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Black Abstractionism

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Black Abstractionism is a term that refers to a modern arts movement that celebrates Black artists of African ancestry, whether as direct descendants of Africa or of a combined mixed race heritage, who create work that is not representational, presenting the viewer with abstract expression, imagery, and ideas. Black Abstractionism can be found in painting, sculpture, collage, drawing, graphics, ceramics, installation, mixed media, craft and decorative arts.

Abstract art and Black artists

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Many artists have claimed responsibility for creating the first piece of abstract art, given the “non-representational” and “non-objective” subject matter of the work.[1] In the early 1900s, Francis Picabia painted Caoutchouc (Picabia) in 1909.[2] A year later, Wassily Kandinsky signed “1910” to one of his abstract watercolors, “Composition VII,” although many researchers believe that the work was actually created in 1913; Kandinsky may have backdated his work to claim credit for being the first abstract artist in modern art history unaware of Picabia's work the previous year.[3][4][1]

The first Black artist to be recognized for creating an abstract work is just as interesting; the challenge with the abstract work associated with black artists is that it did not announce itself as BLACK, it did not conform to the image of Blackness that non-Black viewers expected to see.[5] The expectation was that Black artists would create exclusively representational art and figurative work that included black faces and reflected the stereotypical images of the Black experience.[6][7] The irony is that many Black artists in the 1700s and 1800s created work that did not reflect “the Black experience" in their subject matter; they painted portraits of white families, sweeping landscapes of white owned lands, nativity scenes with all white characters, etc., as a way to make money as an artist. Some have argued that this was a “Black experience.”[8]

The glaring omission of Black artists is evident throughout American art history.[9] What an artist creates has much to do with the artist's life experiences and history.[10] Many black artists felt marginalized in the white-dominated art world.[7][6] Museum leaders and gallery owners were rarely interested in the work of Black artists.[5][8] According to a 2022 report surveying 31 museums in the United States, Black artists and their work represent 2.2% of museum acquisitions and 6.3% of museum exhibitions during the period from 2008 to 2020.[11][12] In recent years, several Black abstract painters have witnessed an increase in demand for their work,[13] although Black artists represent less than two percent of the $187 billion global art auction market for the period from 2008 to mid-2022.[11]

Historically, the Black Arts Movement focused on a racial equality narrative and viewed abstraction as a reflection of inequality, a privilege of the rich, and frowned on abstract work that was viewed as not contributing to racial justice.[14] Howardena Pindell and her abstractions were rejected by the Studio Museum in Harlem, encouraging her to “go downtown and show with the white boys,” and scolded for making work that was “not sufficiently black.”[6][15] In recent years, just 0.5 percent of museum and gallery acquisitions were of work by Black American women.[11]

Black Abstractionism and the art that it represents was motivated by an attraction to blackness, embracing the discovery of “strategic abstraction” for all of its blackest possibilities.[16] Abstract artists and those associated with Black Abstractionism pushed art in a new direction, shifting the trending and avant-garde dialogues away from Western Europe to the North America.[17]Since 1950, the understanding and presenting of abstract work by Black artists has been one of the major movements in African American and American art history.[18] Black abstract artists face all of the same aesthetic, intellectual, and value questions that other abstract artists face and also have to confront individual and institutional biases regarding content as it relates to black abstract signals and symbols.[19]

History

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Harlem Renaissance to World War II

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The Harlem Renaissance, or New Negro Movement of the 1920s, announced a new era for black artists and attempted to redefine the meaning of blackness, the Black experience, and Black art.[20] The Harlem Renaissance established black abstract, objective, and representational art as central to modern art history.[21] Many museum-goers have very little knowledge of black artists during the 1930s.[22] In the early 1930s, Aaron Douglas created paintings that were “geometric symbolism,” abstract, flat, and not adhering to standard conventions.[20] His murals at Fisk University provided HBCU students with daily exposure to art and the work of a black artist.[23] During the Great Depression, Americans viewed art more conservatively and grew suspicious of abstract images and art, some thinking that abstract images were propaganda of foreign countries.[20] Some may view abstract art as difficult to understand, yet black abstract artists have a history of using abstraction to speak to real situations.[3]

