Thelma Golden

Kellie Jones

Connie H. Choi

An authoritative guide to one of the world's most important collections of African-American art, with works by artists from Romare Bearden to Kehinde Wiley. The artists featured in Black Refractions, including Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Nari Ward, Norman Lewis, Wangechi Mutu, and Lorna Simpson, are drawn from the renowned collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Through exhibitions, public programs, artist residencies, and bold acquisitions, this pioneering institution has served as a nexus for artists of African descent locally, nationally, and internationally since its founding in 1968. Rather than aim to construct a single history of "black art," Black Refractions emphasizes a plurality of narratives and approaches, traced through 125 works in all media from the 1930s to the present. An essay by Connie Choi and entries by Eliza A. Butler, Akili Tommasino, Taylor Aldridge, Larry Ossei Mensah, Daniela Fifi, and other luminaries contextualize the works and provide detailed commentary. A dialogue between Thelma Golden, Connie Choi, and Kellie Jones draws out themes and challenges in collecting and exhibiting modern and contemporary art by artists of African descent. More than a document of a particular institution's trailblazing path, or catalytic role in the development of American appreciation for art of the African diaspora, this volume is a compendium of a vital art tradition.

Highlights from the Studio Museum in Harlem

Black Refractions

Dorothy Moss

Kim Sajet

Taína Caragol

Richard Powell

"This is the first study of the portraits Barack Obama (2018) and Michelle Obama (2018), their reception, and their significance. The book includes essays by historians examining the influence of the paintings and what they reveal about contemporary portraiture, particularly in relation to American and African American history and culture. The book also features interviews with the artists, transcripts of the remarks made by the Obamas at the unveiling, and a selection of images, including behind-the-scenes photography by Pete Souza, the official photographer for the Obamas, made during the portrait sittings"--

The Obama Portraits

Companion volume to the PBS series with focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists in the United States today.

Art in the Twenty-First Century

Art: 21

Naomi Beckwith

Chrissie Iles

The ultimate monograph on the work of celebrated artist Lorna Simpson, a trailblazer who continues to influence and inspire Lorna Simpson is a multimedia artist known for her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. In 1993 Simpson was the first African-American woman ever to show in the Venice Biennale and to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This landmark book documents Simpson's career in its entirety, up to her most recent work. In doing so, it sheds light on the remarkable path that Simpson paved to global critical acclaim and art-world stardom.

Lorna Simpson - Revised and Expanded Edition

Whitney Museum of American Art

Elizabeth Alexander

Henry Louis Gates (Jr.)

Constance Wolf

Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art

Black Male

Hilton Als

Scott Rothkopf

Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Mar. 10-June 5, 2011, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Calif. Oct. 23, 2011-Jan. 22, 2012 and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Tex. Feb.-May 2012.

America

Glenn Ligon

Stephen Andrews

Huey Copeland

Darby English

Power Plant (Art gallery)

Wayne Baerwaldt

Richard Crevier

Text by Darby English, Wayne Baerwaldt, Huey Copeland, Mark Nash, Wayne Koestenbaum. Interview by Stephen Andrews.

Thelma Golden

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