Soul of a Nation
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SOUL OF A NATION ART IN THE AGE OF BLACK POWER 12 JUL – 22 OCT 2017 LARGE PRINT GUIDE CONTENTS Room 1............................................................................................5 Room 2..........................................................................................14 Room 3..........................................................................................40 Room 4..........................................................................................53 Room 5..........................................................................................65 Room 6..........................................................................................77 Room 7..........................................................................................85 Room 8..........................................................................................95 Room 9.........................................................................................114 Room 10......................................................................................126 Room 11.......................................................................................139 Room 12 .....................................................................................147 Find out more............................................................................180 INTRODUCTION This exhibition celebrates the work of Black artists working in the United States in the two decades after 1963. During this turbulent time, these artists asked and answered many questions. How should an artist respond to political and cultural changes? Was there a ‘Black art’ or a ‘Black aesthetic’? Should an artist create legible images or make abstract work? Was there a choice to be made between addressing a specifically Black audience or a ‘universal’ one? The exhibition looks at responses to such questions, with each room devoted to groups of artists in cities nationwide, or to different kinds of art. While showing strong communities and robust artistic dialogues, it also reveals necessary disagreements about what it meant to be a Black artist at this time. In 1963, when the exhibition begins, the American Civil Rights Movement was at its height. At the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington D.C., Dr Martin Luther King, Jr dreamed that his children would live in ‘a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character’. King referred to himself proudly as ‘Negro’, but by this time, many who were on the March were beginning to 3 call themselves Black. Taking issue with King’s non-violent position, especially after appalling racist violence later in 1963, many joined in calls for ‘Black Power’. Others rejected the idea of an integrated America, and began to speak of a separate, autonomous Black Nation. Looking at newly independent African nations, and understanding an ancestral connection to the continent, the terms ‘Afro-American’ and ‘African American’ also began to take root. The artists in Soul of a Nation were profoundly aware of these political visions and different senses of self, and each took an aesthetic position in relation to them. 4 ROOM 1 SPIRAL 5 The exhibition starts with the Spiral group that formed in New York in 1963. As they wrote, ‘During the summer of 1963 at a time of crucial metamorphosis just before the now historic March on Washington, a group of Negro artists met to discuss their position in American society’. Many of the 15 members were established artists and they worked in wide-ranging styles. While they asked the question ‘Is there a Negro image?’, they gave no single answer. They mounted one joint exhibition in 1965, agreeing to show only ‘works in black and white’. The exhibition included one of Norman Lewis’s abstract paintings, Romare Bearden’s Photostat of one of his collages, and Reginald Gammon’s forceful painting of the March. Younger Black artists would look back to Spiral later, impressed both by the group’s determination to exhibit together in an artist-run space, and by the range of artistic viewpoints of its members. 6 Clockwise from left Romare Bearden 1911–1988 The Conjur Woman 1964 Printed papers and goauche on cardboard The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, 1971 X61862 Romare Bearden 1911–1988 The Prevalence of Ritual: Baptism 1964 Printed paper, acrylic paint, ink and graphite on cardboard Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 X29993 7 Romare Bearden 1911–1988 Mysteries 1964 Printed papers and acrylic paint on cardboard Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Ellen Kelleran Gardner Fund X61455 Romare Bearden 1911–1988 Pittsburgh Memory 1964 Printed papers and acrylic paint on cardboard Collection of halley k harrisburg & Michael Rosenfeld, New York X64720 8 Romare Bearden 1911–1988 The Street 1964 Printed papers on cardboard Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee. Gift of Friends of Art and African American Art Acquisition Fund X61456 Romare Bearden 1911–1988 The Conjur Woman 1964 Photostat on breboard Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York X65457 9 Romare Bearden 1911–1988 The Dove 1964 Photostat on breboard The Romare Bearden Foundation, courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York X61598 10 Norman Lewis 1909–1979 America the Beautiful 1960 Oil paint on canvas Although starting out as a realist painter, Norman Lewis worked with abstraction from the mid-1940s. He was a key gure of abstract expressionism, despite having fewer opportunities to exhibit his work than other colleagues. In a small series of works, he set aside his air for colour to concentrate on black and white, in order to reflect on race relations in America. Here, Lewis evokes a gathering of the Ku Klux Klan, while titling the work to suggest the difference between America’s vision of itself and its realities. From the Collection of Tonya Lewis Lee and Spike Lee X61451 11 Norman Lewis 1909–1979 Processional 1965 Oil paint on canvas Norman Lewis painted Processional for the Spiral group exhibition of May 1965. He had attended the March on Washington in 1963, and Processional is an abstract evocation of the Selma Marches that took place in March 1965. These were a series of three marches led by Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital, Montgomery, aimed at registering Black voters. Despite violent and repressive opposition from state troopers, the marchers grew in number and, on their third attempt, completed the 54-mile journey, now 25,000 strong. In Processional, Lewis sets a series of white brush strokes in a widening shape, like a light beam against darkness.. Private collection, courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York X61549 12 ROOM 2 ART ON THE STREET 13 ‘The Ghetto itself is the Gallery for the Revolutionary Artist.’ – Emory Douglas For many Black artists in this period, a key question was: where to present their art? Their work was excluded from nearly all mainstream museums. Linked to this was another question: which viewers should they address? This room looks at ways artists positioned their work beyond conventional gallery and museum spaces. It reveals how they inspired and mobilised speci cally Black and local audiences. OBAC (pronounced ob-bah-see; The Organization of Black American Culture) formed in Chicago in 1967. This group of artists and writers created The Wall of Respect, an outdoor mural in the city’s South Side. The Wall featured images of ‘Black Heroes’ – civic leaders, writers, musicians, sports stars and dancers – and became a gathering place for poetry readings, music, and performances.It sparked a wave of murals in African American neighbourhoods nationwide. In 1966 The Black Panther Party (BPP) for Self-Defense formed in Oakland, California. The ten-point party platform set out demands for improved housing and education, and an end to police brutality. Their statement began, ‘We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community’. Panthers carried guns to protect Black residents, and launched a free breakfast programme for working-class children and health clinics for locals. Soon after its founding, 14 the BPP created The Black Panther newspaper. Young artist Emory Douglas was appointed the party’s Minister of Culture and designed the newspaper. In his back- page illustrations, photomontages, posters and flyers, Douglas depicted the party’s demands, its leaders and recognisable scenes of both struggle and triumph. Research on the mural movement was carried out by Julia Bailey. 15 Clockwise on wall from left Faith Ringgold born 1930 Design for poster, ‘All Power to the People’ 1970 Paper on paper Private collection X61852 Emory Douglas born 1943 Prime Minister of Colonized Afro-America 1968 Lithograph on paper Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles x65454 16 Emory Douglas born 1943 Wherever Death May Surprise Us 1967 Lithograph on paper Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles x65453 Emory Douglas born 1943 Emory “67” 1967 Lithograph on paper Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles x65456 17 Emory Douglas born 1943 We are Soldiers in the Army c. 1970 Lithograph on paper Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles x65902 Emory Douglas born 1943 You Can Jail a Revolutionary 1969 Lithograph on paper Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles X65900 18 Emory Douglas