Sargent Claude Johnson was creating abstract work that married geometric shapes and forms rooted in African aesthetics as early as 1934.[24] A pioneer in the New Negro movement, Johnson's copper and enamel Mask (1934) was exhibited at The Met’s Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism exhibition in 2024.[21] In 1945, he created two abstract pieces, “Breakfast,” an oil painting, and “Lovers,” a terracotta sculpture, that are housed in the Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art.[25]

In 1935, the Museum of Modern Art hosted, “African Negro Art,” a show that featured a variety of African sculptures and masks, as well Belgian Congolese abstract tufted cloth patterns, on loan from the Collection Henri-Matisse in Nice, France.[26]

In 1939, the Baltimore Museum of Art presented, “Contemporary Negro Art,” one of the first major museum exhibitions in the United States to showcase African American artists.[27][28] The exhibition ran for two weeks in February during Black History Month (then referred to as “Negro History Week”) and attracted more than 10,000 visitors.[29]

Harlem Renaissance painter Beauford Delaney’s early abstract works predate the Abstract Expressionism movement.[30][31] His 1941 abstract oil, “The Burning Bush,” was created before World War II,[32] and his 1946 abstract painting, “Greene Street,” was inspired by his Greenwich Village neighborhood.[30][33]

In 1944, the Museum of Modern Art presented, "Twelve New Acquisitions in American Painting," an exhibition of "variously realist, romantic, expressionist and abstract" work; Junius Redwood, a Black artist from Columbus, Ohio, who went to school at Hampton, was the youngest artist in the exhibition, represented by his 1941 oil "Night Scene."[34]

Post–World War II

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In 1948, Robert Blackburn, a Black graphic artist, opened the Printmaking Workshop, a 8,000 square foot studio in Chelsea.[35] A product of Harlem, Edwards designed and printed some of the most influential abstract and pop art prints of the 20th century.[36] Norman Lewis, who began his career as a social realist painter,[37] participated in the Artists’ Sessions lecture series at Studio 35 in New York, that became “Subjects of the Artist School,” signaling that abstract art was a serious field of study.[38][37] Lewis was one of the first Black abstract artists to exhibit at Museum of Modern Art.[39] His 1940s jazz-inspired abstract paintings would lay the foundation for Black Abstractionism.[6] Many abstract artists embraced the blues, jazz, and bebop as their guide for improvisation, lyricism and spontaneity,[17] and the recognition of Black artists who worked in abstraction runs parallel to the northward migration of the blues, jazz, and bebop.[14][18] Lewis’ abstract jazz images place him and work in the center of the Abstract Expressionism movement.[6][3]

During the 1950s, Ed Clark began creating work with nontraditional painting items. He is best known using a push broom to complete canvases, as opposed to a standard paint brush. His “push broom technique” allowed him to expand how and where he could apply paint to a surface, and fueled an energy into his work that paralleled the sentiment of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Clark is credited with being the first artist to exhibit a shaped canvas at Brata Gallery, New York, in 1957.[40][41]

Civil rights movement and the 1960s

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In 1968, the Studio Museum in Harlem organized, “Invisible Americans, Black Artists of the ’30s,” in response to a 1968 show at the Whitney Museum titled, The 1930s : Painting and Sculpture in America,” that did not include one Black artist.[42] The Studio Museum show included works by more than twenty artists, School of Paris-inspired abstract works by printmaker Ronald Joseph and painter Archibald Motley, two artist who were normally associated with representational work.[22] In 1968, William T. Williams along with Melvin Edwards, Guy Ciarcia, and Billy Rose, founded Smokehouse Associates. For more than two years, Smokehouse filled vacant lots, barren walls, pocket parks, and neighborhood grocery store signs with abstract murals and sculptures as a way to engage the residents of and visitors to Harlem. The group presented abstract geometrical forms and uneven forms to promote community engagement with ultimate goal of inspiring Harlem residents to create art that would enhance their neighborhood.[43]

In the years surrounding the Smokehouse murals in Harlem, several artists, including Frank Bowling, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas, and Jack Whitten, were expanding the boundaries of Black Abstractionism and pushing the medium into new directions.[43] Painters were moving away from scenes of real events or the “outer world,” and delving into explanations of their souls or “inner world.”[17] In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Sam Gilliam stained a large canvas with hot pinks and reds, draped it, and titled the work, “Red April,” a reference to the blood of a dead black man.[6] Gilliam is recognized as the first modern artist to create canvas work that is not supported by a frame.[44]

