There
are all sorts of reasons why African-American art is the hottest thing
on the market today, for both private collectors and museums, but the
most compelling, of course, is the need to catch up. In 2000, for
example, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston had precisely three oil
paintings by African-Americans on display in its American wing. When
Norman Lewis, the sole black artist among the first generation of
Abstract Expressionists, died in 1979, he was known to artists and
students but rarely represented in survey exhibitions or textbooks.
Critics said the occasional appearance of figural hints and "political"
meaning in his work didn't quite fit any category.
In just the past three years, Lewis' work has been bought by the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in
New York, and, finally, by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. At the same
time, the work of black artists both living and dead has rocketed up in
value.
In 2013 David Hammons, who once stood in front of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art holding a cardboard box filled with snowballs labeled
"African-American Art, 5 cents ea.," sold a crystal chandelier in the
shape of a basketball hoop and backboard for $8 million, making him one
of the highest-priced American artists in history.
And it's not just money--there's also growing institutional support.
This September, the National Museum of African-American History and
Culture will finally open its doors on the National Mall in Washington,
D.C.
Kenseth Armstead's "untitled (three ruffians killed beauty)" invokes 18th century mob violence with its tar and feathers.Courtesy Newark Museum
So this is a perfect time for the Newark Museum to open "Modern
Heroics: 75 Years of African-American Expressionism at the Newark
Museum." Expressionism is a term, first used for French Fauves and
German painters before World War I, for art that puts a higher value on
emotion and a free use of color than more trained styles do. Many of the
African-American artists in the Newark collection could plausibly be
grouped under that term.
There's a Norman Lewis painting, "Carnival" (done in 1957, a bequest
from the estate of Irene Wheeler in 2004), in "Modern Heroics" that
suggests a thronging crowd carrying ominous crosses toward the viewer.
In fact, this show of just 34 paintings and sculptures from the
permanent collection, assembled by Curator of American Art Tricia
Laughlin Bloom, has a lot of suddenly big names. Bob Thompson, Sam
Gilliam, Romare Bearden, Thornton Dial, Sr., Purvis Young, to name a
few. At the same time, "Modern Heroics" features absolutely contemporary
art, like the huge, rhinestone-studded plywood picture by Camden-born
Mickalene Thomas, "Landscape with Camouflage" (2012).
Not many art institutions can do that. "Modern Heroics" celebrates the 350
th
anniversary of the city of Newark's founding, but it especially
celebrates the peculiarly far-sighted collecting policies of the city's
unusual museum.
Because the museum John Cotton Dana founded in 1922 didn't wait till the 21
st
century to start collecting African-American art. The Newark Museum
bought its first work by an African-American in 1929, a religious
landscape by Henry Ossawa Tanner called "The Good Shepherd" (painted in
1922). Newark held its first group show of African-American artists in
1931, put together by the Harmon Foundation in Harlem. Ever since the
'40s, the museum has hosted an increasingly regular series of important
exhibitions of African-American art, in both group shows and one-person
shows.
The museum collection now holds over 360 works
of African-American art, many of them spectacular, like Emma Amos's
seven-foot-wide "The Heavens Rain" (1990, an acrylic on linen framed
with Kanga cloth and other African fabrics). Amos was born in Atlanta,
but now lives and works in New York. "The Heavens Rain" shows people,
books, even a horse falling through dark space; just off-center a black
family, father, mother, and young son, cling together as they plunge.
There's a faux-naïve quality to Amos' work that reminds of Outsider Art,
enhancing her directness of vision. It's a haunting picture you don't
have to explain to feel.
The Newark Museum bought its first work by an African-American in 1929, Henry Ossawa Tanner's "The Good Shepherd."
Newark artist Kevin Sampson's "Madjet" looks like an ancient Egyptian reed boat made from stuff you'd find on a downtown street.Courtesy Newark Museum
As you might expect in a city that is one of the capitals of black
life in American, Newark is also home to several of the artists here.
Kevin Sampson's "Madjet" is a mock-Egyptian reed boat made from found
objects, like the glass cabinet knob amidships, and "Madjet" (it's the
name of a constellation) is the very first artwork in "Modern Heroics."
Sampson keeps a studio in the city, and shows regularly in downtown
galleries.
Gladys Barker Grauer, widely considered the doyenne of
African-American art in Newark, has two paintings in "Modern Heroics."
Kingston-born Shoshanna Weinberger, a specialist in the many
manifestations of African-American hair, has a studio in Newark, too;
installation artist Kenseth Armstead, who will be artist in residence at
the Yaddo art colony this year, is a graduate of Gallery Aferro's
residency program. In addition, Sampson, Emma Amos and Dmitri Wright all
taught at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, which closed
in 1997, but was the fulcrum for art in Newark for 115 years.
African-American art in Newark has for more than 40 years been a kind
of materials art, part of the assemblage movement Newark's Willie
Cole—missing from this show, though his giant woodcut "Stowage," made
with an ironing board that looks like the schematic of a slave ship, is
in a canonical Expressionist medium—helped lead. But there are younger
practitioners, like the Newark-born and educated Chakaia Booker, who
twists shredded car tires into iconic sculptures.
Or like Armstead's 2014 "untitled (three ruffians killed beauty)," a
series of furring strips smeared with tar and feathers. It's a reference
to 18
th century mob violence, but it looks in this context like an abstract painting.
And that's what African-American artists often do—take a dominant
style and give it a twist. Bob Thompson did it 50 years ago, repainting
Western mythological pictures with an updated palette, as in his version
of Tintoretto's "St. George and the Dragon" (1961), a gem of the
collection. Before he died, Norman Lewis said it would take at least 40
years for the art world to realize that the touches that make
African-American art not fit a category perfectly were a feature, not a
bug.
He was just about right.
Emma Amos's "The Heavens Rain" suggests freedom from inhibitions to the artist, but is haunting nonetheless.Courtesy Newark Museum
Modern Heroics: 75 Years of African-American Expressionism at the Newark Museum
Where: The Newark Museum, 49 Washington St., Newark
When: Through Jan. 8. Open noon-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday
How much: Adults $15, veterans and families with valid ID, students, seniors, $8, children under two free
Kevin
Blythe Sampson, 64, is a sculptor, painter, Muralist that is recognized
for tackling difficult issues that concern him and his Newark, N.J.,
neighbors.
