’s permanent collection. in space, like a controlled dancer. Organized by Assistant Curators He stands in front of a gray back- Lauren Haynes and Naima J. Keith, drop; the technical setup of his and on view through May 27, 2012, indoor studio is indicated by vertical Who, What, Wear seeks to examine rows of studio lamps made from tin how style mediates the self and cooking pots. Fosso described the in- the world, and how outward attire tention behind his self-portraits as an mirrors inner taste while consistently attempt to stage himself as part of a reflecting the complicated time and cosmopolitan pop culture. He want- places in which we live. For Studio, ed to show how good he looked, and the curators reflect on four of the this photograph does not disappoint. artworks in the show. Interestingly, Fosso never intended

1 Samuel Fosso Self Portrait, 1976 Museum purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition Committee 03.10.23

1 Museum 19

Who, What, Selections from the Wear Permanent Collection

2 Barkley L. Hendricks Lawdy Mama, 1969 Gift of Stuart Liebman, in memory of Joseph B. Liebman 83.25

3 Nontskelelo “Lolo” Veleko Sibu VII from “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” series, 2003/2006 Museum purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition Committee 07.6.5

2 3

to publish these images. It was only bold portrayals of attitude and style in 1994, after French photographer capture moments of fashion following Bernard Deschamps happened upon the , presenting Fosso’s work, that they reached the his subjects as powerful icons.1 The international art world. Today, these artist painted his subject, his cousin photographs transmit far more than Kathy, in a style deeply influenced by the admittedly justified narcissistic Byzantine-era religious art, bring- intent. Fosso’s staged images reveal ing to mind images of saints, angels formal and conceptual inventiveness and the Virgin Mary. Lawdy Mama is as he experiments with his dual emblematic of Hendricks’s portrai- roles of photographer and model, ture style, which brings the fashions consistently projecting a modern and and personalities of people living international identity in his work. in urban centers during the 1960s, During a time when commercial 70s and 80s together with many photography and museum art pho- art historical styles and references, tography operate in largely separate including the gold-leaf techniques contexts, Fosso has become one found in ancient Roman and of an increasingly rare species of Byzantine iconography. Like many people who is both a photographer of Hendrick’s portraits, Lawdy and artist. Mama’s style isn’t only seen through Once described by Studio her clothes and hairstyle, but also Museum Director and Chief Cura- in her attitude and her gaze. tor as the “ First exhibited for his one-man of The Studio Museum in Harlem” show at The Studio Museum in Hendricks’s Lawdy Mama is full of Harlem in 2005, ’s “Afro style, both personal and artistic. His Muses” series comprises a suite Winter/Spring 2012 20

Who, What, Selections from the Wear Permanent Collection

of 181 colorful, quietly celebratory, watercolor portraits of men and women whimsically depicted in expression and dress. For Who, What, Wear, we decided to include one of the female diptychs from the larger series. Untitled (diptych from Afro Muses series) depicts a woman, rendered in a three-quarter pose, adorned in colorful costume with richly painted jewelry, pink lips and a somewhat fantastical hairdo. As real as she seems, she doesn’t actually exist. She grew out of Ofili’s imagination, inspired by images he spotted in magazines or on televi- sion or conjured up from subcon- scious impressions absorbed on the street or at a party. Ofili’s muse is the contemporary black woman and all her glorious countenances. The works elicit both visceral and intel- lectual responses, making the viewer complicit in the dance between the seducer and the seduced. The kids in Lolo Veleko’s “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” series ooze cool. From their choices of fash- ion to the way they pose for the cam- era (some look boldly at the viewer, others gaze shyly away), they all share a certain element of coolness. Sibu, a frequent subject in this series, has a certain style and attitude that make it possible for him to look good wearing an outfit that others might

Above and opposite Chris Ofili Untitled (diptych from Afro Muses series), 1995–2005 Gift of Anne Ehrenkranz in honor of Nancy L. Lane 06.22.1 Museum 21

Who, What, Selections from the Wear Permanent Collection

not even consider—matching pants and a jacket with bright colors over another brightly colored shirt with flowers. Veleko’s “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” series gives viewers a look into the fashions and style of the urban street scene in Johannesburg, South Africa. The artist so named the portrait series because, as she says, “other people, when they saw those people dressed up like that, would ask: ‘How can you dress up in yellow pants and a lime green jersey with stripes?’ And I thought the way I see beauty and the way I perceive beauty might be different to someone else next to me.” 2

1 Studio Museum wall text, Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool. The Studio Museum in Harlem, November 12, 2008–March 15, 2009.

2 Tracy Murinik, “Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko,” (February 2007), http://www.artthrob.co.za/07feb/ artbio.html. Accessed October 24, 2011.

The Studio Museum in Harlem’s permanent collection is supported with public funds from the following government agencies and elected representatives:

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; The City of New York; and Council Member Inez E. Dickens, 9th Council District, Speaker Christine Quinn and the New York City Council. Winter/Spring 2012 22 VideoStudio Rodney McMillian / Robin Rhode

by Thomas J. Lax, Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate

Rodney McMillian VideoStudio is an ongoing series of video and film installations inaugurated Untitled (futon) (still), 2009 in fall 2008. Organized by Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate Courtesy the artist and Thomas J. Lax, this fifth iteration of the program takes an in-depth look at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects individual works by two artists who have significantly contributed to the relationship between moving-image technology and other artistic media, including performance, drawing, and installation. Through innovative and experimental forms, both artists create new ways of engaging with contemporary ideas about society.

Rodney McMillian Untitled (futon) November 10, 2011–January 15, 2012 as a strategy, both acting before Rodney McMillian’s (b. 1969) a camera to make a recording Untitled (futon)—shot in one static for an audience, and performing take, using lo-fi equipment—depicts the discrete task of destroying the artist repeatedly stabbing a a mattress. Through a simple, futon with a knife, reducing the repetitive gesture, the artist makes mattress to a pile of cotton, which reference to the history of painting, he subsequently discards. In the substituting futon and knife-jab video, McMillian uses performance for canvas and brushstroke. Museum 23

VideoStudio Rodney McMillian / Robin Rhode

Robin Rhode Robin Rhode the young girl as she tries to ride Parabolic Bike (still), 2009–10 Parabolic Bike across a parabola formed by bricks Courtesy the artist January 19–March 11, 2012 that are continually rearranged and consistently turn her around. In this Robin Rhode’s (b. 1976) Parabolic concise video, set to music that Bike follows a child as she tries to oscillates between consonance and ride her bike across an ever-changing dissonance, the artist uses bricks curved line. To make the video, as a drawing tool and emphasizes Rhode staged aerial photographs the passing of time as shadows from the roof of his mother’s house of a tree and telephone wires shift in Johannesburg, South Africa, then across the cracked, tan ground. sequenced the images to create a stop-motion digital animation. VideoStudio: Rodney McMillian / Robin Rhode is generously supported by a grant from the The whimsical narrative depicts Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation. Winter/Spring 2012 24 Spring Preview Ralph Lemon

by Thomas J. Lax, Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate Museum 25

Spring Preview Ralph Lemon

Opposite Ralph Lemon (b. 1952) is a move- inspiration and fodder for a number Ralph Lemon, Untitled, 2008–09 ment-based artist who works in mul- of Lemon’s choreographies and Courtesy the artist tiple media including choreography, exhibitions over the past eight years, sculpture, photography, video and including Come Home Charlie Patton drawing. Trained in literature, theater (2004), (the efflorescence of) Walter and dance, Lemon founded the (2006–08) and How Can You Stay in Ralph Lemon Company in 1985 as the House All Day and Not Go Any- a touring ensemble based in dance where (2010). theater and postmodern movement. This exhibition marks an impor- In 1995, he shifted his focus and tant iteration of Lemon’s work—the established Cross Performance, a material fruition of live performance research-based company he has in a museum gallery setting. This continued to use as a platform for three-part project includes a video creating new modes of presentation installation, a suite of eight photo- through collaborations across cul- graphs and thirty drawings made tural forms and artistic disciplines. into a video animation. Together, the Lemon’s work consistently privi- exhibition transforms elements from leges the notion of artistic process. what was an intimate and shared As projects develop over several experience into a publicly accessible years, they incorporate, accumulate narrative. The works on view draw and redact elements from previous on rich cultural references, including iterations. This upcoming exhibition, science-fiction film (often used to for example, emerges from the artist’s explore the trespassing of time and ongoing work with Walter Carter place as well as aspirations for mod- (1907–2010), whom Lemon met dur- ern timelessness) and the rich histo- ing a research trip to Little Yazoo, a ry of the Mississippi Delta (emblem- historically black rural town in the atic of the American South’s racial, Mississippi Delta region where Carter economic and musical legacy). An was known as the oldest man. Lem- allegory for the possibilities and limi- on and Carter developed a friend- tations of moving between different ship that evolved into a collaboration performance contexts and cultural as Carter unexpectedly became a locations, the project asks questions partner in Lemon’s creative endeav- about translation, meaning and loss. ors. Creating performances together, What are the stakes when commu- Lemon prepared scores that varied nicating between two distinct life from task-oriented instructions to worlds? When Carter appears in the reinterpretations of movement from video and photographs, do we see science-fiction films he screened him or a symbol of him, what Lemon for Carter. In these pieces, often has described as “an imagined open performed with no audience and not space story”? How do these ideas originally meant for public viewing, test the emotional ground of filial Carter interpreted Lemon’s scores love, personal mourning and in radical and unexpected ways. This cultural memory? shared experience in turn became Winter/Spring 2012 26 Spring Preview Shift: Projects | Perspectives | Directions

by Thomas J. Lax, Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate

This spring, the Studio Museum presents Shift: Projects | Perspec- tives | Directions. Organized as a group of small exhibitions, Shift presents work in thematic group- ings, series of works by individual artists and focuses on single works of art. Drawn from both the Studio Museum’s permanent collection as well as special loans, the exhibition provides contemporary reflections on ongoing artistic ideas, themes and visions.

Tracey Moffat Invocations (10), 2000 Gift of Rena Bransten, San Francisco 03.4.18 Museum 27 Bearden Plays The Studio Museum Teams Up Bearden with Maysles Cinema

by Thomas J. Lax, Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate

Photo: Dominic Hackley On Thursday, August 11, 2011, Thomas J. Lax: Can you tell me a the Studio Museum partnered with little bit about Maysles Cinema’s Maysles Cinema for the first outdoor history and mission? film screening in the Museum Court- yard. With a set by DJ Ski Hi, a pop-up Jessica Green: The Maysles Cinema movie screen and a projector, we is a half of the Maysles Institute, a treated over 120 guests to Nelson E. community center for documentary Breen’s documentary Bearden Plays film that also houses a low-cost-to- Bearden (1981), which chronicles the free youth and adult documentary life of the Modernist master through arts education program. The Maysles groundbreaking interviews and a Institute was founded by documentary highly original form. In this Q+A, pioneer Albert Maysles, who, along the Studio Museum’s Thomas J. Lax with his brother David, codirected the sits down with Maysles Cinema’s films Salesman (1968), Gimme Shelter Jessica Green to discuss the Maysles (1970) and Grey Gardens (1976). Institute and its relationships to its various communities and partners. Winter/Spring 2012 28 Museum 29

Bearden Plays The Studio Museum Teams Up Bearden with Maysles Cinema

Opposite The Maysles Cinema is an indepen- Nelson E. Breen’s 1981 film Bearden Palm Sunday dent, nonprofit movie theater up Plays Bearden was particularly (detail), 2011 the block from the Studio Museum. timely. What drew you to this Courtesy the artist and DC Moore We primarily show documentaries, important film? Gallery, New York often followed by discussions, and performances twenty-one nights JG: I really like Breen’s film and a month. Every summer we also hit its aesthetic, for one thing. I saw the road for a series of free music the effort on the part of the Studio performances and film screenings Museum, and collectively around around the neighborhood. The Studio Harlem, to celebrate the centennial. Museum event was part of that. I thought that was beautiful and I wanted Maysles to be a part of it. TJL: What is the relationship between Without a doubt, Bearden’s work the genres of documentary film speaks to the relationship between and narrative film and Harlem as a Harlem and creativity. He embodies neighborhood and community? it and it embodies him. Indeed it’s good that there is acknowledgment JG: Harlem has been depicted to of the centennial, because he is quite great lengths in nonfiction and the inspiration, both for aficionados fiction film, so there’s a lot of mate- and for those noticing him for rial to reflect upon. I Remember the first time. Harlem (1980), Across 110th Street (1972), Alice Neel (2007), The Cool TJL: For me, the evening was a World (1964), Rezoning Harlem success because we were able to (2008) and The Black Power Mixtape get both longtime Studio Museum (2011) have all been shown at the supporters and completely new Cinema and there are many others audiences to come out on a Thursday we have yet to show. So there are evening during the summer. many opportunities to consider Har- lem at different historical moments. JG: I noticed that some of the We also host a lot of really interest- audience members seemed to ing discussions following the view- recognize, personally, some of the ings about Harlem at the Cinema artists and scholars in the film, with artists, community organizers, including Bearden. That kind of writers, performers, politicians, rootedness is, in part, what I think scholars and audience members. made the evening so special. Harlem has historically been—and And I’m really pleased that a new will continue to be—a deeply creative audience showed up, and in the community, the kind of neighbor- Studio Museum’s absolutely hood that inspires all the arts. lovely courtyard!