Alma Thomas, a Columbus, Georgia native and the first graduate of the Howard University College of Fine Arts, became the first African-American woman to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum.[6][31][45] Following the opening of “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” at the Tate Modern, an artist remarked about the William T. Williams abstract painting “Trane” (1969) that was in the exhibition, “That painting has nothing to do with being Black.”[19]

In 1969, Frank Bowling organized the “5+1”exhibition at Stony Brook University and the Princeton University Art Museum. Five Black abstract artists born in the United States, Melvin Edwards, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Al Loving, Jack Whitten, and William T. Williams, and Bowling, who was born in British Guiana, were featured in the exhibit, hence the “Five plus One.”[46][47] Years later, the MFA Boston developed a partnership with undergraduates at UMass Boston and PhD researchers at Stony Brook University to delve into the historical significance of “5+1”—then and now - with satellite exhibitions at UMass Boston (2022) and Stony Brook University (2023).[46]

In 1970, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and School of the Museum of Fine Arts mounted, “Afro‐American Artists: New York and Boston,” a large group exhibition that included 158 works, including abstract, by 70 Black artists.[48][46]

Latter part of the twentieth century (1970–1999)

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As abstract art gained acceptance and more black artists experimented with abstractions, black abstract artists became new discoverers of paintings techniques.[13][44] Jack Whitten is best known for his 1970s squeegee paintings, a style that he developed at least a decade before Gerhard Richter.[49][13]

In 1971, Hubert Taylor (1937–1991) painted an abstract mural at SEPTA 13th St. trolley station in Philadelphia.[50] In 1983, Taylor, an artist and architect, would become a founding member of Recherche, a Philadelphia-based coalition of black artists.[44]

In 1975, Alvin Smith had a one-man show, “Amherst Series,” at Amherst College’s Mead Art Gallery. His earlier work was representational, and this exhibit announced his transition to an “organic reductivism,” where he explored color pairings and relationships.[10]

In 1976, the LACMA unveiled “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” a major exhibit of African American art.[51] The survey show covered the work of black artists during the period of 1750 to 1950,[51] and excluded work by artists born after the 1920s.[9] The exhibit travelled to Atlanta, Brooklyn, and Dallas, and, at the time, was the largest museum exhibition of black artists and their work.[8]

1n 1980, MoMA PS 1 presented, "Afro-American Abstraction: An Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture by Nineteen Black American Artists," in Long Island City, Queens.[52][53] [54]

In 1991, Kenkeleba Gallery in New York hosted “The Search for Freedom: African American Abstract Painting 1945-1975,” an Exhibition that featured 35 Black artists who considered to be at the “forefront of experiments and commitment to abstraction” during the middle part of the 20th century.[55]

Twenty-first century (2000–)

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"Something To Look Forward To: An Exhibition Featuring Abstract Art By 22 Distinguished Americans Of African Descent," was presented at Franklin And Marshall College in 2004, and at the Morris Museum of Art in 2008.[56] The show featured several black abstract artists who began their careers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which may explain why the National Endowment for the Arts rejected the curatorial team's grant proposal to fund the exhibition.[56]

In 2006, the Studio Museum in Harlem presented a blockbuster exhibition, "Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980," featuring the work 15 significant black abstract artists.[57][58] As part of the exhibit, Studio Museum hosted a round-table discussion and related events where artists, gallerists, and museum leaders delved into topics that shaped black abstraction, including the Black Arts Movement, jazz, and racial politics.[59]

In 2012, the Smithsonian American Art Museum presented, “African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond,” an exhibition that showcased paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs by forty-three Black artists, including abstract work by Thornton Dial,[60] Felrath Hines,[61] Kenneth Victor Young,[62] and others.[63] After its Washington, DC, opening, the exhibit traveled to Muscarelle Museum of Art (Williamsburg, VA), Mennello Museum of American Art (Orlando, FL), Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA), The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History (Albuquerque, NM), Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN), and the Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA).[64]

