One particular all-American pendulum has been swinging backwards in the United States: antagonism on the basis of race and class.  

 

It has now fully swung back. 

 

Institutions of all kinds are weighing, under financial pressure, whether to abandon  programs and language designed to reach racial and class equity in the distribution of the goodies of this civilization. 

 

Officially approved race-baiting has begun. Again.

 

Extraordinary shenanigans to disempower minority citizens go on at every election.

 

 

Expulsion and Nativity, 1963, oil on canvas. 

Bob Thompson, 1937-1966, American. MOMA, NY

 

Bob Thompson borrowed from Massaccio’s 1425 ‘Expulsion from the Garden of Eden’, and Piero della Francesca’s ‘Nativity, 1570-75,  to represent the fate of African Americans: expelled but with a longing for inclusion.

The American eagle backs the scene of the Nativity; into whose image space root and branch of the Tree of Knowledge extend. 

 

 

Institutes of learning are to be encouraged or forced to tell only one story of the country’s history: America the Beautiful.

Books have been removed from libraries to this end.

 

 

 

America the Beautiful, oil paint on canvas, 1960.  Norman Lewis, 1909-1979, American.  Private collection on loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19. 

The Klu Klux Klan dressed up, carrying the crosses of their hate, on the move at night.

 

 

A merciless, vengeful, angry, all-male variety of the Judaeo-Christian god is now again in the ascendant.  This is the god of the dualities: good/bad; male/female; North America/everywhere else etc.

His representative on earth is not the Pope but the Executive of the American government.

 

 

 

 

One Nation Under God, 1970, automotive primer paint on engraved aluminum.

Timothy Washington, American born 1946.  Los Angeles County Museum of Art loaned to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19.  Image from the web.

The American eagle is missing. 

The presence of the donkey, long-suffering, sure-footed, unemotive, always in service, says everything.

 

 

I repost images from an exhibition of  The Tate Modern, London, of the works of artists who came of age during and after the introduction of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965)

 

and the emergence of Black Power, 1966, after a call from Stokely Carmichael, later Kwame Ture, advocating Black community defense, economic independence and pride. 

 

I have added images from elsewhere also.

 

Works from the Exhibition: Soul of A Nation: Black Art in The Era of Black Power in 2018 and 2019 at the Brooklyn Museum, NY

 

 

 

Wherever Death May Surprise Us, 1960s, lithograph on paper.  Center for the Study of Political Graphics. 

Emory Douglas, American born 1943 who stamped this with his title, ‘Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party’

 

 

 

The loose collective name for the artists who made art of the identity of African America in the 1960s and ’70s is the Black Arts movement.

Included also were written and spoken word artists, musicians, dancers.

 

 

Portrait of Amiri Baraka, 1967, gelatin print on board. 

Darryl Cowherd, American born 1940. Private collection on loan to the Brooklyn Museum, NY in 2018/19

Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) poet,  playwright, activist, founder of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in Harlem in 1968 is recognized as the founder of the Black Arts Movement.

 

 

 

The period represented in this exhibition was 1958-1983. 

Figurative and conceptual work in painting, mural, collage, prints, sculpture, fabric arts reviewed for their aesthetic innovations; 

 

and in four geographical areas:  New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC.

 

This work was made to the ends of creating own-narrative, own-representation, political commentary, exhortation, education, community organization and support of artists. 

 

That an exhibition of this scale on this subject did not originate in the United States

says everything about the general lack of interest in and a discrimination against the work of African-American artists by the American art establishment over decades. 

 

That very few of these works – almost all owned by individuals or families –

are in institutional collections – whether museum or foundation or educational establishment – speaks to this same apathy, negligence and hostility which amount to existential violence.

 

Carl Jung said that the soul, if not tended, keeps coming back in furious and monstrous forms. 

 

 

 

The Conjur Woman, 1964, photostat on fiberboard.  

Romare Beardon, 1911-1988, American.  Private collection on loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

The African American civilization is a past master of the techniques and discipline of soul-tending.