TJL: Because this year marks the Maysles Cinema is located at 343 . For more information, visit mayslesinstitute.org. centennial of the birth of Romare Bearden (1911–1988), screening Winter/Spring 2012 30 Studio Lab

by Thomas J. Lax, Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate

Over the past year, the curatorial team—including former Associate Curator Naomi Beckwith, Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden, Assistant Curator Lauren Haynes, Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate Thomas J. Lax, Curatorial Fellow Tasha Parker and Curatorial Assistant Abbe Schriber—organized Studio Lab, an artist-centered pro- gram for ideas in formation. Over the summer we concluded the program, organizing an Artist-Initiated Explora- tion with local artist Derrick Adams, as well as three Think Tanks with contemporary artists, Museum staff and cutting-edge academics. We organized the Think Tanks around three interrelated topics: cultural specificity, performance and socially engaged practice. Before each Think Tank, we pre- pared a concept paper describing the issue from our understanding and perspective, and posed a set of questions designed as prompts for our colleagues’ presentations. We defined culturally specific institu- tions as museums and alternative art spaces conceived of in the late 1960s both to contextualize art by individuals from historically margin- alized racial and ethnic groups and to provide a progressive model for viewers and gallery-goers to engage with art work, ideas and artists directly. Since then, desegregation, the culture wars and identity politics have shifted the place of black artists in relation to art institutions, begging the perennial institutional question: Are culturally specific institutions still necessary? Performance art emerged at a similar historical moment as Museum 31

Studio Lab

culturally specific institutions had, amples of exhibitions and projects. responding to art’s perceived sanc- As a start, here’s a short list of some tity, aspirations to material posterity of the questions we posed to our and intimate relationship to systems Think Tanks. of market valuation and exchange. Recently, museums have embraced Cultural Specificity performance through exhibitions, Should the roles and expectations collections, documentation and of culturally specific institutions be re-performance. How might perfor- different from those of other muse- mance practices by artists of African ums? Why does the Studio Museum descent shift presumptions about use the term “black art” to describe how performance is historicized and the various and open-ended ways historically mediated? In the past artists of African descent make work, decade, socially engaged artistic when ideas of “post-blackness” and practices have gained institutional “post-racial society” predominate support as Masters of Arts programs in popular discourse? Can a cultur- have been founded, edited volumes ally specific institution define its have been published and nonprofit “communities” in ways that are ex- Derrick Adams in front of silhouette projection of organizations have been built—all perimental or provisional, while still David Hammons dedicated to this artistic approach. providing reliable alliances, networks Bliz-aard Ball Sale (performance How can and should a museum sup- and nexuses for those communities? documentation, 2011) port and otherwise engage with this Courtesy the artist way of working? What are the spe- Performance cific demands of Harlem’s multiple Is performance a medium with and changing communities on this a historically determined geneal- way of working? ogy and set of concerns? Or is We designed these discussions performance an approach, a mode to be a place of critical brainstorm- of analysis, a reworking of grand ing, with no fixed outcome, to pro- historical narratives? How have ex- mote honest reflection on some of hibiting and collecting performance the most pressing issues facing mu- changed the ways contemporary seums today, for our curatorial staff, artists make work in performance? interdepartmental colleagues and Is performance inherently live and peers alike. Offering a rare opportu- time-based? Can we consider a work nity to step back from the day-to-day a “performance” in the absence of a work of organizing exhibitions, we performer or through a seemingly were able to engage ideas that we static object? will continue to share with our pub- lics through our curatorial program, Socially Engaged Practice public programs and printed matter, What is “socially engaged practice”? such as our publication imprint and Is it defined as works of art that di- Opposite David Hammons Studio magazine. The presentations rectly engage participants, through Bliz-aard Ball Sale ranged from theoretical positions the building of organizations and (Photo: ), 1983 Courtesy Tilton Gallery, NY on innovative ideas to concrete ex- institutions beyond the gallery and Winter/Spring 2012 32

Studio Lab

museum, or by the creation of referenced this work. His residency significant relationships between informed his November 2011 exhibi- artists and communities? How tion, Communicating with Shadows should museum curators, educators, (independently produced and publishers and programmers engage organized by Carmen Hammons). with artists who work in these ways? For the time-based project, he Is it important to hold on to an idea created improvisatory interpreta- of “art” that is distinct from “life”? tions—which he distinguishes Are there differences between artists from literal reenactments—of five with socially engaged practices and performances in the history of artists who make , film and postwar American and European art. with political, ethical Appropriating iconic photographic and social aspirations? documentation, Adams created two-dimensional cutouts onto which For our Artist-Initiated Explorations, he projected a light to cast a shadow we gave free rein to artists, and in which he performed. In this way, asked them to identify hypotheses to Adams’s new work ... I Just Crush further explore and develop. During a Lot (2011), for which he crushed one- to two-week-long residencies, several bags of ice into a snow-like invited artists pursued their ongo- material in a borrowed studio space, ing interests and, in different ways, stresses the material qualities of engaged with the idea of the public. ephemerality, transformation and During his residency, Derrick Adams disappearance in ways that test the (b. 1970) conducted research on institutionalization of Hammons’s David Hammons’s Bliz-aard Ball Sale anti-institutional practice. (1983), in which Hammons staged Adams describes his performance a street sale of snowballs at Cooper practice as one that “remixes and Square in the East Village after a highlights an original artistic context New York snowstorm. Adams, whose and intent, and explores new ways of multimedia practice both critiques seeing these historical works as they and makes use of media culture, pertain to current conversations.” consumerism and product place- Studio Lab seeks to follow Adams’s ment in contemporary art, extends lead, highlighting the ways muse- Hammons’s humorous critique of ums can work alongside artists to commodity culture in his sale of an contextualize and interpret historic object that would most likely not ideas and works of art according to make it home with its new owner. the exigencies of the contemporary For his exploration, Adams read art moment. historical texts, explored the site where the performance had taken Studio Lab is generously supported by the Ford Foundation. place, spoke with people who had participated in the performance and researched other artists who had Events

The Fine Art of Collecting

Collecting art isn’t just for museums! Collecting is rewarding, meaningful and fun for art enthusiasts on any budget. The Fine Art of Collecting demystifies the collecting process, putting you on the path to beginning or growing your collection of art by artists of African descent.

The Fine Art of Collecting relaunches in spring 2012! Please contact Erin Gilbert at [email protected] or 212.864.4500 x212 for details.

Leslie Hewitt Riffs on Real Time, 2008 Edition of 35 produced for the Studio Museum Benefit Print Project Courtesy the artist Winter/Spring 2012 34 Harlem Summer 2011 Postcards

Tribble & Mancenido Senetchut Floyd James Frank Tribble Expanding the Walls participant, Born 1983, Columbia, SC Born 1995 Tracey Mancenido-Tribble Kamit Preparatory Institute, Born 1980, , NY Brooklyn, NY Live and work in Jersey City, NJ Faceless, 2011 I Love You, Harlem, 2011 St. Nicholas and West . I sit here watching We created a “Found in Harlem” series focusing on the the people, calling out to them, calling for them to come commodities one finds on 125th Street—African fabrics, and read me or have a conversation, but no one comes, incense and oils, books, mix-tape-style CDs, etc.—staying no one notices me. I am faceless. clear of the corporate chain stores that are dramatically altering the landscape. We felt that it was important to document what has made, and continues to make, Harlem so unique. These individual merchants and their goods are a large part of that. I Love You, Harlem is a celebration of Harlem as a place and an idea, in both past and present. Museum 35

Harlem Summer 2011 Postcards

Phillip Pisciotta Born 1970, Bryn Mawr, PA Lives and works in New York, NY Genesis Valencia Expanding the Walls participant, What Is Won by “Continuing to Play,” Born 1993 , NYC, 2006 LaGuardia Arts High School, New York, NY This photograph was taken quickly. There is nothing canned about it. The man in the photograph lived down Hands With a Heart, 2011 the street from me. I had attempted to photograph him a number of times, but the information in the frame of I was walking along the streets of Harlem when I heard the photograph(s) didn’t quite come together. Some- the sound of drums fill the air. I made my way toward times it is helpful for an artist to stay in an area—to the music and was pleasantly surprised to find this group saturate. But other times it can make work tired and of men sitting under the Adam Clayton Powell statue stale. As luck would have it, the potential of the image on 125th Street. The group was large—men both young presented itself, and I had my camera with me. and old laughed and smiled together as their hands tapped rapidly along the drums’ surface. Their cheer was contagious; a crowd formed as the music brightened the environment. Onlookers clapped and cheered as the festive drumming brought warmth to their souls. Even I, tired as I was, tapped my feet and moved to the rhythm. I quickly brought out my camera and began to snap pictures. This is Harlem, I thought, a world of its own full of culture, color and energy. Winter/Spring 2012 36 Harlem Fall/Winter Postcards 2011–12

Noel Anderson Born 1981, Louisville, KY Lives and works in Cincinnati, OH Cheryl Donegan Kabakov Son, 2011 Born 1962, New Haven, CT Lives and works in New York, NY In 1984, Russian artist Ilya Kabakov slang-shot his cosmo- naut hero beyond Earth’s authorized reality in his famous Disassociated, 2011 piece The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment. The same year, actor Joe Morton was chased through the My paintings, with their loud colors, divergent angles streets of Harlem as an extraterrestrial nonbeing in direc- and competing layers, seem to indulge in the language tor John Sayles’s urban sci-fi classic, The Brother from of expressionism. But upon inspection, the colors Another Planet. Some twenty-seven years later, Harlem are thin, artificial; the compositions are deliberately has again become the landing strip for a “brother from unresolved; the layers do not build and cohere but drift, another planet.” I imagine Kabakov as the hero cosmo- ignore each other or clash. Despite this lack of naut, but with an illegitimate child who gets propelled conviction, a certain buoyant or even jubilant attitude back to Earth. Thrust from the fence-tangled stroller, the is communicated. For my Harlem Postcard, I focused child’s body slices space, bouncing from cool brick to on aspects of the urban landscape that beckoned me grizzled pavement. His entrance smacks with the reality with visual kismet. Zooming in on ragged or discolored of Harlem. Like ’s , Kabakov’s signage, I flagged the ripped edge, seeking reflections in child roams Harlem, searching for artistic ways to panes of glass, awning stripes and leftover duct tape. discuss the complexities of life. I saw in abstraction not essence, but artifice.

It was fun.

This image was a last-minute decision—the façade of a supermarket, its window display tattered by the abuse of the workaday, the pixels of the printed sign exposed like enlarged pores, offering up an image of fractured abundance. Museum 37

Harlem Fall/Winter Postcards 2011–12

Devin Troy Strother Born 1986, West Covina, CA Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY Mariamma Kambon Globetrotting, 2011 Born 1977, Trinidad and Tobago Lives and works in New York, NY I wanted to make a work that addresses what I already know about Harlem. For me, the Harlem Globetrotters Ebony hands on each ivory key, 2011 represent a certain kind of lineage and heritage associ- ated with black people. Harlem has been the stage for A poem by Langston Hughes brought me to Sugar Hill, many black performers, whether at the Apollo, the Dance curious about a neighborhood with a nickname so Theatre of Harlem or the Studio Museum, and has played fanciful that I never imagined it could exist. I devoured host to a slew of entertainers over the years. Every time Sugar Hill in hungry snapshots for months on end. I make a painting, I feel like I’m putting on a show within I worked a convoluted subway route to enter and leave the pictorial space. I feel a direct connection between by both day and night, so tantalized was I by the the Globetrotters and what art does: entertain and en- potential for sticky-sweet residue from the famed glory gage the viewer through a type of performance. days of the . Almost a year after I first strolled the streets of Sugar Hill, I found a resident who lives Harlem’s rich creative legacy. The elegant and hospitable Marjorie Eliot treats the public to jazz concerts at her home each weekend. Here she is paying tribute to a former bandmate at . Winter/Spring 2012 38 Spotlight on Group Tours Education

by Shanta Scott, Manager of School, Youth and Family Programs

Photo: Dominic Hackley

Last fall, kindergarten teacher Loisanne Duke: It is important that SS: What should other teachers Loisanne Duke from Thurgood my students understand their heri- know about group visits at the Marshall Academy Lower School tage and those that help create it. Studio Museum? brought twenty excited students to the Studio Museum for a guided tour SS: What did you enjoy most about LD: The museum visit can be inte- and workshop. A museum educa- the experience? grated into your classroom work, tor led students in a discussion of such as the social studies curricu- artworks in Spiral: Perspectives on LD: I enjoyed watching my students lum. We are using Romare Bearden’s an African-American Art Collective, interact with the artwork. They were artwork to address the common core and : Self/Portrait. able to make a direct connection to standards. The Museum educators Following the tour, the students the work by talking about what they provide an engaging and enriching moved into the workshop room to observed and what it meant to them. experience for the students. create artwork inspired by what they viewed in the galleries. Ms. Duke SS: What impact did the visit have To schedule a Museum visit for your class, visit studiomuseum.org/visit or contact the Education took a few moments with Manager of on your students? Department at 212.864.4500 x258. School, Youth and Family Programs School Programs at The Studio Museum in Shanta Scott to share her thoughts LD: They have learned about new Harlem are supported with public support from on the experience. artists and made connections with the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. Additional funding is provided by them. After the workshop, they Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Shanta Scott: Why did you decide walked away knowing that they, Bank, Con Edison, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Dedalus Foundation, Inc., to bring your students to the Studio too, can create art! The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Museum for a tour? Trust, Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, the May & Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc. and Wells Fargo. Museum 39 Spotlight on Arts & Minds Education

by Shanta Scott, Manager of School, Youth and Family Programs

Peek inside the galleries at the noted that there was no such pro- “In these galleries, people who are Studio Museum on a Tuesday after- gram in Harlem to which he could living with memory disorders come noon and you might see a guided refer his patients. He then partnered together to engage with art and to tour taking place, or an art-making with museum education consul- discuss matters of profound impor- workshop with lively discussion, tant Carolyn Halpin-Healy, who tance. As one gentleman who comes compelling questions, thoughtful reached out to the Studio Museum regularly to Arts & Minds said, ‘We silence and, very often, laughter. to discuss the possibility of such a can say what we feel here.’” At a time That program happens to be Arts & program—and Arts & Minds was born. in people’s lives when forming new Minds at the Studio Museum, which A pilot version of Arts & Minds at the memories has become challeng- is designed especially for people Studio Museum was successfully ing, the Studio Museum is proud to with Alzheimer’s disease and other held in spring 2010. Since then, the serve as a space where people can dementias and their care partners. programs have taken place twice a creatively engage in the present. Arts & Minds was spearheaded by month and the audience continues James Noble, Assistant Professor to grow. Arts & Minds is the first of For more information on Arts & Minds, please contact Carolyn Halpin-Healy at of Clinical Neurology at Columbia its kind uptown. [email protected]. University Medical Center. Noble was Halpin-Healy, now Executive Senior Programs are supported by Council familiar with Alzheimer’s programs Director of a new nonprofit organiza- Member Inez E. Dickens, 9th Council District and at other museums in the city, but tion, Arts & Minds, Inc. observed, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer.