In 2014, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York hosted a painting and sculpture show that featured the work of Black abstract artists and their work in the years just before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement.[14]

In 2016, the Newark Museum opened a seven-month long exhibition, “Modern Heroics: 75 Years of African-American Expressionism at Newark Museum.”[65] The exhibit featured works by self-taught artists, works from the museum's permanent collection that were displayed for the first time, and a wide range of abstract art, including folk and outsider art.[66] That same year, Pace Gallery hosted “Blackness in Abstraction,” featuring the work of 29 Black and white abstract artists from different generations.[67] In 2017, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture unveiled, “The Future is Abstract,” highlighting the abstract paintings and mixed-media work of four Black artists and testifying to the importance of abstraction and Black Abstractionism.[68]

In 2018, the Baltimore Museum of Art celebrated the nearly 80th anniversary of its landmark exhibition, “Contemporary Negro Art,” with a new show that included 14 prints and drawings by African American artists who were featured in the 1939 exhibit.[28] The following year, the museum would open, “Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art,” a sweeping perspective of Black Abstractionism and featuring several works from the Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Collection.[3][69]

In 2022, the Green Family Foundation in Dallas, Texas, presented “Black Abstractionists: From Then 'til Now,” a show of 38 established and emerging Black abstract artists.[70] Two weeks later, Hampton University Museum presented the “Whoosah” exhibit to showcase the contributions of six black artists creating works in different forms of Black Abstractionism. The featured artists included Lillian T. Burwell, Sam Gilliam, Howardena Pindell, Junius Redwood, Frank Smith, and Hubert C. Taylor. The exhibited works were from the museum's permanent collection.[44]

In 2023, the Crocker Art Museum launched, “Black Artists in America: From Civil Rights to the Bicentennial,”[71] featuring abstract and figurative works by 48 artists,[72] including Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Betye Saar, Alma Thomas, Charles White, and Samella Lewis, whose grandson curated the Crocker’s previous effort, “Black Artists on Art: Past, Present, and Future,” in 2022. [73] This exhibit was organized by the Dixon Gallery and Gardens (Memphis, Tennessee), and confirms that during the latter part of the 20th century that there was not a singular ideology or an “all Black” style.[71]

The Montclair Museum opened, “Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM,” in February 2024. The largest exhibition in the museum’s history centered on six themes, including abstraction, and featured abstract work by Emma Amos, Chakaia Booker, Nanette Carter, and Joyce J. Scott, and others.[74] In March 2024, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans hosted, “Southern Abstraction: Works from the Permanent Collection,” including pieces by artists of all colors, including Black artists Beauford Delaney, Clementine Hunter, John T. Scott, Merton Simpson, and others.[17] As well, The Phillips Collection presented, “African Modernism in America, 1947-67,” an exhibition that explored the relationship between African artists and their relationship to Black artists, cultural organizations, and audiences in America. In 1967, Fisk University received a gift of modern African Art, from the Harmon Foundation.[75] Among the Black artists to have their abstract work featured in the exhibit were Skunder Boghossian, who was born in Africa and lived in the United States,[76] and David Driskell.[77]

