Recommended Books
From Publishers Weekly
Patton has written an excellent and comprehensive introduction
to the historical development of African American visual art. She provides
much new information on the art making of both slaves and freemen in the
18th and 19th century while later providing a broad art-historical context
for black modernists. Pointing out that crafts did not necessarily precede
fine art making during slavery, she examines African retentions (and Indian
influences) in 18th-century black ceramics and architecture; black women
and quilting; abolitionism and the rise of black landscape painters like
Robert Duncanson; and sculptor Edmonia Lewis's black expatriate neoclassicism.
Turning to generally better- documented 20th-century black artists, Patton
arguably provides the first clear discussion of the relationship (both
social and aesthetic) of black modernists to the prevailing mainstream
artists and art movements of their time. As is perhaps inevitable, Patton's
discussion of the contemporary art scene, while quite competent, is defined
as much by the artists she fails to mention as by those she chooses to
include. Well researched, scrupulously documented and organized, this
lucidly written, fully illustrated book also includes numerous useful
sidebars defining art movements, issues or individuals. Copyright 1998
Reed Business Information, Inc.
top of page
Product Description: From its origins in early eighteenth
century slave communities to the end of the twentieth century, African-American
art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States. African-American
Art provides a major reassessment of the subject, setting the art in the
context of the African-American experience. Here, Patton discusses folk
and decorative arts such as ceramics, furniture, and quilts alongside
fine art, sculptures, paintings, and photography during the 1800s. She
also examines the New Negro Movement of the 1920s, the era of Civil Rights
and Black Nationalism during the 1960s and 70s, and the emergence of new
black artists and theorists in the 1980s and 90s. New evidence suggests
different ways of looking at African-American art, confirming that it
represents the culture and society from which it emerges. Here, Patton
explores significant issues such as the relationship of art and politics,
the influence of galleries and museums, the growth of black universities,
critical theory, the impact of artists collectives, and the assortment
of art practices since the 1960s. African-American Art shows that in its
cultural diversity and synthesis of cultures it mirrors those in American
society as a whole.
top of page |
A Few Words from Our Affiliate Partner
on their Prints and Paintings:
Quality 22x28 lithographs $5 - $10 sold by our competition
for $17 - $35. Similar savings on 16x20s and 8x10s. Categories include
African American art (black art), floral and flower prints, Victorian,
scenic and landscape pictures, lighthouse images, angels, religious art
and more. Not cheap posters, these are lithographs on medium to heavy
weight paper. Generally, the more expensive our prints, the thicker the
paper.
We offer original "starving artists" stretched and unstretched
oil paintings $20 to $90.
The Low Cost Prints Difference
Nearly everyone says they have "the lowest price" or "wholesale
prices", but Low
Cost Prints LLC actually delivers. A typical 22x28 print that we offer
has a publisher's list price of at least $20. The publishers typically
sell these prints at wholesale for half that, or $10. Our competitors
sell these for $17 to over $20 (yes, some companies sell them for more
than list price). But Low Cost Prints sells these same prints to you for
under $10 - that's less than the publisher's wholesale price - even if
you only buy one!
Black Art: A Cultural History (World of Art)
by Richard J. Powell
Booklist
Excellent artists' profiles, lots of reproductions, and illuminating and
original discussions of social and cultural contexts of African American
art.
Product Description:
The African diaspora—a direct result of the transatlantic slave
trade and Western colonialism—generated a wide array of artistic
achievements in the past century, from blues to reggae, from the paintings
of Henry Ossawa Tanner to the video installations of Keith Piper. Richard
Powell's study concentrates on the works of art themselves and on how
these works, created during a time of major social upheaval and transformation,
use black culture as both subject and context.
From musings on the "the souls of black folk" in early twentieth-century
painting, sculpture, and photography to questions of racial and cultural
identities in performance, media, and computer-assisted arts in the 1990s,
the book draws on the works of hundreds of artists including Jean-Michel
Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Wifredo
Lam, Jacob Lawrence, Spike Lee, Archibald Motley, Jr., Faith Ringgold,
and Gerard Sekoto.
This revised edition includes expanded coverage of video art and a new
chapter that discusses work by a number of artists who have risen to prominence
in the past five years, such as Chris Ofili, Kara Walker, and Renée
Cox. Biographies of more than 170 key artists provide a unique art-historical
reference.
Placing its emphasis on black cultural themes rather than on black racial
identity, this groundbreaking book is an important exploration of the
visual representations of black culture throughout the twentieth century
and into the twenty-first. 190 illustrations, 36 in color.
top of page |