Photos: Shanta Scott

Winter/Spring 2012 40 Spotlight on Expanding Education the Walls

by Gerald Leavell, Expanding the Walls/Youth Programs Coordinator

Neil Robinson Photo: Gerald Leavell Gerald Leavell: So Neil, I’m gonna way, or with many points of view. to jump right in. I was watching To have that ability of vision, I had a film called Willie Dynamite (1974) to see things from a 4-D perspective. and one of the characters said to a You have to have that extra sense, group, “You got to have visionnnnn.” not just 3-D. “Art is my inspiration to bring about What comes to your mind when you change in a way I see fit.” think of “having visionnnnn”? GL: Would you say that your vision —Neil Robinson was heightened in ETW? Neil Robinson: When I think of having Expanding the Walls: Making vision I think of the ability tocarve NR: I would say that it was tuned to a Connections Between Photography, the future. You don’t see exactly certain path. It was like a frequency. History and Community (ETW) is an what’s going to happen next, but you I had the vision, it was just identify- eight-month, photography-based feel it. Part of knowing the future is ing the right path to get to where I program for a select group of high knowing what you want out of life. want, and ETW allowed me the school students. Here, Expanding opportunity to choose the path of the Walls/Youth Programs Coordina- GL: Have you always been a person studying —a portal to get tor Gerald Leavell sits down with with vision? where I want. ETW 2011 alum Neil Robinson, who is now an intern in the Museum’s NR: I believe so. Growing up, I saw GL: Before you were interested Education Department. everything more than one standard in psychology, right? What was it Museum 41

Spotlight on Expanding Education the Walls

about ETW that helped you arrive way you see things. “Expanding the Kamau Amu Patton. Kamau did a at this new path? walls” is just another way of saying, workshop with us that helped us see “embracing the unknown.” the importance of diversity and NR: I mean, attending ETW was like understanding others, and how to attending the Xavier School for GL: What are some of the things not be brainwashed, but rather Gifted Mutants. You saw that you discovered about art, your- influenced or inspired by each everyone has unique perspectives self, people or anything during other’s ideas. about art and life. Everyone was the residency? different, but at the same time we GL: So you were part of quite an could all relate. It’s like, this is the NR: Well, I was always an A++ student eclectic and gifted group of environment that I’m getting when it came to history. It’s teenagers from all over New York. exposure to. It’s just a part of art something about having the What did you bring to and gain from history. Imagine having a career in privilege to know that something your peers? this. I could see myself doing this happened even though you weren’t and loving it and then branching off there. So I incorporated that NR: I think I brought challenging into being a curator. I want to take understanding into my art. In ETW ideas. And I learned that I’m not art history somewhat out of its we talked a lot about all types of always right. And that’s okay. tradition and expand it to the artists—Wassily Kandinsky, Hank common population. I want to be Willis Thomas, etc., and a lot about GL: What is a benefit of ETW? able to show the exact connections James VanDerZee. He’s a major part between art history and culture, and of history. I took his art, the way he NR: Endless opportunities. how it plays into everyday living. photographed things and people, and I put that in a way to show that GL: What makes ETW what it is? GL: Okay. You want to bring it to history is a form of art. No matter the people. what. The art of war. The art of NR: The people. And it’s an ongoing politics. Art is a part of everything. evolution. NR: I want to bring it to the people. And without art there’s no way to express what’s different. To me, the GL: Do you think art is a way to GL: You used the word “expand” definition of art is “different.” Artists reach the ? a few times. What does “expanding take the time out to really under- the walls” mean to you? stand what they see and ask, “Why NR: Exactly. do I have the urge to replicate or NR: “Expanding the walls” means interpret this?” For more information on Expanding the Walls, contact Gerald Leavell at 212.864.4500 x256. many things. It means training yourself to break down the walls you GL: So you’ve been exposed to many Expanding the Walls is made possible with sup- port from the New York State Council on the Arts, were taught and reconstructing different artists in ETW. Name some a state agency, Colgate-Palmolive, Dedalus Foun- better walls for more space. You artists who you worked with that dation, Inc., The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and The David Rockefeller Fund. don’t want to be contained in just draw from real life and expose their one idea or one belief just because audiences to facets of reality that you think you know a lot about it. they may not identify on their own. Why be contained when you can broaden your knowledge, develop NR: I would say Hank Willis Thomas your senses, the way you talk, the with his un-branding and re-brand- way you understand languages, the ing series, Jamel Shabazz and Winter/Spring 2012 42 Public The Art of Programs Participation

by Erin Gilbert

Saya Woolfalk’s No Place: Ritual of the Empathics The Artist’s Voice: Stephen Burks in Conversation Guests viewing the The Bearden Project (2011). (2009), performed at the Studio Museum on the with Naomi Beckwith. Photo: Liz Gwinn Photo: Scott Rudd occasion of Performa 09. Photo: Ray A. Llanos

The Studio Museum’s work doesn’t renowned collections and world- poetry and novels, from the classic stop when we hang art on the walls. class curators, conservators, apprais- literature of the Harlem Renaissance Exhibition-related programming ers and galleries. This series pools to the latest contemporary fiction. engages our audience in interpre- the resources of the Museum’s And don’t forget everyone’s tive, interdisciplinary and interactive knowledgeable staff with that of perennial favorite, Uptown Fridays! experiences. Inspired by themes other acclaimed arts professionals, Celebrate art, culture and summer in and topics in our exhibitions and and responds to an ever-evolving Harlem with neighbors and friends, permanent collection, our curators collecting market. and experience live music, fine wine, and educators create multiple op- Gallery tours are an easy way to gallery tours and more. portunities for dialogue and learning learn more about current exhibitions about art and culture. We hope you’ll from the perspective of a Museum For more information, visit studiomuseum.org. join in the discussion (and the fun!) curator or educator. Come early to at programs including The Artist’s contextualize an evening program Public Programs for Adults are made possible by support from the New York State Council on the Voice, The Fine Art of Collecting, or stop by every Saturday for a Arts, a state agency, the MetLife Foundation and walking tours of Harlem, Books + fresh perspective! an endowment established by the Ron Carter Family in memory of Studio Museum in Harlem Authors and Uptown Fridays! From cathedrals to brownstones, Trustee, Janet Carter. The Artists Voice is a series of historic sites to the latest hotspots, discussions featuring emerging, the streets of Harlem have something mid-career and established artists for everyone. Take advantage of in the Studio Museum’s exhibitions the summer weather to explore the and permanent collection. The series music, architecture, food and history investigates ideas and issues black of this vibrant, diverse and eclectic artists address today and provides neighborhood by joining local ex- context for experiencing contempo- perts on walking tours of Harlem. rary art by artists of African descent. Books + Authors explores the pow- The Museum’s signature series erful connections between visual art The Fine Art of Collecting educates a and literature in our popular series new generation of art connoisseurs, of book signings, staged readings providing them with access to and conversations about nonfiction, Museum Store 43

Museum Store

During the month of February, Studio Museum members will receive a 25% discount on all items in the Museum Store!

The incredible selection of books, clothing, handcrafted jewelry, creative gifts for children and much more is sure give everyone a chance to find something to love.

Visit the Museum Store in person or online at studiomusuem.org/shop.

Set of glasses featuring works by Donald Odili Odita, produced on the occasion of Gala 2011. Photo: Dominic Hackley Winter/Spring 2012 44 Beyond

1 Beyond 45 Elsewhere Completely Biased, Entirely Opinionated Hot Picks

by Thelma Golden Director and Chief Curator

Chicago, IL Rashid Johnson Souls of Black Folk, 2008 Courtesy the artist and Rashid Johnson: David Kordansky Gallery Message to Our Folks April 7–August 5, 2012 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) Chicago, IL mcachicago.org

Message to Our Folks is Rashid Johnson’s (b. 1977) first major museum solo exhibition to date, and includes ten years of work (with an emphasis on work made in the past five years), as well as new work commissioned by the MCA. Johnson, whose work was included in Freestyle (2001) and is in the Studio Museum’s permanent collection, is a New York–based conceptual artist questioning self-presumed notions of African- American identity. By investigating Yto Barrada Briques (Bricks), and limits of knowledge, 2003/2011 power and selfhood, often through Courtesy of Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/ the iconography of alchemy and Beirut magic, Johnson engages a complex unknown that denies true belief in black and white.

Yto Barrada: Riffs March 11–April 29, 2012 Dawoud Bey May 13–June 24, 2012 The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago Chicago, IL renaissancesociety.org

Tangiers-based artist Yto Barrada (b. 1971) exhibits Riffs, a multimedia installation that mines shifting Winter/Spring 2012 46

Elsewhere Completely Biased, Entirely Opinionated Hot Picks

politics in her North African home through a combination of documentation and metaphorical imagery. Barrada exhibited at the Studio Museum in 2010 as part of VidéoStudio: New Work from France. Riffs draws from and combines her past and present bodies of work, creating newly textured meanings.

In the spring season, the Renn also presents of a survey of work by Chicago-based photographer Dawoud Bey (b. 1953). Along with four other group exhibitions at the Studio Museum, Bey was the subject of a solo exhibition, Harlem, USA, in 2010–11, and his work is included in the permanent collection.

Los Angeles, CA

Places of Validation, Art and Progression September 29, 2011–April 1, 2012 California African American Museum Los Angeles, CA caammuseum.org

As part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, this exhibition presents relics and documentation of notable people and places that contributed to the growth of African- Noah Purifoy Watts Riot, 1966 American art in Los Angeles between Bequest of Alfred C. Darby; 1940 and 1980. David Hammons, Collection of Friends, the Foundation of the California John Outterbridge, Charles White, African American Museum Betye Saar, Watts Tower Arts Center, Courtesy the California African American Museum, St. Elmo’s Village and the Museum of Los Angeles, CA African American Art are among the artists, communities and institutions featured in this inclusive exhibition. Beyond 47

SANTA MONICA, CA , PA

Mickalene Thomas: Henry Ossawa Tanner: Origin of the Universe Modern Spirit War I. Formally, Tanner developed April 14–August 18, 2012 January 28–April 15, 2012 a style that modernized religious Santa Monica Museum of Art Academy painting, reworked French Orientalist Santa Monica, CA of the Fine Arts (PAFA) painting and photography through smmoa.org Philadelphia, PA his depictions of the Holy Land and pafa.org North Africa, and made significant This solo exhibition presents technical innovations—all of which new work from A former student of the Pennsylvania are explored in this upcoming exhibi- (b. 1971), including her collages and Academy of the Fine Arts (1879–85), tion. This exhibition is paired with other departures from her previous Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937) a scholarly publication, a landmark bodies of work. Best known for her is now recognized by his alma catalogue featuring essays by count- elaborate rhinestone portraits of mater with a traveling exhibition less notable American and French women, Thomas explores and rein- that chronicles his career and life scholars and a children’s book terprets female identity and classical as an international artist. Raised illustrated by . Follow beauty. Thomas has participated in Philadelphia following the Civil this PAFA-organized exhibition as it in several group exhibitions at the War, Tanner became a successful travels to the Cincinnati Art Museum Studio Museum, and we are so lucky expatriate painter, leading an artist’s (May 26–September 9, 2012) and to have her work as part of our colony in rural France and working Houston Museum of Fine Arts permanent collection. with the Red Cross during World (October 14, 2012–January 6, 2013).

Mickalene Thomas Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe les Trois Femmes Noires, 2010 Courtesy the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA

Henry Ossawa Tanner with palette, c. 1935 Photo: L. Matthes Henry Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s–1978, , , Washington, D.C. Winter/Spring 2012 48

Elsewhere Completely Biased, Entirely Opinionated Hot Picks

NORTH ADAMS, MA travels to Boise. Cave’s “Soundsuits,” forty of which will be on view, are : highly crafted, and at times wear- The Cartographer’s Conundrum able, sculptures that best come December 11, 2011– alive through dance. Composed October 30, 2012 ornate layering of potholders, Massachusetts Museum buttons, thrift store sweaters, of Contemporary Art sequin blouses and doilies, these (MASS MoCA) works re-beautify the cast-off North Adams, MA fashions of an older generation Sanford Biggers Constellation II, 2009 massmoca.org while simultaneously producing Courtesy MASS MoCA, a sublime armor scaled to the North Adams, MA Sanford Biggers (b. 1970) presents artist’s body. Cave’s “Soundsuits” the third of his three solo exhibitions are human-made totems that blur to debut on the East Coast in 2011 the lines between haute couture, (along with exhibitions at Sculpture- dance, music, fine art, ritual, Center in New York and the Brooklyn high craft and the repurposed Museum). The Cartographer’s Conun- everyday object. drum is inspired by the artist’s cousin, scholar, artist and Afro-futurist John Don’t miss some of our favorite Biggers (1924–2001). A longtime traveling exhibitions at their friend of and exhibitor with the Studio latest venues! Museum, Biggers here illuminates the career of his master painter relative 30 Americans while investigating the genre of March 16–July 15, 2012 Afro-futurism and its project of Chrysler Museum of Art creating a new folklore pertaining Norfolk, VA to the histories of people of color. chrysler.org

BOISE, ID Glenn Ligon: AMERICA Nick Cave February 12–June 3, 2012 Soundsuit, 2009 Nick Cave: Meet Me at Museum of Fort Worth Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman the Center of the Earth Forth Worth, TX Gallery May 19, 2012–November 4, 2012 themodern.org Boise Art Museum Boise, ID boiseartmuseum.org

Follow Nick Cave (b. 1959) to Idaho as Meet Me at the Center of the Earth, organized by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Beyond 49 A Beautiful Thing

We are so excited that Nick Cave is making Patchwork Leggings, which you can check out on his recently launched website, SoundSuitShop.com. These stretch leggings, made from a textile that depicts sewn-on buttons, embroidery and sequined fabric scraps, make Cave’s “Soundsuits” street-wearable!

Nick Cave’s Patchwork Leggings Photo: James Prinz Courtesy SoundSuitShop.com Winter/Spring 2012 50 The Black Power Mixtape

by Alexandra Schmidt, Communications Intern

Stokley Carmichael in The Black Power Mixtape: 1967–1975 the tone of the film. The Black Power The Black Power Mixtape: 1967–1975 (still), 2011 (2011) is a stunning compilation of Mixtape is not meant to present a Courtesy Lars Hjelm 16mm footage unearthed after thirty period in American history. Rather, it and Sundance Selects years in the basement of Swedish seeks to undermine our total under- National Broadcast Company. Written standing of the American story. As and directed by Göran Olsson, the Carmichael puts it, “The birth of this film includes appearances by Stokely nation was conceived of with the Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Martin genocide of the red man.” While Luther King Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, sitting in on an interview between his Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile mother and a Swedish reporter, de Antonio and Angela Davis, with Carmichael takes over and leads his additional commentary by Erykah mother to ruminate on the reasons Badu, , , for his impoverished upbringing, as Kathleen Cleaver, Robin Kelley, if to say: The problem is not that we Abiodun Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez do not have the right responses—it is and Questlove. that you choose to avoid the right The film begins with a series of questions. The crux of The Black lectures and interviews with Power Mixtape is felt most deeply in Carmichael, whose intelligent and its intimate depiction of Angela poised, yet contentious, remarks set Davis, in particular during a rare Beyond 51

The Black Power Mixtape

Göran Olsson, writer and director of The Black Power Mixtape: 1967–1975 Courtesy Göran Olsson and Sundance Selects

interview with her in prison in 1971, ment’s historicized narrative. The while she was on a hunger strike distant and neutral position of the before her murder trial. In response Swedish filmmakers—enhanced to a question, Davis lucidly says, by the film’s sleek Scandinavian “When people ask me about design—highlights America’s strong violence, I just find that absolutely hold on its own media, disinterest incredible, because what it means is in portraying an open and positive that they have absolutely no idea depiction of the Black Power what black people have gone movement, and poor international through.” Carmichael also maintains reputation during its occupation a steady calm in response to of Vietnam. In this Swedish light, questions no doubt meant to aided by footage of active Black encourage an impassioned re- Power youth education initiatives sponse. When asked by a French and community meeting centers, reporter whether he was scared of The Black Power Mixtape is an going to jail, Carmichael responds, inspiring denouncement of apathy. unblinkingly, “I was born in jail.” As put by Questlove, “The worst The Black Power Mixtape claims crime that can be committed on no other intention than to “show mankind is ignorance.” The film, America as it was seen by some the movement and its subjects Swedish filmmakers.” With that in demand that we not let that mind, the film coolly reflects on crime be our own. the American media during the civil rights movement, and investigates its resulting impact on the move- Winter/Spring 2012 52 If you like ...

by Tasha Parker, Curatorial Fellow

If you like ... Check out ...