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Artists

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The following list represents significant black artists who produced abstract work at some point in their careers. Many artists reject being labeled or categorized and express their creative development by moving to and from different mediums.[10] These artists and many of their works would be considered contributions to the Black Abstractionism canon.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Cramer, Charles, and Kim Grant. Who created the first abstract artwork? Historicism. The Center for Public Art History. https://smarthistory.org/who-created-the-first-abstract-artwork/
  2. ^ Caoutchouc. 1909. Picabia Francis (1879-1953), painter. Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'art moderne - Centre de création industrielle. Paris, France. https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/06-509253-2C6NU0BSU01T.html
  3. ^ a b c d Robinson, Shantay. Black Abstraction: Symbolizing Reality for Meaning. Black Art in America. August 20, 2022. https://www.blackartinamerica.com/blogs/news/black-abstraction-symbolizing-reality-for-meaning
  4. ^ Kandinsky's First Abstract Work? Centre Pompidou. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/kandinsky-39-s-first-abstract-work-the-centre-pompidou/vAWxMm9crPIJpA?hl=en
  5. ^ a b c d e Walker, Kendra. Five Contemporary Black Abstract Artists You Should Know. Cultured Magazine. March 16, 2021. https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2021/03/16/five-black-abstract-artists-you-should-know
  6. ^ a b c d e f g O’Grady, Megan. Once Overlooked, Black Abstract Painters Are Finally Given Their Due. New York Times Magazine. Feb. 12, 2021. Updated Oct. 13, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/t-magazine/black-abstract-painters.html
  7. ^ a b Cooks, Bridget R. How the Black Abstract Exhibition Moves America Away from Anemic Art History. BMA/Stories. October 3, 2019. https://stories.artbma.org/how-the-black-abstract-exhibition-moves-america-away-from-anemic-art-history/
  8. ^ a b c Stead, Rexford. Two Centuries of Black American Art. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Museum Associates of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1976.
  9. ^ a b McGee, Julie L. McGee. “The Evolution of a Black Aesthetic, 1920–1950”: David C. Driskell and Race, Ethics, and Aesthetics. Callaloo. Johns Hopkins University Press. Volume 31, Number 4, Fall 2008. pp. 1175-1185. 10.1353/cal.0.0241
  10. ^ a b c Ghent, Henri. Alvin Smith. Artforum. March 1975. https://www.artforum.com/features/alvin-smith-209704/
  11. ^ a b c Halperin, Julia and Charlotte Burns. Introducing the 2022 Burns Halperin Report. December 13, 2022. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/letter-from-the-editors-introducing-the-2022-burns-halperin-report-2227445
  12. ^ Walls, Jaelyn. Museums Are Reframing the Legacy of Black Art in 2024—Starting with the Harlem Renaissance. Artsy.net. March 1, 2024. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-museums-reframing-legacy-black-art-2024-starting-harlem-renaissance
  13. ^ a b c d Harper, Darla Simone. Black Abstract Artists Are Finally Being Recognized by the Art Market. Artsy.net. February 15, 2021. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-black-abstract-artists-finally-recognized-art-market
  14. ^ a b c d Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, 1950-1975. Press Release. Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York. 2014. https://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com/exhibitions/beyond-the-spectrum-abstraction-in-african-american-art-1950-1975/installation-views/13
  15. ^ McMillan, Uri. Embodied Avatars: Genealogies of Black Feminist Art and Performance. Chapter 4: Is This Performance about You? The Art, Activism, and Black Feminist Critique of Howardena Pindell. NYU Press. 2012. https://academic.oup.com/nyu-press-scholarship-online/book/23728/chapter-abstract/184955510?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false
  16. ^ Crawford, Margo Natalie. Black Post-Blackness: The Black Arts Movement and Twenty-First-Century Aesthetics. University of Illinois Press. 2017. https://doi.org/10.5406/illinois/9780252041006.003.0003
  17. ^ a b c d Southern Abstraction: Works from the Permanent Collection. Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans. March 4 - October 13, 2024. https://ogdenmuseum.org/exhibition/southern-abstraction/
  18. ^ a b Jennings, Corrine. The Search For Freedom: African American Abstract Painting 1945-1975. Catalogue Introduction from Director. Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, USA. 1991. https://diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=746&table=artefacts
