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1 month ago | 
artnews.com | Shantay Robinson
Can a sculpture convey power? Historically, sculpture has been one of the key ways to depict who is in charge and who is worth remembering. That has been the case in the United States where the Lincoln Memorial and Mount Rushmore recall the country’s most revered presidents. Sculpture as a tool of conveying power can be seen in the rise in monuments to leaders of the Confederacy both after the Civil War and in the early 20th century; for many these sculptures are alienating and oppressive.
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1 month ago | 
artnews.com | Shantay Robinson
The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was a movement of the 1920s and ’30s that sought to redefine Black identity through literature, music, painting, photography, and intellectual thought. It was a direct response to negative stereotypical images that proliferated throughout popular culture in the United States in the wake of the Civil War.
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2 months ago | 
artnews.com | Shantay Robinson
There are Black people in the future.” In 2017, contemporary visual artist Alisha B. Wormsley began placing those words on billboards across the country in cities including Pittsburgh, Detroit, Charlotte, New York City, Kansas City, and Houston.
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2 months ago | 
smithsonianmag.com | Shantay Robinson
In the center of a meditative gallery, artist Tsedaye Makonnen’s seven light towers—made from mirrored boxes featuring the cutout designs of Ethiopian crosses—serve as monuments to lost Black lives. Printed on a nearby gallery wall are the names of 54 deceased Black people.
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May 21, 2024 | 
artnews.com | Shantay Robinson
During the 1920s and ’30s, a cohort of Black artists, writers, and intellectuals, many of whom were based in Harlem, ushered in what was then known as the New Negro Movement. Today, the Harlem Renaissance is renowned for its reputation of ushering in the New Negro, and the movement is currently the subject of a major survey at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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May 13, 2024 | 
washingtoncitypaper.com | Shantay Robinson
Thanks for being a member of City Paper! David C. Driskell’s story started in Eatonton, Georgia, where he came of age during the Jim Crow era, but when it ended in 2020—he died at age 88 from complications related to COVID—he was a distinguished professor emeritus who served as chair of the University of Maryland’s art department. Driskell earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Howard University in 1955 and a master’s degree from Catholic University in ’62.
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Mar 14, 2024 | 
smithsonianmag.com | Shantay Robinson
The early 20th century produced an audaciously talented but tragic figure in the painter William H. Johnson. From his very humble beginnings in the Jim Crow South, he worked to fulfill his dreams in Harlem before meeting his devastating demise in Europe. Though several solo exhibitions celebrated his work before his death in 1970 and in the following decades, the current show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM)—“Fighters for Freedom: William H.
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Dec 22, 2023 | 
artnews.com | Shantay Robinson
It was a great year in Black art from New York to the San Francisco Bay. In 2023 it was featured throughout the country in a wealth of blockbuster exhibitions that garnered considerable attention, establishing Black artists as some of the most esteemed in the world. Black art speaks to diverse audiences about the lived experiences of Black artists and Black people.
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Dec 5, 2023 | 
smithsonianmag.com | Shantay Robinson
While Simone Leigh is arguably one of the most famous artists in the United States, drawing acclaim from all corners, she emphasizes that she creates with a specific audience in mind: Black women. Historically, African American women have been burdened by intersectional oppressions, based on race, gender and class, that hinder their humanity, and understanding Black women’s oppression is the key to accessing Leigh’s work.
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Nov 30, 2023 | 
artnews.com | Shantay Robinson
Walter O. Evans calls his penchant for collecting hundreds of artworks, almost expectedly, “an addictive process,” which began somewhat unintentionally in the late 1970s. Though it’s by no means encyclopedic, his impressive holdings stretch as far back to the mid-19th century, with a cornerstone of the collection, the 1848 painting Man Fishing by Robert S. Duncanson, a free Black artist.