Sam Gilliam Born 1933, Tupelo, MS Lives and works in Washington, DC Northwest Wind, 1992 Gift of Darrel Walker 02.10.1 David Antonio Cruz Born, 1974, Philadelphia, PA Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

ifelduendcealwaystravelslight,thenletthemeatcake, 2011 Courtesy the artist

If you like ... Check out ...

Barkley L. Hendricks Born 1945, Philadelphia, PA Lives and works in New London, CT Kajahl Benes Born 1985, Santa Cruz, CA Ma Petite Kumquat, 1983 Lives and works in New York, NY Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York Untitled (Moorish Olmec), 2011 Courtesy the artist Beyond 53

If you like ... Check out ...

Meschac Gaba Osi Audu Born 1961, Cotonou, Born 1959, Abraka, Lives and works in Rotterdam, Netherlands Lives and works in New York, NY

Lipstick Building, 2004 I Have A Landscape In My Head, No. 16: Workers, 2010 Museum purchase made possible by Courtesy the artist and Skoto Gallery, New York gifts from Anne Ehrenkranz, New York and Nancy Lane, New York 05.5.1

If you like ... Check out ...

Demetrius Oliver Born 1975, Brooklyn, NY Lives and works in New York, NY Abigail DeVille Born 1981, New York, NY Sidereel, 2010 Lives and works in Bronx, NY Museum purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition Committee 10.1.2 Harlem, 2009 Courtesy the artist Winter/SpringBooks 2012 54

The Bearden Project Catalogue

In conjunction with The Bearden Project, the Studio Museum will publish an exhibition catalogue featuring stunning reproductions of all of the artworks included in the show, as well as statements from the participating artists.

The catalogue will be available spring 2012, so be sure to visit the Museum Store in person or online at studiomuseum.org/shop to pick up your copy! Beyond 55 Review Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader, edited by Doro Globus

by Tasha Parker, Curatorial Fellow

If nothing else, a critical reader Naturally, some of the most affirms the place of its subject—be powerful essays in the reader were it an idea, person, place or thing— written on the occasion of Wilson’s within a discourse. Critical readers watershed 1992 exhibition Mining the create a localized experience of a Museum at the Maryland Historical subject, bringing together diverse Society. Corrin’s essay situates the parts of an extended, often interdis- exhibition by outlining both a history ciplinary, dialogue. of museology practices related to It seems just to begin a review of people of color, as well as the history Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader with of artistic installation using existing a critical reading of critical readers, permanent collections or replicating allowing this essay to be as “meta“ a museum’s atmosphere of authority. in form as the artist’s body of work Similarly, most of the critical essays is. Conceptual artist Fred Wilson’s in the text illuminate the histories career is based largely around instal- that Wilson’s installations index. lations that deconstruct institutional Another article written for the Mining and historical representations of the Museum catalogue is perhaps people of color. He has curated and the most historically supplemental reinstalled museum permanent col- to Wilson’s practice. By Ira Berlin, lections, presented collections of University of Maryland professor racist paraphernalia and excavated of U.S. history and slavery, “Mining local and global histories. the Museum and the Rethinking of Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader, Maryland’s History” gives a detailed released in 2011 by Ridinghouse, is a account of African Americans in great entry to understanding Wilson’s the state, noting that at one point practice. The reader begins with an its early social dynamics gave introduction by former Studio Mu- it the most free blacks in the nation. seum President and current Museum Where Wilson’s installation is a of Art and Design Curator Lowery preparatory gestural drawing of Stokes Sims, and includes essays Maryland’s history, Berlin’s essay by curators and scholars including is a fully realized illustration. Alan Prokop, Simon Dumenco, Lisa Overall, Fred Wilson: A Critical G. Corrin, Ira Berlin, Jennifer A. Reader feels like a natural and inev- González and Salah Hassan. The itable compilation. Wilson’s work, book also compiles a number of in- dialogic at its very root, welcomes terviews with Wilson, and some with the kind of critique and discussions other artists invested in institutional that make up the text. critique, such as Judith Barry, Renée Green and Andrea Fraser. Other interviews pair Wilson with scholars such as K. Anthony Appiah and Huey Copeland. Winter/Spring 2012 56 Remembering Dance Teacher and Ruth Williams Harlem Luminary

by Kyla McMillan, Director’s Office Intern

Ruth Williams, Harlem community served as Director for Child Care leader and founder of the Ruth at the New York City Department Williams Dance Studio, passed of Health and Mental Hygiene until away on July 31, 2011. Beloved by she retired in 1981. She received her generations of locals, Williams master’s in early childhood educa- instructed students in tap, ballet, tion from . Wil- modern, jazz and African dance liams spent her early years training in her Harlem school. as a dancer and even performed in Williams, who never wanted her the original Broadway production of age in print, was well into her nineties Porgy and Bess. As an adolescent at the time of her passing, though she studied dance in Harlem with you would never guess by her youth- Ella Gordon, whom she credited for ful appearance, which she credited her strong foundation in ballet and to her West Indian genes. Her fiery, tap. Now her former students—over tell-it-like-it-is persona made her 40,000 dancers from three genera- a staple in the Harlem community tions—think fondly of their child- Photo: Chester Higgins since the founding of her school in hoods thanks to Williams’s influence. 1948. After more than six decades One student, Starrene Rhett, of teaching, Williams said that she wrote a blog entry dedicated to could not walk certain streets in the influential instructor: “[Williams] Harlem if she was in a hurry because accepted nothing less than perfec- she was frequently approached and tion … I remember being in awe greeted by former students. of Ms. Williams. She kept a dance Although dance was always school afloat in Harlem for over fifty Williams’s true passion, she also years and gave everyone a chance.” Features 57 Features Winter/Spring 2012 58 Surrealism in the Caribbean The Art and Politics of Liberation in the Crossroads of the World

by Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims

This is an excerpt from the essay of the same name to be published in the catalogue for the exhibition Caribbean: Crossroads of the World (June 14–October 21, 2012).

Opposite Wifredo Lam The Jungle, 1932 Inter-American Fund. © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Collection of the , New York 140.1945 Features 59

In 1967, eight years after the Cuban Revolution, Wifredo “guaranteed and exalted” the right of artists and writers Lam, the Cuban Surrealist painter of African, Chinese and “to freely express reality.” If the Salón de Mayo was the European descent, brought a selection of work shown at universal expression of the revolution in painting, then the annual Salón de Mayo exhibition in Paris to Cuba.1 He Cuba “represented today . . . the dream and the reality of arrived in his native land with a delegation of international the revolution on this side of the Atlantic, and the pathway, artists who were encouraged to interact with the artists which is full of the audacity and surprise of the revolution and people of Cuba. The exhibition itself was formally within the Revolution.” 2 inaugurated at the Cuban Pavilion on July 26. Lam did the Roa then emphasized Cuba’s position at the crossroads cover of the newspaper-format catalogue, depicting one of of world geography and world events. “The New World his horned Elegua devotional heads as the sun rising over which flowers on this island of promise is the fruit of the the sea in red, black and yellow, the colors of the Cuban flag. creation of a socialist and communist society by a people The names of the participants in the exhibition and the vis- determined to move heaven and earth to do so,” he said. iting delegation were written on the periphery of the image. “[As such] it represents the seventh day of creation in the In his opening remarks, Raúl Roa, then Cuba’s minis- struggle of man to know himself and to live in the realm ter of foreign affairs, declared that the Cuban Revolution of liberty as a conscious necessity in a magnificent Winter/Spring 2012 60

Working cover Caribbean: Art at the Crossroads of the World, Co-published by El Museo del Barrio, NY and Press (June 2012).

development of his inexhaustible abilities and power. . . . ones seem in hindsight amateurish and naive. For example, This is a new time in history and a new time in life.” 3 in a 1929 issue of the magazine Variétés, they published a Roa’s association of art and revolution mirrored that map of the world that featured a dramatic reorientation of promoted by the French Surrealist artists in their publica- geopolitical hierarchies. Various regions were exaggerated tions and public manifestations during the 1920s and . in scale and proportion to emphasize regions of greater During this period the Surrealists questioned the imposi- Surrealist activity. These locales of the “marvelous” tion of European values and culture on colonial cultures, (that elusive expression of the “very essence of beauty” and astutely examined the political and economic situa- that was characterized by “an impassioned fusion of tions of those cultures.4 Along with the Surrealist magus wish and reality . . . where poetry and freedom are one” 5) André Breton, members of the Surrealist cohort such as included Russia, New Guinea, Alaska, Mexico and Easter René Crevel, Jacques Viot and Jules Monnerot promoted Island. On the other hand, the “lower forty-eight” states the idea that non-Western cultures held their own integral of the and the continent of Europe were values systems, and that they should be left unmolested practically collapsed out of existence.6 by European colonialist presumptions. So when Roa evoked the notion of Cuba—and by It would be easy to dismiss the pronouncements of association the Caribbean—as a crossroads of European the Surrealists as mere liberal posturing and, indeed, at and New World entities, he echoed on a political plane times their gestures to protest the gap between Western the Surrealists’ notion of this region as a site of cultural industrialized cultures and traditional, material-based revolution. But the Surrealists had conceived this new Features 61 world before they had actually encountered the Caribbean naturally considered his artistic mentor and predecessor. in the 1940s as they fled Vichy France in the early years of Picasso was clearly fascinated by the Afro-Chinese Cuban World War II. As a result, on the 1929 map, the Caribbean artist who forced him to confront artists descended from was just a summary series of dots and dashes that didn’t the cultures whose art he’d appropriated for his own stylis- begin to indicate the number of islands in that region. tic innovations at the beginning of the twentieth century. By the late 1930s and 1940s, however, new political and Interestingly enough, Picasso introduced Lam to Breton. social paradigms emerged in the area, as intellectual and Lam would then find his unique signature in association political leaders such as Léon Damas (French Guiana), with the group artistic activities of the Surrealists, which Aimé and Suzanne Césaire (Martinique) and Wifredo resulted in his unique hybrid vocabulary incorporating Lam (Cuba) left Europe to return to their native islands human, plant and even animal forms that expressed the or, as in the case of Eugenio Granell from Spain, exiled syncretistic tenets of Afro-Cuban religious systems. themselves in the Caribbean. And the rest is history. The interaction of these writers and artists with the French Surrealists in Paris before World War II resulted in a direct transplanting of Surrealist ideas to the Carib- 1. This information is based on material in my publication, Wifredo Lam and the bean. In fact, the 1932 Surrealist manifesto Murderous International Avant-Garde, 1923–1982. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002). Humanitarianism—written by Crevel and signed by 2. Salón de Mayo, exhibition catalogue. Texts by Fidel Castro, , Raúl Breton and other Surrealists—was full of anticolonial Roa, Jean Jacques Léveque, José Pierre, Michel Ragon, Denys Chevalier, Jean rhetoric and expression of proletarian politics, and Shuster, Gerard Gassiot-Talbot, Georges Boudaille, Dionys Mascolo, Juan has been associated with “Black Surrealism,” a concept Goytisolo, Marguerite Duras, Alain Jouffroy, and Gaston Diehl (Havana: Edicio- conceived by historian Robin D.G. Kelley.7 The chief tool nes Granma, 1967), unpaginated. for promulgating ideals of self-affirmation, political 3. Ibid. change and cultural hegemony was through journals: 4. See René Crevel, “Colonies,” Le surréalisme au service de la révolution 1 (July We can point to Tropiques, published by the Césaires and 1930): 9–12; René Crevel, “Bobards and fariboles,” Le surréalisme au service de la their associate René Ménil, and La Poesia Surprendida, révolution 2 (October 1930) ; and Jules M. Monnerot, “A partir de quelques traits founded by Granell in the Dominican Republic. particuliers à la mentalité civilisée,” Le surréalisme au service de la révolution 5 The Surrealists began to realize qualities of the marvel- (May 1933): 35–7. ous when they came into contact with artists from the 5. René Passeron, Phaidon Encyclopedia of Surrealism. (Oxford: Phaidon Press Ltd., Americas, and Latin America and the Caribbean in particu- and E.P. Dutton, New York, 1978): 261. lar. The first was in 1938 when Breton visited the renegade 6. “Surrealist Map of the World,” originally published in Variété, 1929. See Evan Communist Leon Trotsky, who had been driven to Mexico Maurer, “Dada and Surrealism,” in “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the and taken refuge in the home of and Frida Tribal and the Modern, Vol. II, ed. William Rubin (New York: Museum of Modern Kahlo. The second came in 1941 when Breton, Lam and Art, 1984): 557. members of the Surrealist movement were fleeing Vichy 7. “Black Surrealism,” The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia, France and were detained several weeks on the island of http://artandpopularculture.com/Black_Surrealism. Accessed October 18, 2011. Martinique, where they met the Césaires and Ménil. These two encounters brought the Surrealists, and Breton in particular, in contact with two “New World” art- ists from the Caribbean basin whose work complemented their own ideas. Kahlo had begun to assert her own artistic personality, bringing an emotional dream imagery that chronicled her physical travails, relationships and the particular cultural hybridity of Mexico, where African, European and Amerindian societies had been intermix- ing for over four centuries. Upon seeing her work, Breton declared Kahlo to be an “innate surrealist.” As a follow-up to this initial meeting, Breton invited Kahlo to Paris for an exhibition of her work in 1938. That same year, Lam, who had been living and working in Spain since 1923, found his way to Paris, fleeing the ulti- mately triumphant Nationalist forces during the . Lam first reached out to Pablo Picasso, whom he Winter/Spring 2012 62 From the Studio: Introducing the 2011–12 Artists in Residence: Njideka Akunyili, Meleko Mokgosi & Xaviera Simmons

In October 2011 Njideka Akunyili, Meleko Mokgosi and Xaviera Simmons moved their paintbrushes and laptops into the Studio Museum’s third-floor studios. During their yearlong residency, they will develop their respective artistic practices, participate in public programs, engage in dialogue with critics and curators and create work for a summer 2012 exhibition. Njideka, Meleko and Xaviera not only join the ranks of over a hundred prominent artists who have participated in the Artist-in-Residence program, they join the eclectic and dynamic Studio Museum family. We asked our new friends to tell us a little bit about what they’re thinking about up on the third floor.