  19. ^ a b c Barcio, Phillip. The Most Influential Living African American Abstract Artists. IDEELART. Jun 24, 2020.https://www.ideelart.com/magazine/african-american-abstract-artists
  20. ^ a b c d e Driskell, David L. The Evolution of a Black Aesthetic, 1920-1950. Introductory Essay. Two Centuries of Black American Art. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Museum Associates of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1976.
  21. ^ a b The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism. Exhibition Catalogue. The Met. February 25–July 28, 2024.https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-harlem-renaissance-and-transatlantic-modernism
  22. ^ a b Pincus-Warren, Robert. “Black Artists of the 1930s, Whitney Museum of American Art.” Artforum. VOL. 7, NO. 6. February 1969. https://www.artforum.com/events/black-artists-of-the-1930s-234751/
  23. ^ Gasman, Marybeth. Why Historically Black Fisk University Needs An Art Museum Now. Forbes. March 14, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethgasman/2023/03/14/why-historically-black-fisk-university-needs-an-art-museum-now/?sh=70dfe86d1adf
  24. ^ The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism. Exhibition Catalogue. The Met. February 25–July 28, 2024. https://cdn.sanity.io/files/cctd4ker/production/11732a99e27813e22c19c79e2c53753972c1ada5.pdf
  25. ^ Sargent Claude Johnson (1888-1967). The Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art. San Francisco, CA. https://www.holmesartgallery.com/sargentjohnson
  26. ^ Sweeney, James Johnson (ed). African Negro art. Museum of Modern Art: New York. 1935. Exhibition URL: www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2937; https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2937_300086871.pdf
  27. ^ Contemporary Negro art : on exhibition from February 3-19, 1939, the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore Museum of Art. 1939. https://library.nga.gov/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99404603504896&context=L&vid=01NGA_INST:NGA&lang=en&search_scope=MainLibrary&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=MainLibrary&query=sub,exact,African%20American%20art%20--%2020th%20century,AND&mode=advanced&offset=0
  28. ^ a b 1939: Exhibiting Black Art at the BMA. Baltimore Museum of Art. June 13, 2018 — October 28, 2018. https://artbma.org/exhibition/1939-exhibiting-black-art-at-the-bma/
  29. ^ a b Black Artists in the Museum, a collaborative venture between the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Johns Hopkins University’s Program in Museums and Society. https://black-artists-in-the-museum.com
  30. ^ a b Knick, Dawson. Beauford Delaney: Harlem Renaissance & Abstract Painter. Off the Grid. Village Preservation Blog. February 18, 2020. https://www.villagepreservation.org/2020/02/18/beauford-delaney-harlem-renaissance-abstract-painter/
  31. ^ a b Porter, Melissa. Abstract Expressionism (1943–1955). African American Museum of Iowa. August 30, 2023. https://blackiowa.org/cool_timeline/abstract-expressionism-1943-1955/
  32. ^ Beauford Delaney, The Burning Bush, 1941. https://www.artsy.net/artwork/beauford-delaney-the-burning-bush
  33. ^ See, Sebastian. This artist transformed a trash can fire into a pulsing vision. Beauford Delaney was friends with Georgia O’Keeffe and James Baldwin. He never got his due.Washington Post. June 8, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/interactive/2022/beauford-delaney-abstraction-greene-street/
  34. ^ a b Newmeyer, Sarah. Museum of Modern Art Exhibits Twelve New Acquisitions in American Painting. News Release. MOMA. January 12, 1944. https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_325421.pdf
  35. ^ Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop Founding the Printmaking Workshop. The Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/blackburn/blackburn-founding.html
  36. ^ The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art: Works on Paper. “The Importance of Black Printmakers: Innovation and Influence.” Exhibition Guide. Bullock Museum. 05/20/2023 - 10/01/2023. https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/upload/files/exhibits/kelley-art-collection/KAC_exhibit_guide_English.pdf
  37. ^ a b Bynoe, Yvonne. Why Abstract Art Matters to Black Americans. Black Art in America. July 18, 2022. https://www.blackartinamerica.com/blogs/news/why-abstract-art-matters-to-black-americans
  38. ^ Rubin, Lena. The April 1950 Artists’ Sessions at Studio 35. Off The Grid. Village Preservation Blog. April 21, 2021. https://www.villagepreservation.org/2021/04/21/the-april-1950-artists-sessions-at-studio-35/
  39. ^ Amsterdam News Staff. Historic African American ephemera on permanent display at the NYPL. Amsterdam News. September 23, 2021. https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2021/09/23/historic-african-american-ephemera-permanent-displ/
