Soul of a Nation : Art in the Age of Black Power /anglais - Softcover

Cahan, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1849764638 ISBN 13: 9781849764636

Publisher: TATE, 2017

Synopsis

In the period of radical change that was 1963-83, young Black artists at the beginning of their careers in the USA confronted key questions and pressures. How could they make art that would stand as innovative, original, formally and materially complex, while also making work that reflected their concerns and experience as African Americans? This significant new publication surveys this crucial period in American art history, bringing to light previously neglected histories of twentieth-century Black artists, including Frank Bowling, Sam Gilliam, Melvin Edwards, Bettye Saar, Jack Whitten and William T. Williams. It accompanies a major exhibition, opening at Tate Modern and touring to Crystal Bridges and Brooklyn Museum of Art.This book features substantial essays from co-curators Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley, writing on abstraction and figuration respectively. It will also explore the art historical and social contexts with subjects including black feminism; AfriCOBRA and other artist-run groups; the role of museums in the debates of the period; and where visual art sat in relation to the Black Arts Movement.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark Godfrey is Senior Curator, International Art (Europe and Americas) at Tate Modern Zoe Whitley is Adjunct Research Curator, Tate Modern

Review:

The range of materials used, the breadth of ideas adumbrated, the multiplicity of strategies and techniques, the geographical diversity of the artists involved, all of this makes it difficult to contain the art with any single description, except perhaps this: Revolution. (Phillip Kennicott New York Review of Books)

This powerful work of documentary photography captures the momentum of the civil rights movement through one of its lesser known demonstrations. (Nell Irvin Painter New York Review of Books)

...a visual journey through the period with documentary photographs and full-color images of art and ephemera.... The curators expound upon a score of topics, from the Studio Museum in Harlem, Just Above Midtown Gallery, The Black Photographers Annual, and Emory Douglas and the Black Panther newspaper to abstraction shows, black women artists, FESTAC ’77, and the Wall of Respect and mural movement. (Victoria L. Valentine Cutlture Type)

...an intense, transformative period in American art, activism, and culture, when black identity came into sharper focus and demanded to be reckoned with, while the spark of black liberation caught fire in the US, the Caribbean, and Africa. (Cheryl Finley Artforum)

[the] story of the radical, brilliant and hugely varied art made by African American artists in the political and cultural landscape of Civil Rights, Black Panthers, Blaxploitation, and other manifestations of the fight for equality in education, jobs and representation.... a diversity of aesthetics, ideas and ambition. (Pernilla Holmes Frieze)

A sweeping look at how artists of the time responded to ideas about black identity, political activism and social responsibility. (Roslyn Sulcas New York Times)

...a sweeping look at how artists of the time responded to ideas about black identity, political activism and social responsibility. (Roslyn Sulcas New York Times)

This is a celebration of the work of Black American artists in the 1960s and 1970s. While the art on display is inspired by the mass Civil Rights Movement in the US during that time it is incredibly poignant that the issues raised remain so relevant today. (Theresa Bennett Socialist Review)

..impresssive feat of research, presenting and contextualizing many artists who never became household names. (Sara Christoph Bookforum)

At London’s flagship modern art gallery, Tate Modern, one of this summer’s most lauded exhibitions features work by African-American artists made in the age of Martin Luther King Jr. Yet, while “Soul of a Nation” is nominally a historical display, gallery goers spilling out of the show this week found an obvious contemporary resonance to the art they had just seen. (Patrick Kingsley New York Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: TATE
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1849764638
• ISBN 13: 9781849764636
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240