Features 63

Njideka Akunyili

I grew up in a Nigeria, both acculturated to and indep- acetone-transferred images and collage into painted endent from Britain, and immigrated to the United States drawings of domestic life with my white American as an adult. In creating my artwork I explore my internal husband. These overlaid textural images of my Nigerian tension between my deep love for Nigeria and my strong life serve to connect the physicality of my American life appreciation for Western culture by amalgamating with my inherent Nigerian identity. My integration of different media, modes of representation and images. these media creates a visual metaphor for the harmony I make graphic images that, at first glance, take the form and friction that I experience as an American citizen who of traditional Western paintings. Upon closer inspection, is still a proud Nigerian. Thus I build upon my foundation however, nuances in my mode of representation emerge, in traditional Western painting and utilize a unique mix connoting the multilayered nature of my cultural of media to instill my work with layers that evoke the experience, as well as its complications. I interweave complexity of multicultural identities.

Njideka Akunyili Ife Nyado: The Thing Around Her Neck, 2011 Courtesy the artist Meleko Mokgosi Pax Afrikaner: Full Belly (Part 4), 2011 Courtesy the artist

Meleko Mokgosi

Pax Afrikaner |päks afrikän r| appellation chiefly historical and mythical

How can we account for the perseverance of national apparently nonsensical and ugly “noises” that foreigners identification in the age of globalization, transnationality make when they speak. Grigamba names purely for the and the so-called fluidity/multiplicity of identity sake of naming; it stands in for the negative affect that is formation? My thesis: Nationalism arises out of a singular displaced onto the black foreign national. So the word, mixture of jouissance and lalangue. A nation persists so from a particular mother tongue, represents a certain long as its distinct enjoyment continues to be materialized in untranslatable idiosyncrasy relating to the very materiality of a set of practices and transmitted through national myths the signifier, the sonic material that differentiates one language that structure these practices. Jouissance is the incomplete from another. Nationalism is not about ideas, political paradoxical enjoyment that cannot be fully represented procedure or institutions. It is about enjoyment in meaning—yet invests meaning. Lalangue is the part and libidinal investment, the thing-ness of desire and in language where despite the investment in meaning the partial experience of enjoyment. The libidinal bond carries no actual meaning. Lalangue, the symptomatic between subjects always implies a shared relation towards use of language, reveals the existence of only enjoyment a thing. It appears to us as our thing; the nation-thing. in language—meaningful nonsense (ab-sens). And this is Nationalism, compelled by the thing, comes before how we can understand a word like grigamba. The Xhosa the nation-state yet it has no distinct origin. There is term refers to a dirty little animal, a dung-beetle and the no nation-state, no nation, before nationalism. Features 65 Xaviera Simmons

What is desire and how is it revealed in an artwork, the other senses? How does the producing of one work, through an artwork? What are the components of desire through the process of its creation activate the desire to and what occurs when desire demands an experience? craft another and another? How does the creation of one Does the attempt at the fulfillment of a desire crown, work, through the process of its birth, lead to a system of complete or quell the need for that which was originally producing other works that all began with one initial desire, desired? And what of the fulfillment that comes from just the desire to see? And how does the desire to see lead to the seeing that which is desired? And after seeing, what about overwhelming need to taste, to touch, to smell and to hear?

Xaviera Simmons Index One, Composition One, 2011 Courtesy the artist and David Castillo Gallery

The Artists-in- Residence Program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, a state agency, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The New York Community Trust and by endowments established by the Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Trust and Andrea Frank Foundation. Winter/Spring 2012 66 Studio visit: Crystal Z. Campbell by Jamillah James

If memory is “produced through objects, images, and representations,” 1 the practice of multidisciplinary artist Crystal Z. Campbell (b. 1980) complicates an already murky relationship by privileging sound and abstraction over representational imagery. Recently on view at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross Galleries in the exhibition Mass Distractions and Cultural Decay (2011), curated by artist LaToya Ruby Frazier, her video Witness (2010) picks up where Vito Acconci’s Claim Excerpts (1971) or Chris Burden’s TV Hijack (1972) leave off, using confrontation and anticipation of violence to disturbing 1 effect. I sat down with Campbell, a recent graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program, to discuss her interest in the act of witnessing and how this position forces simultaneous negotiations of the imaginary and the real, past and present, personal and cultural. Central to Witness is audio taken from a 2003 police recording of a “suicide by cop” confrontation between Deandre Brunston, a 24-year-old Compton resident, and Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies that ended in gunfire. Campbell uses the audio recording, a widely circulated example of excessive police force, against an abstracted, unintelligible image inspired in part by filmmaker Derek Jarman’s 1999 film Blue, in which a static image is scored by a feature film’s worth of back- ground sound. Brunston, it was later found, was unarmed, 1 posturing with a flip-flop hidden in the side of his Crystal Z. Campbell Courtesy Jamillah James T-shirt. “I found [the recording] so disturbing ... I felt Features 67

2 3 Crystal Z. Campbell Crystal Z. Campbell Witness (still), 2011 Passing: The Evidence Courtesy the artist of Things Not Seen (site-specific installa- tion for Project Row 4 Houses), 2010 Crystal Z. Campbell Courtesy the artist Passing: The Evidence of Things Not Seen (site-specific installa- tion for Project Row Houses), 2010 Courtesy the artist

2

I had to do something with the video to purge the [act of] violence, but it was difficult, because you have to replay it, you have to relive it each time,” says Campbell, who received the video three years ago from a friend. 2 The incident is a footnote in an unfortunate history of police interventions gone awry, with law enforcement asserting privilege over how their identities are con- structed—as heroic in a time of perceived crisis—and the alleged criminal not having the luxury of fair repres- entation after death. The act of witnessing an event becomes what Michel

3 Foucault called a “subjugated knowledge”—that is, what is considered fact becomes shadowy terrain, subjective perception, and hence can be seen as an unreliable source of information and can subsequently be read back into the margins of history or, worse, forgotten alongside countless other news stories. Campbell states that “memory and visuality are linked in such a way that sound becomes sec- ondary.” Long before the post-9/11 24-hour news cycle and social networking or television coverage of major national events such as the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, the Columbine shootings, or the Oklahoma City Bombing, 3 people received a fair amount of news by radio. Campbell’s work asks a viewer to relate to events in a similar way. Remembering becomes a substitute or surrogate, 4 another theme Campbell explores, for participation or presence. In the video A Dark Love Story for Clowns (2011) (and in her site-specific installation for Project Row Houses Winter/Spring 2012 68

in Houston), the act of memorializing takes on symbolic form. Inspired partly by William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (1970) and the Yoruban practice of ere ibeji, Clowns uses an abstraction of audio and visual information to un- derscore the narration of a personal account by a recently widowed woman. On screen, a female clown attempts to resuscitate or revive her partner by engaging the surrogate body in daily rituals. While working on her installation Passing: The Evidence of Things Not Seen (2010) for Project Row Houses in Houston, Campbell attended funerals for both her grandmother and uncle in the span of a week. She incorporated materials inherited from both relatives—mis- matched jewelry, a six-foot set of wind chimes fabricated from metal shower curtain rods—into the work, creating a space of remembrance and grief that suggests corporeality 5 Crystal Z. Campbell through objecthood, a nod to the practice of conceptual A Dark Love Story artist Felix Gonzales-Torres. for Clowns (still), 2011 4 Courtesy the artist “A certain kind of community comes out of grief,” she says, and the desire to preserve and mobilize this com- munity to actively remember events and those no longer with us becomes apparent in Campbell’s body of work thus far. Using sound as a point of entry, she challenges viewers to recalibrate their participation when vision fails. Campbell insists that the act of bearing witness has the potential to be active, even when the information arrives through questionable channels or manifests in unpredict- able ways. Evidence left behind by things not seen—the sounds, suggestions of presence, marks and traces suspended in time—relocates absent bodies in an ongoing dialogue on personal and cultural tragedy, encouraging us to actively confront the ease and lure of forgetting when met with distress.

1. Marita Sturken, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997) 9. 2. Conversation with Crystal Z. Campbell, October 14, 2011 3. As an Oklahoman, the lasting impact of this event has influenced some of Campbell’s interests as an artist. 4. Conversation with Crystal Z. Campbell, October 14, 2011

Jamillah James is a curator based in Brooklyn and editor of the blog FRONTIERS. She recently completed a year-long curatorial fellowship at the Queens Museum, where she curated the group exhibition NOT THE WAY YOU REMEMBERED (2011), and is co-organizer of Queens International 2012, a bi- ennial survey of local artists. Before returning to New York in 2010, James lived in Baltimore and Chicago, where she worked on a number of curatorial projects. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis on Art History, Theory and Criticism and Cultural Studies from Columbia College Chicago. Events 69

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To learn more about upcoming events, visit studiomuseum.org/event-calendar Winter/Spring 2012 70 In Conversation: Betye Saar and Naima J. Keith Features 71

Betye Saar is a pioneering artist featured in seven of the used for storage. It was a wall that kinda jagged out about a recent Pacific Standard Time exhibitions. Assistant Curator foot and a half and then went flat again. It had a little notch Naima Keith (and former Curatorial Fellow for the Pacific in it. I asked Mary, “What if I made something in here?” Standard Time exhibition Now Dig This!: Art and Black And she said okay. There were about three or four sacks of Los Angeles 1960–1980,(2011)) interviewed Saar in November pea-size gravel around. So I said, oh, I could use gravel on 2011. The following is an excerpt. the bottom and put things on the wall. I don’t know if they painted the wall or not. It was in a part of the Museum Naima Keith: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los that wasn’t really used. I know you had to walk down a hall Angeles, included Secrets and Revelations (1980) in their to get to it. Pacific Standard Time (PST) show Under The Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1981. This was an installation you NK: Oh, okay. The Museum has slightly changed since originally did here at the Studio Museum. Can you tell me that original version. more about the installation, how it came about and how you feel about its inclusion in PST? BS: I had made a visit to the Museum to see that space. Then when I got home I found objects to put on the wall Betye Saar: I’m very pleased that you asked me about to make a pattern. And objects to put on the floor. At that Secrets and Revelations because I felt that in a way the Studio time accumulation was part of making my ritual pieces, Museum is a part of Pacific Standard Time—it connects collecting a lot of little things to put together to make the East Coast and the West Coast, and being there was part one thing. I had a table that had been previously used to of my artistic history and development. It was a big thing hold croquet mallets. And so that was painted red and for me to be exhibiting at the Studio Museum in 1980. I had became the center of the so-called altar piece. It was the had things in group shows, but, you know, the West Coast first time that I had done anything that big, you know, is sort of ignored. I think PST is letting the world know that working in a room. And I think it was about just the idea of we are here and we are making art. accumulating things, like when you go to visit an altar at a church in Mexico or Haiti or someplace, there are all sorts The show that I did at the Studio Museum in 1980 was of things put on it. Things wanting to bring blessings or called Rituals: The Art of Betye Saar, and Mary Schmidt healing, or things that are special to the person that gave Campbell was director then. I had done a series of collages them. And candles and things like that. So working on that about ritual, altars that were either like a small altar in a box premise, I just started collecting things. I used the gravel or a freestanding altar. I know the Museum still has one on the ground and I had organic things. I had some fans of these pieces in their collection, Indigo Mercy (1975). from Japan, and some spindles. Oh, I found those in New York. I had found those spindles—those wooden spindles. NK: Yes, we do. Which is now in Now Dig This! at the Alison [Saar] and I, I think we were walking down Broadway Hammer Museum. one evening. At that time Broadway was just converting; the old factories were being closed out and people were BS: Indigo Mercy had been shown on a pedestal and people building condos and shops were coming up and artists were gave offerings. In a way it became a tableau or a mini- moving in. So there were always boxes of stuff that they installation with all the things that people had taken from were clearing out from old factories. I guess the spindles their pockets or purses, or even brought in. You know, were used in clothing factories where they wove cloth or some carnival beads wound up on it. And that was kind of something. So we got a couple armfuls of those. And old the beginning of an installation [Secrets and Revelations]. bottles and things. I’ve always been interested in theater and sets and so forth, and so, I said it would be so cool to make something like This site installation was created especially for The Studio walking into one of my little assemblage boxes. And then Museum in Harlem. And was executed as a “ritual.” And walking about the Museum, I found a small little alcove, I that’s in quotes. The ritual is a series of acts of process think it was down in the basement in a corner and was just that includes the imprint, the search, the accumulation,

Opposite Betye Saar Secrets and Revelations, 1980 Installation view from Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 2011 Photo: Brian Forrest Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Winter/Spring 2012 72

Opposite Betye Saar Indigo Mercy, 1975 Gift of the Nzingha Society, Inc. 79.9

the manipulation and the release. This was how I was and I are so trained to always be seeking something to making—and defining ritual from just an ordinary piece of recycle, that that just seems to be part of my lifestyle now. art. So when I say the imprint, that means the idea, or the exchange that goes between my search and finding my idea NK: Do you usually have a specific work in mind when and attaching that idea to an object, and then the search of you’re going out to these different antique shops? Or does finding those objects, accumulating all the materials that I it begin with the found object? want to use. The manipulation is changing them, painting them, sanding them, gluing things on them and so forth. BS: I shop intuitionally. If I’m stuck in creating a piece and And then the release is just to exhibit them, to put them I need a certain something, I usually don’t even know what out there, and that becomes a release of letting go of it is that I need, I just go out there and see what comes to what you’ve made. me. So it’s not that it’s a big mystery or anything, but that’s just the way I shop. When I come to the studio, I have a NK: Working with found objects must be challenging. way of filing things, like in a certain area I may have clocks, When you incorporate a found object into your work, metal and glass things, and then in another area I’ll have you have to work with the existing piece’s size, shape organic things like bones or feathers or other materials that and color, and manipulate something that has been I find from nature. produced by someone else. NK: When you find an object do you do a lot of research BS: There is definitely a challenge to it because I have to into its background, or is it more about the new life figure out how to integrate one aspect of a found object that you give the object? with another—what makes them work together, what makes them click together. I like my particular way of BS: It’s more about the intuition. You know, I’m at the working with materials to be seamless, that it just seems flea market and I find a mask—oh, that’s not interesting, like it’s meant to be that way from the very beginning. And but I can tell the difference between an African mask and sometimes I try to force myself to make things a little bit a mask from Mexico. Or a mask from Bali, or Southeast edgier so that you feel uncomfortable with looking at the Asia or something like that. Sometimes when it’s really two items together. But sooner or later I work it out so it close, I don’t know. I just painted it red and put it on the goes together, or I eliminate one part of it. And I can always wall. But there are certain things that are distinctive about get integration by painting something or removing the a mask of a certain country, and they differ from a particular varnish and making it a natural thing and just working with region, from carver to carver. The times that I use research the natural color of the object, wood for example. It is a is when I want to use symbols or maybe colors that would challenge, but I’ve been doing it for so long it just seems be particular to one culture as to another culture. like, oh, that should work there. You know, trial and error, that doesn’t work and then finally I’ll decide on items that NK: How has your process changed over the years? work together that seem to integrate and feel comfortable together, and those are the ones that I will set aside and BS: My interest in the reason for making art has changed. really adhere them to each other and create a finished piece. And that has been fairly recent—within the last year and a half. I’m less interested in creating something for NK: Can you walk me through your assemblage process a commercial exhibition, like in a gallery or something, and how you go about finding the found objects that are and more for creating an environment, creating objects incorporated into your work? to put into a room. And that started out with Secrets and Revelations. My current interest is to involve the viewer BS: My process for making assemblage, collages and so it becomes more like theater—not theater because installations means going to flea markets and yard sales, it’s not as formal as that, but like walking on a set. thrift stores, antique shops and specialty shops like at a If you were to go to a play and then afterwards you walk museum or collectible shop, or just looking for things. on the set. And you could still feel the energy of what Since I have been collecting for quite some time, my mind happened in that space.