  40. ^ Ed Clark (1926–2019). Studio Museum in Harlem Collection. https://www.studiomuseum.org/artists/ed-clark
  41. ^ “Remembering Ed Clark,” Hauser & Wirth, accessed October 10, 2022, hauserwirth.com/events/35059-remembering-ed-clark/
  42. ^ Haas, Eleanor. Blacks Talk Back to the Whitney. Press release. November 14, 1968. https://www.abebooks.com/Invisible-Americans-Black-Artists-30s-Related/31300937176/bd#&gid=1&pid=1
  43. ^ a b ABSTRACTION. Collection in Context. Studio Museum in Harlem. https://www.studiomuseum.org/collection/themes/abstraction
  44. ^ a b c d e f The Hampton University Museum Presents: Whoosah Exhibit. October 21, 2022 – Ongoing. https://home.hamptonu.edu/blog/2022/11/08/the-hampton-university-museum-presents-whoosah-exhibit/
  45. ^ Black Abstract Artists: Exploring Innovative Techniques. Abstract Artists From Alma Thomas to Jack Whitten. Swann Galleries. https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/african-american-art/2022/05/black-abstract-artists-exploring-innovative-techniques/#:~:text=These%20artists%20include%20Alma%20Thomas,Victor%20Young%20and%20Jack%20Whitten.
  46. ^ a b c Frank Bowling and 5+1. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. https://www.mfa.org/beyond-the-gallery/frank-bowling-and-5-1
  47. ^ 5+1. Art Gallery. State University of New York at Stony Brook. October 16 - November 8, 1969, and the Princeton University Art Museum. November 12-23, 1969. Sponsored by the Afr-American Studies Program. Exhibition catalogue. https://d1nn9x4fgzyvn4.cloudfront.net/2023-04/frank-bowling-5-1_exhibition-catalogue.pdf
  48. ^ Gaither, Edmund Barry. Black Power in Print. Introduction to “Afro-American Artists: New York and Boston” Exhibition Catalogue. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. May 19 to June 23, 1970.
  49. ^ Valdés, Constanza Ontiveros. Pamela J. Joyner: an activist collector reframing art history. Art Collection. May 17, 2022. https://artcollection.io/blog/pamela-j-joyner-an-activist-collector-reframing-art-history
  50. ^ Saxon, Robert S., Sr. Hubert Taylor (1937-1991). https://saxoncapers.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/__trashed-5/
  51. ^ a b Two Centuries of Black American Art. LACMA. Sep 30–Nov 21, 1976. https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/two-centuries-black-american-art
  52. ^ Afro-American Abstraction. MoMA PS 1. February 17 - April 6, 1980. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4154
  53. ^ MoMA PS 1. https://www.moma.org/interactives/moma_through_time/1980/black-abstraction/
  54. ^ Afro-American Abstraction: An Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture by Nineteen Black American Artists. MoMA PS 1. February 17 - April 6, 1980. https://kavigupta.com/publications/5-afro-american-abstraction-an-exhibition-of-contemporary-painting-and/
  55. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Search For Freedom: African American Abstract Painting 1945-1975. Exhibition catalogue. Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, USA. 1991. https://diaspora-artists.net/display_item.php?id=746&table=artefacts
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  61. ^ Felrath Hines, Red Stripe with Green Background, 1986, oil on linen, 51 x 39 7⁄8 in. (129.4 x 101.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dorothy C. Fisher, wife of the artist, 2011.25.1, © 1986, Dorothy C. Fisher. https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/red-stripe-green-background-80359
  62. ^ Kenneth Victor Young, Untitled, 1973, acrylic on canvas, 37 5⁄8 x 37 5⁄8 in. (95.6 x 95.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Val E. Lewton, 1987.46. https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/untitled-28318
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  72. ^ Magri, Ken. Crocker presents how Black artists ‘shaped the future’ of America’s art history: Museum’s new exhibition highlights Black artists from the 1950s through ’70s. Sacramento News and Review. February 9, 2024.https://sacramento.newsreview.com/2024/02/09/crocker-presents-how-black-artists-shaped-the-future-of-americas-art-history/
  73. ^ Black Artists on Art: Past, Present, and Future. Crocker Art Museum. August 11 – October 23, 2022. https://www.crockerart.org/press/black-artists-on-art-past-present-and-future
  74. ^ Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM. Montclair Art Museum. February 9 - July 7, 2024. https://www.montclairartmuseum.org/exhibition/century-100-years-black-art-mam
  75. ^ Baker, Melinda. Fisk University shares pieces from influential Harmon Collection. Nashville Tennessean. March 11, 2018. https://www.tennessean.com/story/life/arts/2018/03/11/influential-harmon-collection-view-fisk-university/399797002/
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  81. ^ Patrick Alston. https://www.patrickalston.com/copy-of-home
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