To this their art forms attest: blues, jazz, spirituals, the colours of their clothing and fabulousness of their millinery, quilting, dancing, rapping, prophetic preaching and all their graphic arts.

 

 

New York

 

The Spiral Group was a collective of 15 artists formed by Romare Bearden, Charles Woodruff and Norman Lewis.  Their first aim was to take artists to Washington to attend the March for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. 

 

Their subsequent aim was to see whether they could evolve a ‘Negro aesthetic’, an aim to whose implementation they, eventually, could not agree.  The group, however, provided a space and a time for the self-identification, group identification and encouragement of artists who had no other institutional support.

 

 

Pittsburgh Memory, 1964, printed papers and graphite on board. 

Romare Beardon, 1911-1988, American.  Private collection on loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

The Racist Dog Policeman, c. 1970, lithograph on paper. 

Emory Douglas, the Communications Director of the Black Panthers, born 1943.  Victoria and Albert Museum, London  loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2017/18

 

 

 

 

Untitled, no date, oil paint on canvas. 

Emma Amos, American born 1937.  Private collection on loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

The only woman invited into the  Spiral Group, Emma Amos was primarily a figurative painter.

 

 

 

 

Eva the Babysitter, 1973, oil on canvas. 

Emma Amos, American born 1937.  Collection of the family on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

Emma Amos is in a group of minority artists – women and ethnic minorities – whose work is only now being presented in museums and private galleries.  Well known among a small group of her peers, her work was ignored by the majority of museum professionals, galleries, auction houses, and by the collecting public.  

 

 

The Black Emergency Cultural Coalition was founded by Black artists in 1969 to advocate for more Black representation on New York art museum walls and the hiring of Black curators. 

 

The Studio Museum in Harlem was established in 1968 as also the Brooklyn Museum’s Community Gallery.  El Museo del Barrio focusing on the work of Caribbean and Latin-American artists of all races opened in 1969.

 

———————-

 

 

I do not recall mention of this in this exhibition but JAM – Just Above Midtown –  was founded  in 1974 by a 25-year-old Black artist, art historian and activist named Linda Goode Bryant.  Located a few blocks north of the Museum of Modern Art, it was African-American art institution, owned and run by them.   

 

Bryant did not want to create a ghetto of minority artists.  She wanted to create a model of desegregation in which artists of various ethnic and cultural identities could coexist, with all parties retaining equal weight and agency.  This (ad)venture lasted in 3 locations in the city until 1986.

 

Artists used JAM’s facility as their studio. They administered and raised funds for JAM. They published books and journals co-operatively at JAM. 

 

The roster of JAM-nourished artists is extensive. Among the best known:  David Hammons, Suzanne Jackson, Valerie Maynard, Vivian Browne, and Senga Nengudi.

 

 

Pray For America, 1969, pigment and screenprint on paper, and detail.  

David Hammons, American, born 1943. A gift promised to MOMA, NY and the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY

 

Picking up a technique used by Yves Klein, Hammons coated his head and body with margarine and pressed the greased areas down on large sheets of paper.  He dusted the resulting image with pigment.

 

 

 

Wind and Water, 1975, acrylic and pencil on canvas.

Suzanne Jackson, American born 1944. MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Inside/Outside, 1977, nylon mesh, rubber, foam, sand.

Senga Nengudi, American born 1943.  Loaned in 2021 to the Philadelphia Art Museum by the Stadlische Galerie im Lebnachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich, Germany

The title of this work and the oblong shape of its rubber tube refers to the organs of the body.  In the photograph the artist is wearing her creation as a crown or hair extension in a transformation of her body. 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Men #86, 1967, acrylic on paper.

Vivian Browne, 1927-1993, American. MOMA, NY

The artist made a series of caricatural drawings of mature  white men behaving petulantly.  The reception she received was one of outrage.

 

 

 

 

Mourning for Maurice, 1970, wood iron nails.