Winter/Spring 2012 74 Aesthetic of the Cool: Robert Farris Thompson in Conversation with Lowery Stokes Sims by Katherine Finerty, Curatorial Intern Features 75

“If you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it,” Robert the cultural expressions of Africa and their influences. Farris Thompson stated at the start of his program at We can see the cool in the sculptural heads of kings from the Studio Museum on October 20, 2011, followed quickly Benin, Nigeria; in mambo dancers from Brazil; and in jazz by a spirited promise that he was, indeed, going to “mess musicians from Harlem. Thompson has been establishing with it.” “It” being, of course, the topic of the evening: this artistic and musical approach to the cool as an Afro-Atlantic art. aesthetic philosophy for more than forty years, and with The Studio Museum galleries were filled with guests his new book we now finally have access a comprehensive eager to hear from two of the most prestigious art presentation of his writings, both new and old, some of historians of our time. On the occasion of the release of which were previously unpublished or out of print. Thompson’s Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music, The highlight of the event was when Thompson brought the author sat down with Lowery Stokes Sims, Curator at to life the serenely dignified Nigerian woman gracing his the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and former book cover. Accompanying a video from 1965, of Agbeke Studio Museum President, to discuss his concept of Asoko dancing with a sculptural crown of the deity Eyinle the “cool” in Afro-Atlantic culture. atop her head, Thompson provided impressive drumming Thompson is a legendary figure in the field, famous for to enhance the energy of the moment. The Egbado Yoruba enlivening his lectures at Yale University, where he has dancer balanced the terracotta sculpture with awe- taught art history and African-American studies since 1965. inspiring grace, bound physically and spiritually to the With his speech patterns embodying rhythm and soul as god whom she mirrored wholly in facial expression, state much as the art he so passionately researches, Thompson of mind and, ultimately, coolness. As her arms undulated projected an infectious dynamism to frame his erudite slowly yet forcefully, Thompson drummed with skill and ideas as accessible and, indeed, entertaining. In helping us vibrancy, gaining speed and exuberance to match the visualize his aesthetic theory of an Afro-Atlantic kind of dancer’s subtle gestures and spellbinding movement. cool, he quickly rejected the tempting images of sunglasses- He proceeded to chant with passionate composure in both clad youths ubiquitous in Hollywood representations of Nigerian dialects and English: “Balance in the name of glamour and nonchalance. Rather, he turned our attention God!” And as we then knew from his recurring assertions to stylistic trends found in arts of the Yoruba, one of the throughout the lecture, balance is definitely cool. largest ethnic groups in West Africa. In many Yoruba After this spirited display, Sims candidly conversed with sculptures of heads, a distinct formal aesthetic is conveyed Thompson, starting with a question perhaps on everyone’s through full, pursed lips and wide, calm eyes. These traits, mind: How did a white man from Texas come to love and Thompson explained, are facial embodiments of the cool. research a culture so seemingly distant from his own? Cool, in this sense, can represent a variety of ideas and Afro-Atlantic studies were significantly more obscure symbols that are both traditional and evolving, including when Thompson was a student. How did he eventually stability, healing, peace and giving. Moreover, we can become one of the most prestigious scholars in the field, find this kind of expression nearly everywhere, breaking credited with establishing a new wave of African art the limits of geography and time so often imposed upon discourse? Thompson attributed his passion to the first

Opposite Books & Authors: Dr. Robert Farris Thompson in conver- sation with Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims. Photo: Liz Gwinn Winter/Spring 2012 76

time he ever heard mambo, while in Mexico City. This interest in contemporary cultural expression was His soul was filled with its vibrant rhythms and he put to test during the event’s concluding Q&A, when became immediately determined to discover its origins. Thompson was asked where he stood on the popular debate Indeed, he continued to devote his life to the serious over young people wearing baggy pants. Cultural icons study of Afro-Atlantic culture: He lived in Nigeria for such as Bill Cosby have notoriously come down on African- many years to research Yoruba art history; traveled American youths for wearing low, saggy pants, associating to Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean to gain the trend with a lack of respect and character. Yet rather a diasporic perspective; and both studied and taught than critiquing or pathologizing the act of wearing baggy at Yale University. Through these experiences Thompson pants, Thompson chose to analyze and embrace its established a new disciplinary approach to the arts of nuanced connotations, ultimately empowering rather than Africa that rejects the traditionalist anthropological study marginalizing the many young people who identify with of objects framed as artifacts. Rather, he brought the this style. “I love sag,” he answered with a smile. Thompson diverse arts of the African diaspora to life by focusing then proceeded to offer a thoughtfully erudite response on cultural context, exchange and performance. on how black style has been an expression of controlling Thompson uses music and dance to enrich and contex- the extremes throughout history. Harlem jazz musicians tualize the visual arts and create a diasporic dialogue mastered the tightest of the tight with their slim-cuffed between the past and present. Mambo is both the start zoot suits, and now, he explained, Harlem hip-hop of his own story and a much larger one—a historical artists turn to baggy pants to master the loosest of the constellation of dance and expression. We can connect loose. Exhibiting his cultural savvy and creative open- the shuffle and double shuffle of the Kingdom of Kongo mindedness, Thompson confirmed, “In hip-hop loose (1400–1914) to the dance steps popular in New York is cool—that’s why you don’t tie your shoelaces.” during the 1840s documented by Charles Dickens, the move-and-freeze mambo sequences popular in the 1950s, Robert Farris Thompson is Col. John Trumbull Professor in the the funk moves of James Brown in the 1970s, and, finally, Department at Yale University and has been a Ford Foundation Fellow. the hip-hop revolution today—where breakdancing Since 1958, he has devoted his life to the serious study of the art history of the mirrors the shuffles and spin games of ancient Kongo, Afro-Atlantic world. His iconic books include Black Gods and Kings (1977), Flash bringing us back full circle. Through connections like these, of the Spirit (1983) and Tango: The Art History of Love (2006). Thompson frames contemporary culture as a testament to tradition and evolution, empowering creative expression Lowery Stokes Sims is Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and is former Executive Director, President and Adjunct Curator for the today and embracing it wholeheartedly. In his book you permanent collection at the Studio Museum. Sims received her PhD from the will find insightful musings on the how Afro-Atlantic Graduate School at the City University of New York and was on the education culture has come to inspire contemporary artists. For and curatorial staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1972 to 1999. She is Jean-Michel Basquiat it was jazz. Betye Saar turned to a specialist in modern and contemporary art, specifically in the work of African, African divination. The spoke to David Cuban, Caribbean and Native American artists. Hammons. And in the exuberant dance moves of Keith Haring’s universal figures, we again see a rich trajectory Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music is available at the Studio of influences, from the Kongo’s shuffle and double Museum Store. shuffle to the electric boogie and voguing. Features 77

Agbeke Asoko, Dancing with Crown of Eyinle. 6 July 1965, Ejileté, Nigeria.

Shrine Head, Ife, Nigeria, 12th–14th century Courtesy The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Winter/Spring 2012 78 Studio Jr.

Narrative Art with Pat Cummings Studio Jr. 79 Winter/Spring 2012 80

Studio Jr. Narrative Art with Pat Cummings

A DO-IT-YOURSELF STORY (Fill in the blanks and color.)

______lived in an old

at the edge of town. One day, he heard a loud knock at the door. But when he looked, no one was there.

A strange was laying on the doorstep. And written on the first page were instructions on how to make something disappear.

To get started, you need to find things:

A a and a

The hat was easy. His dad had one that he kept in his ______. In the kitchen, ______found a . “This will work fine,” he said. Running outside, he tried to find a but there was no sign of one anywhere in the Suddenly, ______had a great idea. Studio Jr. 81

“Hey,” he said. “I bet my pet , Sparky, would work. He would be just as good at hopping out of a hat

as any old would be. Sparky’s perfect for the job!” So ______ran to his room to scoop Sparky out of his tank. But, in his excitement, he never noticed the tiny writing at the

bottom of the instructions. Plopping Sparky into the hat, he put it on and tapped it times, as the book said to do. Immediately, he felt a very, verrry, verrrrrry curious itching sensation on his head. “ ” he yelled. Yanking off the top hat, he released a swarm of excited that went flying

everywhere! Sparky hopped away.

It took a lot of time to chase all of the

out of the house. And even more time to find Sparky, who was

hiding out in his little sister’s .

“Okay,” he said. “Maybe

I need a real .” He went straight to the

back yard and to his surprise, saw the perfect little bunny calmly munching on his mom’s

Studio Jr. Narrative Art with Pat Cummings Friends 83 Friends Winter/Spring 2012 84 Gala 2011 October 24, 2011

The Studio Museum in Harlem Lewis, as well as the dedicated Gala sincerely thanks the businesses and Vice-Chairs Jacqueline L. Bradley, individuals on the following pages Amelia Ogunlesi and Teri Trotter. for their generous support, which This year’s Gala celebrated the contributed to the overwhelming Museum’s four decades of collecting success of Gala 2011, where we by honoring its permanent collec- raised nearly $1.6 million. tion. We also express our utmost gratitude to Mr. Wein, who estab- The Museum extends gratitude and lished the Joyce Alexander Wein congratulations to the phenomenal Artist Prize six years ago, and whole- Gala Co-Chairs Kathryn C. Chenault, heartedly congratulate the 2011 Wein Joyce K. Haupt and Carol Sutton Prize recipient, . Photos: Julie Skarratt Friends 85

Gala 2011 October 24, 2011

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Gala 2011

Photos: Julie Skarratt

Ellen Phelan The Studio Museum in Harlem makes every Kim Powell effort to ensure the accuracy of its lists of Erica & Antonio Reid supporters. If your name is not listed as you Ellen Schoninger & Efraim Grinberg / prefer or if you believe that your name has Movado Group, Inc. been omitted, please let us know by contacting Annette Mitchell Scott & Wendell Scott the Gala Office at 212.864.4500 x218. Upper Manhatttan Empowerment Zone Angela Vallot and James Basker

Contribution Ariel Investments, LLC Marty & Terri Cole Judith & Ronald Davenport, Sr. Glenn E. Davis Susan Fales-Hill & Aaron Hill The Goins Family Fund Mariana & George S. Kaufman Peter D. Lax Lehmann Maupin Gallery Lou Ann Moore William Seraile Ph.D Diane & Craig Welburn Winter/Spring 2012 88 Wein Prize Leonardo Drew Receives the 2011 Wein Prize

The Studio Museum Gala 2011 Born in Tallahassee, Florida, in on October 26, 2011, marked the 1961 and raised in Bridgeport, occasion of the sixth annual Joyce Connecticut, Drew studied at the Alexander Wein Artist Prize, which and the was awarded to Leonardo Drew. The for the Advancement Wein Prize was established in 2006 of Science and Art, where he by jazz impresario, musician and received his BFA in 1985. He was a philanthropist George Wein to honor 1990–91 artist in residence at The his late wife Joyce Alexander Wein, Studio Museum in Harlem, and has a longtime Trustee of the Studio been featured in many group George Wein and Leonardo Drew at Museum and a woman whose life exhibitions and projects nationally the Studio Museum embodied a commitment to the and internationally, among them 30 Gala 2011 Photo: Julie Skarratt power and possibilities of art and Americans (2008), organized by the culture. The $50,000 award Rubell Family Collection; Legacies: recognizes and honors the artistic Contemporary Artists Reflect on achievements of an African-American Slavery (2006), organized by former artist who demonstrates great Studio Museum President Lowery innovation, promise and creativity. Stokes Sims for the New-York Leonardo Drew, known for his Historical Society; The Quiet in the large-scale sculptural installations, Land: Everyday Life, Contemporary called the award “a profound honor.” Art, and Projeto Axé (1997–2000) in Leonardo Drew is based in Salvador, Brazil; and Passages: Brooklyn, New York, and San Antonio, Contemporary Art in Transition (1998) Texas. Using found materials ranging at The Studio Museum in Harlem. A from wood, fabric, paper, cotton and mid-career survey, Existed: Leonardo rope to metal, rust, animal pelts and Drew (2009), debuted at the Blaffer bones, feathers and everyday trash, Art Museum at the University of Drew meticulously assembles, Houston and traveled internationally. reassembles and manipulates human detritus to create order and unex- pected beauty. Working consistently and ambitiously in this alchemical style since his 1988 breakthrough work Number 8, Drew brilliantly juxtaposes a host of seemingly contradictory concepts and influences. He creates pure abstraction out of materials seemingly imbued with past uses, producing works that are formally beautiful but loaded with material significance. Friends 89 Members

