BBC Radio 4
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b0x2kk
Art collector and broadcaster Alvin Hall, examines how the
dynamic work of African-American self-taught artists is gaining
recognition from American institutions today - and how much more needs
to be done to address this neglected canon.
Having
to fight both the barriers of race and of operating outside the art
world, self-taught African-American artists are still not always
afforded as much recognition as their formally trained peers.
Groundbreaking
exhibition Outliers and American Vanguard Art at The National Gallery
of Art in Washington D.C. is seeking to change this, positioning
self-taught and outsider artists alongside one another and making
reference to how self-taught artists inspired their formally trained
peers. Alvin visits the exhibition and speaks to its curator, Lynne
Cooke.
He explores the legacy of several key
20th century self-taught African-American artists and tells their life
stories. Maxwell Anderson, the Director of the Souls Grown Deep
Foundation, explains the ongoing process of integrating their vast
collection of African-American vernacular art from the South into
museums' collections.
Alvin probes the
difficulties around the term "self-taught" and its problematic
alternatives "primitive" and "naïve". He considers how limiting
categorising such a diverse range of art can be. Have so-called
Outsiders become part of the mainstream?
Alvin
also meets self-taught black artists working today. Have they noticed a
shift in interest and representation? Informally trained artist Kevin
Sampson, questions whether, in today's hyper-connected society, there is
such a thing as "self-taught" anymore.
Writer and presenter: Alvin Hall
Additonal research: Alvin Hall and Louise Morris
Producers: Louise Morris and Andrew McGibbon
Additonal research: Alvin Hall and Louise Morris
Producers: Louise Morris and Andrew McGibbon
A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
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