Tag: Black Artists
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Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroines: Betye Saar at the Craft & Folk Art Museum
Wall color plays a specific role in Betye Saar’s latest exhibit at the Craft and Folk Museum in Los Angeles. The second floor gallery is painted in a soft shade of stone blue and in the world of laundry products, blue is a color reflector that makes whites appear whiter. The color has been a…
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New Definitions (and Questions) of Power Emerge in a Show Featuring Black Women Artists
For 3 years I have dedicated the month of February to daily posts that celebrate black artists. It was a personal writing challenge as much as it was an artistic one because I wanted to expand my knowledge of black contemporary artists that were underrepresented in traditional arts publications. The artists I featured have greatly influenced the work that…
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Artist a Day Challenge, 2017 Finale (28): Augusta Savage
As we close out Black History Month and usher in Women’s History Month, today’s post on Augusta Savage made sense for a number of reasons — the most important being that today is the artist’s birthday. Born on a leap year 125 years ago, Augusta Savage’s life story still resonates and her career exemplifies an unyielding determination to her art and a strong dedication to her…
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Artist of the Day Challenge (26): Henry Taylor
Upon graduating from Cal Arts in the mid 90’s, Los Angeles artist Henry Taylor has cultivated a career as a portrait artist who uses his medium to connect with his subjects. That familiarity shows through in his work as most of his portraits come from impromptu encounters with the people who find themselves in his orbit: family, friends andhomeless people in…
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Artist a Day Challenge (11): Roy DeCarava
Photography has always been used as a powerful tool for social change. From Frederick Douglass’ early adoption of photography a medium for countering negative images, to Sojourner Truth’s use of Cartes de Visites, W.E.B DuBois’ curated images at the Paris Exhibition of 1900, to James Van Der Zee’s documenting of the black middle class during the Harlem…
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Artist a Day Challenge (7): William Pajaud
William Pajaud was a New Orleans based artist who lived in Los Angeles and specialized in design and watercolor. He was also the first appointed art director for Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company. During his tenure as art director and later as a public relations director he amassed a collection of over 200 works…
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Artist a Day Challenge (4) Charles White
Black artists that came of age in the 1940’s formed a tight network of trailblazers, visionaries, influencers and connectors. When I think of the legendary Charles White I see a connector. Nearly every black artist that created art between the 1940’s and 1980’s were influenced in some way by Charles White. His guidance and advocacy ignited the careers of many artists.…
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Artist a Day Challenge (3) Elizabeth Catlett
I hear Shakespeare’s “what’s past is prologue” on a regular basis these days. When we study history with the unique privledge of time and ideological distance, it’s too easy to criticize what we once considered unfathomable. The atrocities of the past would not dare repeat themselves in the present, because the scars and the pain remain fresh–they never…
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Artist a Day Challenge (2) Samella Lewis
In 1920’s New Orleans a young Samella Lewis first picked up a paint brush and through it she found her voice in an environment that didn’t encourage speaking one’s mind. “It might get me in trouble”, Lewis explains in a 2006 interview, “and so I had to find a way to express my feelings.” What originally began as a private expression, Samella…
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Artist a Day Challenge (1): Ruth Waddy
In the fall of 1962 a group of black artists gathered in the back of Safety Savings and Loan’s community room. Brought together by a 53-year-old woman with no formal knowledge of art and limited resources, Ruth Waddy’s pitch to the group was a simple one: Her goal was to create a juried art show at a…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 