Member List: January 1–December 1, 2011

The Museum’s Membership Farrah Brown Associate Courtney Browne Cynthia D. Adams Program has played an important Saleda S. Bryant, Esq. Daryl & Rodney Alexander role in the institution’s growth for Kristin Burks Barbara E. Anderson over forty years. Thank you to all Jocelyn Cooley Jennifer Arceneaux Valerie Cooper Peggy & John Bader the following who helped maintain Shannon Danzy Reginald Browne & Dr. Aliya Browne our ambitious schedule of exhibi- Kathleen A. Dill Raphael Castoriano Danielle DiPenti Charles Davis tions and public programs during Thomas E. Dyja & Suzanne Gluck Glenn Davis the 2011–2012 seasons. Latressa Fulton David C. Driskell John Gilstrap Elaine G. Drummond CORPORATE MEMBERS Lea K. Green, Esq. Susan & Arthur Fleischer, Jr. 2x4, Inc. Carl E. Johnson Arti & Harold Freeman American Express Dee Kerrison Ira Goldberg JPMorgan Chase Bank Ahovi G. Kponou Marc I. Gross & Susan Ochshorn Pfizer, Inc. Shea Owens Sanjeanetta Harris Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Ann Samuels Thomas A. Harris UBS Lacary Sharpe Marie C. & Wendell L. Johns Jamila Justine Willis Wanda Kemp-King & Hubert King SPECIAL MEMBERSHIPS Phyllis L. Kossoff Studio Society GENERAL MEMBERSHIP Peter D. Lax Berdie & Mairtin Brady Benefactor Karen B. McNair Valerie S. Brown Anonymous Bridget Moore / DC Moore Gallery Jonathan Caplan & Angus Cook Douglas Baxter Lawrence D. Moreland Lydia & Mats G. Carlston Spencer Brownstone Edward Nahem halley k. harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld Laurie Nash Sarah J. and Derek Irby Tarah Murphy & Tommy Cooke Amy and Joe Perella Noel Kirnon & Michael Paley Anne Delaney Marquita & Knut Eckert Cher Lewis Agnes Gund & Jeanne Gordon Ann & Alton McDowell Sondra A. Hodges Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner & Paul A. Wagner Celia & Henry W. McGee III Tina & Lawrence Jones Gwen & Arnold Webb Ruthard C. Murphy Melva Bucksbaum & Raymond Learsy Alessandra Carnielli / Pierre and Tana Matisse Rachel & Jean-Pierre Lehmann Supporter Foundation Jenna Lyons Anonymous Veronica Pollard & Joel Dreyfuss Gwen & Peter Norton Sonja & Ashok Ahuja Michele & Gregory Weston Elizabeth D. Simmons Answorth A. Allen, M.D. and Rae Wright-Allen, M.D. Francis H. Williams Peg Alston & Willis Burton Gunner & Alyson Winston Donor Janna Andrews Debra Tanner Abell, M.D. and Megan Abell Richard Armstrong National Dawoud Bey & Candida Alvarez Joe M. Bacal & Anne Newman Deirdre McBreen Hope & Mogolodi Bond Kim Baskerville Dominique Shelton Ellen Brathwaite Jo-Anne L. Bates Constance Caplan Linda K. Beauvil CF Couple Anne Cohen Wayne Benjamin Answorth A. Allen, M.D. & Rae Wright-Allen, M.D. Margarett Cooper L. Ann & Jonathan Binstock Kathleen Adams Dana Cranmer Rosemary Blake Hope & Mogolodi Bond Elizabeth De Cuevas William Blizzard Michèle & Joseph Brazil Nadja Fidelia William R. Brown Mia Enell & Nicolas Fries Marieluise Hessel Edward Blake Byrne Louis Gagliano & Stefan Handl Janet Hill Talbert Randolph C. Cain Daniel S. Loeb & Margaret Munzer Loeb & Jeffrey Hoone Anne B. Cammack Joseph McAdams & Mary Gorman Barbara Jakobson Will & Charon Campbell Sheila Parekh William Bowen King III Deborah Cates Cheryl R. Riley & Courtney Sloane Elizabeth Szancer Kujawski Rodney Clayton Courtney Sloane & Cheryl R. Riley Joyce E. & Robert L. Marcus Nancy L. Clipper Diane & Adam Max Patricia G. Coates CF Individual Anthony Meier Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Cohen Anonymous Dr. Kenneth Montague Julie Crooks Beverly J. Anderson Vanessa Y. Perez, Ph.D. Lynda & Raymond Curtis Jemina R. Bernard Virginia Joy Simmons, M.D. Ronald and Linda Daitz Elizabeth Brown Lyn & E. Thomas Williams Judith & Ronald Davenport, Sr. Winter/Spring 2012 90

Tyrone M. Davenport Nancy Delman Portnoy Rosalyn Lee & Beverly Tillery Andrew P. Davis Guthrie Ramsey Nashormeh Lindo Carlton Davis Mary E. Riley Sylvia & John Lynch Yvonne Davis Harriet J. Roaman Davella & Abraham May Ellyn & Saul Dennison Sandra Robinson James & Vanessa McKnight Gloria A. Ellis Vivian D. Robinson William M. Miles Toni G. Fay Jeanette & Granville P. Rogers Aloma Moore Regina Felton, Esq. Roxane S. Rosario & Michael O. Young John L. Moore Katherine Finerty Carol & Aaron B. Russell Dena Muller & Constantin Muamba Jack A. Fogle Tina Shafer Robert E. Penn Jacqueline Fowler Shahrazad A. Shareef Gloria C. Phares & Richard Dannay Anthony Foy & Monique Scott John Silberman Valerie Pinckney-Williams Marilyn R. Francis Kenneth Sills Farrell B. Redwine & Conway A. Downing III Carol E. Frazier Laura Skoler Donville Reid James E. Frazier Judith W. Smith Melissa and Jeff Reiter Patricia Freeman Mary Alice Smith Richard Rogers Gerald Galison Seton Smith Hyacinth Ross Richard Gerrig Clara R. Stanton Rahoul & Elizabeth Roy Christopher Girard Jean E. Steele David Saphra Jeanine T. Givens Robert E. Steele, M.D. Anna & Wolfgang E. G. Saxon Charlynn & Warren Goins Ernest L. Swiggett Elza Rohan Sharpe Carol & Arthur Goldberg Carl R. Sword Norma Shaw-Hogan Alvia Golden Beatrice Thomas Evie E. Shockley Arthur I. Golden Joseph Thompson Deborah A. Simon Constance E. Golding & C. Ellen Golding Margaret Porter Troupe Carla & Edward Slomin Elaine Goldman Clara C. Villarosa Eileen E. Smith-Grant & Robert D. Grant Constance & Alan E. Green Margo & Anthony Viscusi Ira Statfeld Rita Green Karen E. Wagner & David Caplan James & Natalie Sullivan Joan Greenfield Edward Walrond Lisa Swanson Geraldine Gregg Eugene H. Webb Jack Tilton Anthony A. and Anne Cochran Grey Colleen Werthmann & Gardiner Carolyn & Ed Wagner Leon L. Haley Comfort Harriet M. & Charles Weiss Susan L. Halper Olivia & Carey White Celia & Landon H. Wickham Eric Hanks Dolores White Jessie & Darryl Williams William A. Harper Deborah Willis Diane Wilson Reginald D. Harris Jeanne Willis Alona & Louis Wilson Susan A. Harris Betty Wilson Vicki Zubovic & Major Jackson Steven P. Henry and Philip Schneidman Hugh A. Wilson Judith & Martin Hertz Individual Gladstone E. Hinds Family/Partner Jeanette Adams Dorothy D. Holloway Vernona Adams Virginia C. Adimora Sabrina Holmes Elizabeth Alexander & Ficre Ghebreyesus Adwoa Adusei Patterson Sims and Katy Homans Tarrie Alexis & Julius Butler Deborah W. Allen Ann N. Jackson Karole & Eric Barkley Juanita Alleyne Marsha Y. Jackson Jasmine Bellamy Emma Amos Sandra Jackson-Dumont Carol Belle-Thomas & Victoria Redus Keith D. Amparado Al-lyce Eloise James Louise & Henry Bessire Charles A. Archer, Esq. Debra A. James Paule Bros Jimmy Arnold Barbara Johnson Cynthia Clark & Johnnie Walker Mary Ellen Arrington Albert Jones Kevin R. Curry & Abdou Seye Lee Autry Kellie Jones & Guthrie Ramsey Alvaro A. Dalton Janeen Azare Robert M. Jordan Kay Deaux & Sam Glucksberg Jacqueline A. Bailey Wayne H. Kelton Deirdre Donohue Gawanya Baity Maryellen Kohlman Michael Elsasser & Doug Robinson Kimberly Ball Jeffrey A. Leib Vilma E. France Hilary M. Ballon Margaret & Tilden J. Lemelle Lolita & Thomas Garvin, Jr. Gloria Batiste-Roberts Pierre Levai Arleen Geller Thelma V. Beale Dawn Lille Eleanor & Lyle Gittens Carolyn Bell Joyce Lowinson, M.D. Kristen B. Glen John Belle Andrea Mahon Deborah Pilgrim Graham & Kenneth R. Graham Regina Black-Middleton Frank C. Mahon Joshua Guild & Carla Shedd Edith Boyd & Cheryl L. Bruce Karen & Michael Hearns Nneka Bradford Daisy W. Martin Ruth Eisenberg & Greg Hendren Michelle Branch Sheila A. Mason-Gonzalez Geoffrey Hendricks & Sur Rodney Leslie F. Brown Max McCauslin Sharon & John Hoffman Maryanne Byington Carlie Meer Frances and Jeffrey Horne Cathleen Campbell Cerisa Mitchell Andrew Hume & Carrie Walker Milton G. Campbell Isolde McNicholl Motley & Joel W. Motley Mari Iki & Martin Maguss Nia Chambers Madeline Murphy Rabb Robert O. Johnson & Ann M. Menting Gulzar R. Charania Jill Nelson Denise Jones & Dennis Jordan Catherine M. Charles Novella Nelson Sarah Krueger Edythe C. Cherry Felix Okolo Amy B. Kuhn & Stuart L. Rosow Kenny Clark Monica Parham Kimberly P. & Roderick E. Lane Scott Clugstone Jonathan W. Parker Laiton Langley Elissa Cofield Friends 91

Members

Norman Cole Klaus Kertess Ingrid L. Schaffner Anne Collins-Smith Jane Kirkland Margaret Scott Nedra Janice Cook Eugene H. Knox Medina Senghore Erica Corbin Roseline Koener Farah Severin Debora L. Cox Mary M. Kresky Regina Shanklin Aeon L. Cummings Antoinette Lamb Stefanie Siegel Khania Curtis Lee Lawrence Adelaide E. Simms Sylvia de Cuevas Marie LeDoux Marsha E. Simms Emilie de Brigard Mary Ann Lee Andrea C. Skinner Dennis Decker Gregory Lenhardt Sippio Small Sasha Dees Jackson Lenochan Delores V. Smalls Bunny Dell Jerome M. Lewine Toni E. Smith Deupree Mary Linda A. Lewis Kimberly Snead Edward Dew Lynn & Benjamin Lieberman Ellen Sragow James M. Dickens Toya Liverpool Leslie W. Stern Louise S. Dockery Ray Llanos Connie Stewart Robert Durst Whitney Love Julian Taub Darnell Edwards Carrie Lowery Ethel Terrell Sandra M. Epps David Lucas Cleophus Thomas, Jr. Peter Erickson Darryl J. Mack Marvin Thomas Gertrude F. Erwin Rhiannon MacFadyen Susann Thomas Ruth Fine Maureen Mahon Nathaniel Thompkins Jacqueline Francis Carolyn Maitland Lloyd E. Thompson Alex Friedman Judith Maloney Deborah Thornhill & Jennifer Prince Phyllis Galembo Jennifer Matthews Anthony Todman Linda Galietti Tamara McCaw John D. Treadwell Ryann Galloway Sheila McDaniel Jacqueline Tuggle Ervin J. Garrison Autumn D. McDonald Stacey Tyrell Eboni S. Gates Julie McGee Susanna G. Vapnek Christa Giesecke Christine McKay Josef Vascovitz Michael C. Gillespie George McKinley Martin Karen Elisa Venzen Alexandra Giniger Mary B. McRae Sametta W. Vick Marilyn T. Glater Sonia Mendez Jackson Ernestine Washington Caren Golden & Peter Horzberg Jeanne-Marie A. Miller Shannon Washington Jo-Ann Graham Betty Minton Lesley Webster, Esq. Vera I. Grant Denise M. Murrell Doris D. White Cheryll Y. Greene Eunice H. Murphy L. H. Whitehead Denise L. Greene Mildred R. Murphy Diane Williams Marguerite D. Greene Jeanine Myers Gilbert S. Williams, Jr. Joy Greenidge June C. Nelson Samuel Wilson Roxanne Greenstein Eileen Newman Thomas H. Wirth Constance Grey Derek G. Nichols Audrey Woods Janice Guy Jide Ojo Hilda L. Wradge Susie W. Hampton Adekunle Omotade Deborah Yates Bethann A. Hardison Nell Painter Antoinette Young Gregory D. Harnon Karyn & Mark Pappas Mahamadou Hassimi Sandra M. Payne Senior Veronica Hemmingway Patricia H. Peju Griffin Beverly C. Abisogun Herbert Henry Olivia E. & Paul Bruce Perkins Kojo Ade Donaldson Hill Twila Perry Ann B. Armistead Marilyn Holifield Caitlin Pollock Jean Arrington Camara Holloway Sascha Puryear Anna R. Austin Lakeshia Hudson Chante Ramsey Grace H. Ayanru, M.D. Danielle Huff Jane Ratcliffe Frederic H. Bacon Tresa Hughes Landon Reid Kay F. Badalamenti Sandra Hunt-Smith Valerie A. Rhodes Wanda Baker-Smith Cora Jackson Kenneth W. Richardson Joseph Barker Tanisha Jackson Floree Roberson Nubia Beazer Erica M. James Kenneth C. Roberts Dolores H. Bedford Olubukola A. Jejeloye Angela Robinson Raeann Bessellieu Robin E. Jenkins Caralene Robinson Cynthia Blanchard DéVon Johnson Corane Robinson Betty Blayton-Taylor Patricia Jones Gregory Jean A. Rock Elizabeth T. Bolden Daniel Jumpertz Verraine Rock Marion Bondurant Dorothy Elizabeth Kennedy Nada Rowand Bertha Brandon Michelle Kennedy Martine Sam Barbara A. Braxton Winter/Spring 2012 92

Lavonnie Brinkley Constance Mitchell Michael Myers, M.D. Dolores L. Brookes Isabel H. Neal Alexis Neider Laura D. Brown-Sands Jeanne Nedd Joey U. Ofili Beverly Bryer Robert Oba Cullins Alfie Ravenell Jean Bunce Mary Alice O’Connor Akil Rose Vinie Burrows Arlene Offord Julia Sergeon Janice L. Bynum Dr. Ademola Olugebefola Vanessa Sergeon Diana Cagle Robert G. O’Meally Moruna Sheppard Flossie Oluyemi Omowale Candra Simon Muriel R. Chess Benjamin W. O’Nealos Jill N. Smith Eugenia Clarke James T. Parker Langdon Soares Crystal Clemons Sara Penn Derica C. Washington Sadie Codling Ginger Perowsky Linda T. Woods Milton Collins Giselle King Porter Brent Crayton Hortense L. Powell The Studio Museum in Harlem makes every Ruth Curtis Andrea Ramsey effort to ensure the accuracy of its lists of Anne Cushman Ann Ranniar members. If your name is not listed as you Carl F. Davis Rita I. Reid prefer or if you believe your name has been Marzella Dawkins Nancy R. Reinish omitted, please let us know by contacting the D. DePrator Ligia Sanchez Rivers Development Office at 212.864.4500 x244 Joan Deroko Margaret A. Robbins or [email protected]. Susan C. Dessel Virginia Robinson Guy L. deVeaux Lois Safian Evelyn Dill Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz Dorothy H. Divins Dr. William Seraile, Ph.D. Gwen Dixon Gwendolyn A. Simmons Betty Donerson Joseph H. Simpson George D. Everette Sallie A. Smith Theodore C. Fair Thomas Smithwick Barbara Flemmings Edward L. Snyder Frank Gimpaya Thomas Southern Margot Gordon Ann Sprayregen Elaine L. Greene Margaret E. Stokes Olivia C. Hector Edward Esty Stowell, Jr. Bonnie Hornstein Tamara D. Tabb James Herbert Howell Charles Tarver, Sr. / Blark Art Joan Huggins-Banbury Beverly Taylor Jon Hutton Muriel F. Thomas Joanne Isaac Reggie Thompson Esther Jackson Inez B. Vanable Faith R. Jacobs Pieter Vanhove Olga C. Jenkins David Walters Elizabeth Johnson Winona Watson Mabel E. Johnson Eva Welch Pat J. Johnson Bernice Williams-Johnson Hettie Jones Bobbie Willis Natalie B. Jones Barbara M. Wilson Susan C. Joseph Doris M. Wilson Lois M. Kahan Dolores Winfrey Ernece B. Kelly Aaron Woods III Julia Keydel Doris D. Wooten Regina M. King Ruth C. Wright Sue Kreitzman Susan D. Yarnell Beth M. Lawrence Susan Lawrence Student Sandra Lee Hawa Allan James N. Lewis Angela Bankhead Zack Lewis Claire Boedts Janice Livingston Ursula Brown Willis H. Logan Berry Coles, Jr. Lorenda Mable Linda Cunningham Delores E. Mack Francisco Donoso Susan E. Madigan Danielle Dowrich Denise Marcovitch Malcolm Ebanks Frank B. Marshall III Orlando Flowers Helen Marshall James O. Gordon Dynna Martin La Tonya Green Laine Massey Uraline S. Hager Carmen Matthew Jeffreen Hayes Shirley McCain Uchenna Itam Opposite Dianne H. McDonald Danielle Jackson Shinique Smith Elspeth Meyer Josie Lenwell This Was Something We Shared Erich Meyerhoff Nomaduma Masilela (For Vernessia) (detail), 2011 Bessie Q. Miles Bridgitte Montgomery Courtesy the artist Friends 93 Winter/Spring 2012 94 Supporters Winter/Spring 2012

