African-American Art Songs & Spirituals

Kemp Recital Hall Thursday Evening February 9, 1995 8:00p.m

Conceptualizing African-American Art: The Market, Academic Discourse, and Public Reception

The concept of an `African-American art market' presents a new field of scholarly inquiry. However, objects labeled and fashioned as `African-American art' allude to a broader visual culture composed of objects, buyers, sellers and critics than previously acknowledged in scholarly literature. This dissertation will provide a nuanced picture of how an `African-American art market' has been conceptualized and how this understanding reflects a complex web of tensions and relationships between objects, consumers, sellers and even scholars and critics of the work. Since the current literature on the field of African-American art provides only scant attention to the consumption of African American art and virtually nothing about its place in the art market, this study will demonstrate how art historians could critically interpret African-American art in relation to market dynamics through an investigation of art related publications, oral interviews, public display venues.Doctor of Philosoph

Documented Struggles and Triumph: African American Art

The emergence of African Americans as artists began in the Colonial Era with simple portraits. The first African American artist to gain recognition as a portraitist was Joshua Johnston who worked in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The majority of his portraits were of wealthy European American families, who were slave owners (Fig. 1). Johnston was formerly a slave, and as rumors suggests, his former owner was also a portraitist from which Johnston acquired his skills. Interestingly, Johnston did not sign or date any of his works (Lewis 15). It seems as though a suggestion to his name might reveal his race which would make the work less valuable, or seem insufficient to the other works created at the time. Another African American portrait artist of the Colonial era was Julien Hudson. Although the artist is of African descent, his piece Self Portrait (Fig. 2) shows the artist as a well dressed man with European features. The nose on the gentleman in the painting seems quite Romanesque. He is dressed in a tuxedo, complete with a bow tie around his neck. The portrait has a deep connection to the European artist Charles Bird King’s piece, Young Omawhaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawness. While King’s piece, with subjects bearing Romanesque noses and European features, referred to the ability of Native Americans to be assimilated to American ways, Hudson’s work may have implied that African Americans also had the nobility to fit in with the Europeans, not as slaves but as equals. [Page 1

Kanopy Curates Black History Month Film List

For Black History Month, Kanopy has curated a film list highlighting African-American art, history, intellectual contributions and current events

Bibliography for African American Art: A Display in Celebration of Black History

A bibliography created to accompany a display about African American Art in February 2022 at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University

Exhibition Review: “A Selection of African American Art and Artists’ Books” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library

A review of “A Selection of African American Art and Artists’ Books”, a 2022 library exhibit, for inclusion in ARLIS/NA's Library Exhibitions Review Issue 1

African American Art from the Kruizenga Museum Collection

A poster for the exhibition African American Art from the Kruizenga Museum Collection . The exhibition was originally scheduled to run January 17-April 25, 2020. Hope College\u27s switch to remote operations in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic shortened the exhibition dates.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/kam_poster/1011/thumbnail.jp

University Students from Japan Celebrate African-American Art and Culture

News release announces that twelve students from Kyoto Seika University will experience African-American art and culture in a seminar to be held in the Kennedy Union East Ballroom

Singing down the barriers: Encouraging singers of all racial backgrounds to perform music by African American composers

This chapter investigates the barriers faced by singers of all racial backgrounds when performing spirituals and African American art songs and suggests ways to eliminate those barriers.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57353/1/288_ftp.pd

Columbia Chronicle (02/14/2005)

Student newspaper from February 14, 2005 entitled The Columbia Chronicle. This issue is 24 pages and is listed as Volume 39, Number 16. Cover story: Series explores role of African-American art Editor-in-Chief: Andrew Greinerhttps://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_chronicle/1635/thumbnail.jp