Black Art Matters - Esther

It’s time to listen & learn.

The trouble is, it’s always been time to listen & learn.

With that in mind, this week’s post is less about opinion, more about facts, about voice, about listening & about celebrating some black artists I learned only recently about (apart from Basquiat - Jean-Michel is eternal & always). Most are contemporary, most still with us, all worth honouring, all worth listening to.  

Charles White, "Seed of Love" 

Romare Bearden (1911-1988) Pittsburgh Memory

“You should always respect what you are & your culture because if your art is going to mean anything, that is where it comes from.”

“Black art has always existed. It just hasn’t been looked for in the right places.”

“Memory embellishes life. Forgetfulness makes it possible.”

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Charles White (1918-1979),  Sound of Silence

“I am interested in the social, even the propaganda, angle in painting; but I feel that the job of everyone in a creative field is to picture the whole scene. . . I am interested in creating a style that is much more powerful, that will take in the technical end & at the same time will say what I have to say. Paint is the only weapon I have with which to fight what I resent. If I could write, I would write about it. If I could talk, I would talk about it. Since I paint, I must paint about it.”

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Wadsworth Jarrell (1929) Together We Will Win

“Every year you are reminded of George Washington's birthday...my kids learn about this at school, but nothing is said about black heroes. If white Americans can engage in what I call repetitious advertising, then I feel justified in advertising for black Americans.”

“We decided that we would form a group that had more togetherness. We formed a philosophy that spoke of working towards creating a new language & a school of thought. The purpose was to create art that had a political slant that also included an aesthetic. Most of the art during the sixties was labelled as protest art, especially art of African-Americans. We escaped that label because we focused on our heritage instead of protesting injustice meted out by mainstream America.”

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Faith Ringgold (1930) The Flag is Bleeding #2

“No other creative field is as closed to those who are not white & male as the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing that I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene & that further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.”

“You can’t sit around & wait for somebody to say who you are. You need to write it & paint it & do it.”

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Carrie Mae Weems (1953) Untitled (Woman and Daughter)

“The camera gave me an incredible freedom. It gave me the ability to parade through the world & look at people & things very, very closely.”

“I got my first camera when I was twenty-one – my boyfriend gave it to me for my birthday – but at that point politics was my life & I viewed the camera as a tool for expressing my political beliefs rather that as an art medium.”

“Art is the one place we all turn to for solace.”

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Eugene Palmer (1955) Duppy Shadow

“It just seems that when the underdog speaks up or acts…it’s a morality which we can all identify with & somehow live with & think that it’s okay.”

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Kerry James Marshall (1955) Untitled (Policeman)

“I don’t believe in hope. I believe in action, if I’m an apostle of anything. There are always going to be complications, but to a large degree, everything is in your hands.”

“People ask me why my figures have to be so black. There are a lot of reasons. First, the blackness is a rhetorical device. When we talk about ourselves as a people & as a culture, we talk about black history, black cultures, black music. That’s the rhetorical position we occupy.”

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Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) Hollywood Africans

“I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.”

“The black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them.”

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Kara Walker (1969) Exodus of Confederates From Atlanta

“The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that’s also what the stereotype does.”

“If you’re a black artist you could paint a wall of smiley faces & someone will still ask you, ‘Why are you so angry?’”

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Neequaye Dreph Dsane (1973) Mimi Fresh

“Through the paintings & subjects’ backstories, I am paying tribute to ordinary women who do extraordinary work for the betterment of their communities and society."

“My mission is to present an alternative black British narrative. I have been making art in the streets for the past three decades.” 

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Alfred Conteh (1975) Quan'ta

“People being protective of the real estate they think they have…People who were like that they taught me that that’s not how I’m going to be. So I made a point from then on out…if a young guy or a young lady who wants to know something I’m going to tell them. I don’t have any reason to hide any information! When it comes to contacts, when it comes to resources…how does it benefit me to hamper you?”

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Tamara Natalie Madden (1975-2017) The Black Queen

“My work deals with the social, spiritual & cultural identity of people of African ancestry.”

“Be open to raw critique. Take advice. Think about art, paint or draw daily. Commit to mastering your craft & never ever give up on your dreams no matter how difficult.”

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Kehinde Wiley (1977) Shantavia Beale II

“In the field of aesthetic theory, humans are pattern-seeking creatures. That can be seen in terms of musical structures, patternmaking, even in terms of storytelling & literature.”

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Hermonia Rosales (1984) The Creation of God

“Traditionally, we see Venus as this beautiful woman with flowing hair. My hair never flowed, so I’m wondering why this is supposed to be a painting of the most beautiful woman in the world.” 

“We have been taught that God created ‘man’ in his own image…in fact, we have created God in our own image.” 

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Joy Labinjo (1994) Bride to Be

“I started that kind of body of work out of a place of frustration maybe, from going to exhibitions & looking at artwork & it was just mainly white figures in the work. But the paintings were brilliant….but it was always the same kind of story told in exhibitions.”

“I think the compositions & the gathering with family is something that’s relatable to everyone. But it would be amazing for little black kids to go to a gallery & think: I can do this. From talking to a lot of my friends, they wouldn’t go to a gallery. Not interested, not welcome. But if you think about how many black people went to see Basquiat at the Barbican or Soul of a Nation at the Tate, it shows that people are interested. They’re interested because they can see themselves in it.”

“Mostly I would just want people to feel welcome.”