The Board of Trustees and MacAndrews and Forbes Goldman Sachs Gives Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s Louise Grunwald Director of The Studio Museum Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation Alvin D. Hall in Harlem extend deep gratitude Raymond J. McGuire Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation to the donors who supported the MetLife Foundation for the Arts Reginald Van Lee Pamela J. Joyner Museum from January 1, 2011 to Rodney M. Miller Marie-Josée Kravis December 1, 2011. National Endowment for the Arts Celia & Henry W. McGee III Amelia & Adebayo Ogunlesi Miyoung Lee & Neil Simpkins The David Rockefeller Fund Cher Lewis $500,000 & above Marva Smalls / Viacom Loida Nicolas Lewis The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Verizon Foundation Bernard Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi Wells Fargo Mehretu and Rankin Family $100,000 to $499,999 Ruthard C. Murphy II Assemblyman Keith L.T. Wright, 70th A.D. $10,000 to $24,999 NYU Tisch School of The Arts Bloomberg Philanthropies Douglass Baxter Don & Gail Rice The City of New York Patricia Blanchet / Bradley Family Foundation The Robert A. Mills Foundation Council Member Inez E. Dickens, 9th C.D. The Boeing Company Tamara Harris Robinson Ford Foundation Pippa Cohen Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn & Nicolas S. Rohatyn Goldman, Sachs & Co. / Valentino D. Carlotti Peggy Cooper Davis & Gordon J. Davis / Daryl & Steven Roth The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Dewey & LeBoeuf Melissa & Robert Soros The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Joan Davidson & Neil S. Barsky Ellen & Jerome L. Stern Charitable Trust Dedalus Foundation, Inc. José Tavarez & Holly Phillips, M.D. Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Lise & Michael Evans Thomas J. Tisch & Alice Montag Tisch The New York City Department Sima Familant of Cultural Affairs GE Asset Management $1,000 to $4,999 The New York State Council on the Arts Gladstone Gallery Debra Tanner Abell, M.D. and Megan Abell Speaker Christine Quinn and the halley k. harrisburg & Michael Rosenfeld Dr. Answorth A. Allen, M.D. and New York City Council Jerome Foundation Dr. Rae Wright-Allen, M.D. Target Joyce & Ira Haupt, II Karen M. Alston Upper Manhattan Empowerment HBO / Henry McGee June Ambrose Zone Development Corporation The Audrey And Sydney Irmas Charitable Ann & Steven Ames Foundation Dr. Janna Andrews $50,000 to $99,999 T. Warren Jackson, DirecTV / Charles E. Simpson, Ariel Investments, LLC Jacqueline Bradley & Clarence Otis, Jr. / Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP Art Production Fund Darden Restaurants, Inc. George & Gail Knox Anna R. Austin Mitzi & Warren Eisenberg Luhring Augustine Gallery James G. Basker & Angela Vallot Goethe-Institut New York Cheryl & Phillip Milstein Maria & Bill Bell Carol Sutton Lewis & William M. Lewis, Jr. Marcus Mitchell & Courtney Lee-Mitchell Jemina R. Bernard Morgan Stanley Marty Nesbitt / The Parking Spot Berdie & Mairtin Brady Samuel I Newhouse Foundation Inc. New York Community Trust Michèle & Joseph Brazil Ann Tenenbaum & Thomas H. Lee Amy and Joe Perella Charitable Fund Valerie S. Brown / AllianceBernstein LP Teri & Lloyd Trotter / GE Foundation Pfizer, Inc. Reginald & Dr. Aliya Browne Joyce and George Wein Foundation Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Amy Cappellazzo The Winston Foundation May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation Lisa & Dick Cashin Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Joanne Cassullo $25,000 to $49,999 Marilyn & Jim Simons Nicole Bernard Chaffin Kathryn C. & Kenneth Chenault / Time Warner, Inc. Jean-Claude Gruffat American Express Xerox Foundation The City University of New York Citigroup Anne Cohen Con Edison $5,000 to $9,999 Malaak Compton-Rock Frank & Nina Cooper / Pepsi-Cola Beverages Anonymous Antoinette Cooper / North Americas Raquel Chevremont Baylor & Corey M. Baylor TD Bank Wealth Management Credit Suisse Shaun D. Biggers, M.D. & Kenneth Alleyne, M.D. Paula Cooper Gallery Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Judia & Daniel Black Saundra & Donald Cornwell The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc. Melva Bucksbaum & Raymond Learsy Elizabeth De Cuevas GenNx360 Capital Partners Colgate-Palmolive Anne Delaney & Steve Stuso Agnes Gund Lisa E. Davis, Esq. / Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz Michelle Ebanks Mr. & Mrs. John B. Hess Anthony Edson John E. Ellis, M.D. Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation Rebecca & Martin Eisenberg Charlotte & Bill Ford Debra L. Lee / BET Networks Godfrey R. Gill Gwendolyn Frempong-Boadu Friends 95

Hugh J. Freund Wendy Washington Vanessa Webster Eboni S. Gates / TD Bank Maria Weaver-Watson / Interactive One, LLC Susan White Dr. Henry L. Gates, Jr. George Wein Dawanna Williams Darrel S. Gay / Arent Fox LLP Ted & Nina Wells Karen Williams / Essence Eugene Giscombe Lana Woods Gallery Cristina Grajales $500 to $999 Patricia Miller Zollar William & Diana Gray Dr. Shelley Fox Aarons Great Performances Amsale Aberra $499 and below Anthony A. and Anne Cochran Grey Peg Alston / Peg Alston Fine Arts Anonymous Samuel L. Guillory Andrea Rosen Gallery Virginia Adimora Carla Hendra / OgilvyRED Peggy Bader Khandi Alexander Steven Henry and Philip Schneidman Jennifer Baltimore-Johnson Sheril D. Antonio Leslie Hewitt Aliyyah Baylor / Make My Cake Tracy L. Austin Joan & George Hornig Bershan Shaw Bradley Lee Autry Arthur J. Humphrey, Jr. Susan Bram Yetta Banks Gemma H. Ingalls Saleda S. Bryant, Esq. Gilbert Bassin Tamsen Greene / Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels / Carla Camacho Tai Beauchamp Jack Shainman Gallery Drs. George Campbell and Rosalie Benitez Jenkins Johnson Gallery Mary Schmidt Campbell Ellen Brathwaite Juanita V. Jordan Yvette & Michael Campbell Cybelle A. Brown June Kelly & Charles Storer Agnes Cammock Erika M. Irish Brown Malcolm M. Knapp, Inc. in honor of Lydia & Mats G. Carlston Lynne P. Brown Jacqueline Bradley & Clarence Otis, Jr. Veronica Chambers Randolph C. Cain Kenneth J. Knuckles Ginger McKnight-Chavers Flossie Canada Jill & Peter Kraus Harriette Cole / Harriette Cole Media Lisa Caputo & Rick Morris Nancy L. Lane Sophie Crichton Stuart Evelyn Clarke Nyssa & Chris Lee Wendy Cromwell Sadie & Roberto Codling Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer Judith & Ronald Davenport, Sr. Jane Cohan / James Cohan Gallery Lehmann Maupin Gallery Ria A. Davis, Esq. Theresa & Martin Col Dorothy Lichtenstein Louise Eliasof Jocelyn Cooley Marian Goodman Gallery Elizabeth Ellis Linda Daitz Yolanda & Meredith Marshall Dr. Erika Faust, D.D.S Roberta Dean Crystal McCrary E.W. Finley Sasha Dees Ann & Alton McDowell Steven Ganeless In Honor of Pippa Cohen Brickson E. Diamond Richard & Ronay Menschel Suzanne T. Donaldson Gwen Dixon Laura Michalchyshyn Patricia S. Favreau Eddie Edwards Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Tonya Miller / Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Inc. Sylvia Christian Edwards Constance Mitchell Maya George Georgia E. Ellis Isolde McNicholl Motley & Joel W. Motley Gabrielle Glore George D. Everette Maryanne Mott Charlynn & Warren Goins Theodore C. Fair Efraim Grinberg and Ellen Schoninger / Jai Jai Ramsey Greenfield Marilyn R. Francis Movado Group, Inc in Honor of Jean B. Griffin James E. Frazier Kathryn and Kenneth Chenault Alicia Hall Moran Louis Gagliano & Stefan Handl Angela Mwanza Tiffany M. Hall Ellen Rose Gasnick The Honorable Basil Paterson and Kim Hastreiter Doris Greer Mrs. Portia Paterson Karen M. Hopkins, M.D. Constance Grey Amber & Charles Patton Rosemarie Y. Ingleton Wendy Goodman Elizabeth Davis & Luis Penalver Vanessa Jacquemin William A. Harper Lisa & Richard Perry Dana & Joe Johnson Kaiko Marie Hayes Ellen Phelan & Joel Shapiro Mariana & George S. Kaufman Patricia Hayling Price Kim Powell Gayle King Gladstone E. Hinds Jonelle Procope Evelyn Lasry Trina D. Hudson-Maynes Madeline Murphy Rabb Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Alicia D. Hurley Tracy Reese Deborah Needleman Marsha Y. Jackson Erica & Antonio Reid Edris E. Nicholls Mabel E. Johnson David Rockefeller Janice Carlson Oresman Sophie Juo Annette Mitchell Scott & Wendell A. Scott Vanessa Y. Perez, Ph.D. Klaus Kertess Priya Scroggins / Beloved Star LLC John and Amy Phelan Regtuiniah Khem John Silberman Patricia & William Pickens Christine Y. Kim & James Casebere Marquita & Knut Eckert Isabelle Kirshner Michele Smalley Deborah Roberts & Al Roker Angelina Kotinkaduwa Lisa Dennison / Erica Barrish / Sotheby’s Joanne Rosen Peter D. Lax Michael Ward Stout / Cynthia Rowley Jeffrey A. Leib The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Lisa Schiff Margaret & Tilden J. Lemelle Renée H. Sutton Jean Shafiroff James Lewis David Teiger Melanie Shorin Jill F. Lloyd Laurie M. Tisch Keisha Smith Andrea Mahon Toby D. Lewis Philanthropic Fund Marcelena Spencer Daisy W. Martin Norma & John T. Thompson Jennifer P. Streaks Alma R. Miller Union Pacific Fund for Effective Government The Studio in a School Association Jessica J. Miller Gordon VeneKlasen William S. Susman & Emily L. Glasser Linda Mills Warnaco Inc. Jocelyn Taylor LouAnn Moore Laura Warner Mickalene Thomas & Carmen McLeod Cathleen S. Morawetz Nancy Washington In Honor of Teri & Lloyd Nicola Vassell Eunice H. Murphy Trotter Winter/Spring 2012 96

Supporters

June C. Nelson Charlotte M. Nicholson Adekunle Omotade Constance M. Orlando Benan Ozakbas Monica Parham Patricia Pearson Olivia E. & Paul Bruce Perkins Fannie Porter Denise L. Quarles Donville Reid Valerie Rhodes Kenneth W. Richardson Jean A. Rock Elaine Rogers Stacy Rosenthal Mildred B. Roxborough Victoria Sanders Ann & Mel Schaffer Louis W. Scheeder William Seraile, Ph.D. Howard & Sharon Socol Elza Rohan Sharpe Norma Shaw-Hogan Melanie Smith Seton Smith Sim E. Smith Alexandra Soreff In Honor of Steven Jones Joanne M. Stern Ardelia & Ronald L. Stewart Carl R. Sword Charles Tarver, Sr. / Blark Art Beverly Taylor Cleophus Thomas Artie Thompson Brenda & Larry Thompson Jacqueline Tuggle Susan Ungaro Andrew I. Uriarte Monique Ware Margaret N. Weitzmann Diane & Craig Welburn Olivia S. & Carey A. White L. H. Whitehead Emil K. Wilbekin Lyn & E. Thomas Williams Sybil Williams Alicin R. Williamson Barbara M. Wilson

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2x4, Inc. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Harlem Flo floral atelier

The Studio Museum in Harlem makes every Meschac Gaba Page 99 effort to ensure the accuracy of its lists of Lipstick Building, 2004 Dave McKenzie supporters. If your name is not listed as you Museum Purchase They Dreamed of prefer or if you believe that your name has made possible by gifts Nefertiti’s Holiday been omitted, please let us know by contacting from Anne Ehrenkranz, (detail), 2011 the Development Office at 212.864.4500x221 New York and Nancy Courtesy the artist or [email protected]. Lane, New York 05.5.1

Friends 97 Membership Join today! Info Becoming a member has never been easier.

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Address General Info Museum Hours 144 W. 125th St. New York, NY 10027 T 212 864 4500 Thursday and Friday, noon–9pm (between Malcolm X and Adam C. F 212 864 4800 Saturday, 10am–6pm Powell Jr. Boulevards) Sunday, noon–6pm Media Contact Admission 212 864 4500 x213 The museum is closed to the public Suggested donation: $7 (adults), [email protected] on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday $3 (seniors and students). but available for school and group Public Programs Info Free for members and children tours by appointment on these days. 212 864 4500 x264 (12 and under). For more information on scheduling [email protected] a tour visit: studiomuseum.org. Membership Info 212 864 4500 x221 [email protected]

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