Valerie Maynard, 1937-2022, American. Baltimore Museum of Art

 

—————————–

 

 

A.I.R. Gallery, Soho, NY

 

Howardena Pindell was the only Black co-founder of the A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) with 19 other women in 1972.  In 1977 she became the first African American curator at MOMA, NY. 

Deeply affected by the Black Power and feminist movements, she has had a long career in abstraction and conceptual work using mixed-media.

 

Memory Past, 1980-81, acrylic, dye, paper, thread, tempera, photographic transfer, glitter and powder on canvas

Howardena Pindell, American born 1943.  MOMA, NY

 

 

——————————–

 

 

 

 

The First One Hundred Years:  He Amongst You Who Is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone; Forgive Them, Father, For They Know Not What They Do, c. 1963-72, oil on canvas. 

Archibald Mottley, 1891-1981, American.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

No More Games,1970, oil on canvas with cut-and-pasted primed and raw canvas, T shirt, garment fragments, and partially painted printed fragments; two panels. 

Benny Andrews, 1930-2006, American.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

 

Fred Hampton’s Door 2, 1975, acrylic paint on wood. 

Dana C. Chandler, American born 1941. Exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

In 1967, the artist committed himself to the Black Power Movement after he witnessed the use of violence by the Boston police against a peaceful march.

The Black Panther, Fred Hampton, was shot dead in his bed in Chicago in 1969 during a pre-dawn police raid.  He was one of two Black Panthers killed.  He was 21.

 

 

 

 

American People Series #18:  The Flag is Bleeding, 1967, oil paint on canvas. 

Faith Ringgold, 1930-2024, American.  Private loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

U.S.A. ’65, 1965, oil paint and paper collage on canvas. 

Merton D. Simpson, 1926-2013, American.  Brooklyn Museum

 

 

 

Black Unity, 1968, cedar wood.

Elizabeth Catlett, 1915-2002.  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19.  Front and back

 

 

 

 

 Blackboard, 1969, oil on canvas. 

Cliff Joseph, 1922-2020, American born Panama.  Private gallery loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

Did the Bear Sit Under the Tree?, oil paint, fabric and zipper on canvas. 

Benny Andrews, 1930-2006, American.  Private collection on loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

United States of Attica, lithograph on paper, 1971-72.  

Faith Ringgold, 1930-2024, American. On exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

The artist presents the prison riot at Attica Prison in 1971 which left 43 people dead as an incident in a long history of nationwide violence between the races.  People were invited to add facts to the map.

 

 

 

***************************

 

 

The Kaimonga (‘a group of people working together’ in Kikuyu) gathered together African American photographers. 

Their goal was to support and exhibit their photography; and the group continues to this day.  Roy DeCarava was its first leader.

 

 

Mississippi Freedom Marcher, Washington, DC 1963, gelatin silver print. 

Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009, American.  Private loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Shadows, New York, 1961, gelatin silver print. 

Adger Cowans, American born 1936. Loaned by the artist to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Malcolm X, 1961.   Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009. 

Private loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Shade cord and window, 1961.  Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009. 

Private loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

Coltrane on soprano, 1963, gelatin silver print. 

 Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009.  Private loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Ornette Coleman, 1960, gelatin silver print.  

Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009.  Private loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Couple Walking, 1979, gelatin silver print. 

Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009.  Private loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

**************************

 

Points South

 

 

The exhibition noted the large place, in the context of segregation, that Black colleges – Howard, Fisk, Talladega – played in the education of Black artists and activists.

 

 

 

 

Revolutionary Student, 1970, lithograph on paper. 

Emory Douglas, American born 1970.  Victoria and Albert Museum, London loan to the Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

David Driskell, an artist himself, taught at Howard University in the late 1960s and then at Talladega. 

The museum notes that it was he who, with the recommendation of the artist and teacher, Charles White, organized ‘Two Centuries of Black American Art, 1750-1950’ at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1976.  A first such review.

 

John T. Riddle and Lev T. Mills taught at Spelman College in Atlanta in the early 1970s.

 

 

 

Fairbanks or Garvey, 1979, screenprint on paper. 

John T. Riddle, 1933-2002.  Brooklyn Museum, NY

The work compares the liberation of Black people with their consumer servitude and the use of Black caricatures to sell.

 

 

 

 

Of Time, I Weep, acrylic paint and collage on fiberboard, 1968. 

 David Driskell, 1931-2020.  Colby College Museum of Art, Winterville, Maine on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Ghetto #2, oil paint, acrylic paint and collage on linen.  

David Driskell, 1931-2020, American.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Le Roi, 1972, screenprint on paper with coloured-pencil additions. 

Lev T. Mills, American born 1940.  Brooklyn Museum, NY

Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones,1934-2014) went through a life change during the ferment of the 1960s.  He changed his name and dedicated his work to the evolution of an aesthetic which might aid the liberation of Blacks everywhere.

 

 

Los Angeles:  Sculpture and Assemblage

 

Decades of discrimination in the Los Angeles area climaxed in the Watts Rebellion after yet another incident of police brutality.  Nationwide disturbances and in LA, six days of rebellion and 34 people dead there.

 

Pioneer galleries opened for Black art: 

Suzanne Jackson’s gallery (opened 1968).  In 1968, the Black Art Council was formed to advocate for the exhibition of Black artists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

 

 

The Brockman Gallery opened  in 1967.

 

Opening night at Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles, in 1967.

Credit: Brockman Gallery Archive/Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections, via parrasch heijnen.  From the web of the NY Times

 

 

 

Self Portrait Inside Series #8, 1974, acrylic and spray paint on canvas.

Alonso Davis, 1942-2025. In memoriam

Credit: via parrasch heijnen, Los Angeles; photographed by Ed Mumford. From the web of the NY Times

 

 

 

 

Triplical Communications, ?date , acrylic paint on canvas. 

Suzanne Jackson, American born 1944.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

Suzanne Jackson, artist, dancer, set designer opened her gallery in 1968.  Her work was very influential in giving space and publicity to many artists including Bettye Saar, Timothy Washington and David Hammons.

She herself was taught by Charles White, the most widely known of Black artists during his lifetime, the teacher of David Hammons and Kerry James Marshall and a generation of artists working today.

 

 

Wanted Poster No. 5, 1969, oil paint on board.  Charles White, 1918-1979.  Private loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19. 

An update of the posters used during slavery to indicate that a slave had escaped.

 

In the lively community of artists using various media in Los Angeles, a number of artists collected street detritus to create art.  Melvin Edwards used metal.  

 

 

 

Some Bright Morning, 1963, welded steel. 

Melvin Edwards, American born 1936.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Afro-Phoenix, 1963, welded steel. 

 Melvin Edwards, American born 1936.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totem, 1966-68, mixed media. 

Noah Purifoy, 1917-2004, American.  Private loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972, wood, cotton, plastic, metal, acrylic paint, printed paper and fabric. Betye Saar, American born 1926.  UC Berkley Art Museum on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19. 

 

Equally famous is a quilt made in 1983 by Faith Ringgold which overhauled the story of Aunt Jemima’s life to give her agency and autonomy.

 

 

 

 

Untitled, 1970, wood, leather, brass, copper. 

Noah Purifoy, 1917-2004, American.  Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Traditional Hang Up (Containment Series), 1969, mixed media.   

John Outerbridge, American born 1933.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

House of the Head, 1971, acrylic paint, leather, feathers, wood, bones. 

Betye Saar, American born 1926.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

Captive Image (Ethnic Heritage Series), mixed media, c. 1971-72. 

John Outterbridge, American born 1933.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum

 

 

 

 

Revolution in Our Lifetime, 1969, lithograph on paper.  

Emory Douglas, American born 1943 whose his title was Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party

 

 

 

This is all a very long quest of a people to be at peace in their  home.

 

Book cover illustration, 1969. 

Sonia Sanchez, American born 1934.  Elmer Douglas, American born 1943.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2017/18