Category: Art Education

“Life is but a walking shadow,” wrote William Shakespeare in Macbeth. In film studies, we frequently consider the extreme contrast of light and dark, of noirish chiaroscuro designs that were born from the severe German expressionist lines. These are the “shadows” that highlight the pronounced differences between black and white, between coruscation and silhouette, between …

Continue reading “African American Women and ‘Passing’ As a Film Genre”

There was a celebratory mood at opening night of the African-American Shakespeare Co.’s new production of “Twelfth Night” last weekend. It wasn’t just the high spirits radiating from the stage as the company performed Shakespeare’s rollicking comedy, there was a lot to celebrate offstage as well. The company has weathered its share of ups and …

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On May 1, 2011, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site opens Robert S. Duncanson: The Spiritual Striving of the Freedman’s Son, the first exhibition featuring the work of the nineteenth-century African-American landscape painter Robert S. Duncanson in many years, and, the first exhibition of his work to appear on the east coast, even in his …

Continue reading “The Spiritual Striving of the Freedman’s Son Exhibition Highlights Work of Ohio Landscape Artist”

Liverpool tourism officials have claimed that African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech was written at a city centre hotel. The claim has been made in a guide to a major art event entitled ‘Liverpool Discovers’. A map in the guide shows over 20 locations where famous people were …

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It has been said by artists and historians alike that art serves as a time-capsule for history. The Jubilee Theatre in downtown Fort Worth, TX proved just that with their production of “The African Company Presents Richard III,” a play that chronicles the beginning of African American theatre. The play is set in 1821 and …

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One of Detroit’s most protean and recognizable artists, McGee remains active in his 80s. His works are on permanent display at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Broadway Street People Mover Station and several hospitals. One of Kresge’s eminent artists, he makes paintings, sculptures and mixed-media …

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“Tales Through Time: A Storytelling Event” will take place from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Gaston County Museum of Art & History. The free program, sponsored by a grant from the United Arts Council, will feature an afternoon of storytelling from distinguished storytellers, including Chief Donald Rodgers, Chief of the Catawba Indian Nation; …

Continue reading “They’re telling stories in Dallas”

Romare Bearden (1911-88) spent more than 30 years striving to be a great artist, and in the early 1960s, when he took up collage in earnest, he became one. A small exhibition at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, organized to celebrate the centennial of Bearden’s birth, delivers this message with unusual clarity. It contains only 21 …

Continue reading “Visions of Life, Built From Bits and Pieces”

When Debora Oden paints, she often listens to music by Erykah Badu or Ella Fitzgerald, finding creative inspiration that takes her own art to a higher level of expression. “Often, in my studio, I listen to the same albums over and over,” she said. “As I work, I lock myself into a familiar rhythm and …

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By ROGER CATLIN It’s the season of David C. Driskell in Connecticut museums. In New Haven, a student-chosen exhibit “Embodied: Black Identities in American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery,” which includes Driskell’s 2002 screenprint, “Dancing Angel,” continues through June 26 at the Yale gallery. It was curated by students from Yale and from …

Continue reading “David Driskell Prints, Part II”

By David Greisman The obvious, cliched route in starting off an article about a gallery exhibit featuring artwork and poetry alongside each other would be to begin with the familiar refrain of a picture being worth a thousand words. The obvious, cliched route is not always the right route to take. Artwork, on its own, …

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By Culturekiosque Staff NEW YORK, 27 MARCH 2011 — The American artist Romare Bearden’s oeuvre of more than 2,000 known works in many media reveals the diverse influences of earlier Western masters ranging from Duccio, Giotto, and de Hooch to Cézanne, Picasso, and Matisse, as well as his fascination with African art (particularly sculpture, masks, …

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By Rodger Mullen Growing up, artist Kadir Nelson was not a big baseball fan. Considering that he has devoted much of his career to the sport, it’s a little ironic. “I’m still not a huge fan in that I don’t follow any particular team, although I do enjoy going to games,” said Nelson, 36. “I’m …

Continue reading “‘We Are the Ship’ art exhibit shows baseball’s segregated past”

by Katelyn Hackett Wilmington– The North Carolina Black Film Festival kicked off on Thursday night. People filed into the Cameron Art Museum for the free reception. In its tenth year the festival showcases dozens of short and feature-length narratives, documentaries and animation. Folks travel from all over the nation to attend. “The North Carolina Black …

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By: Gabriella Osamor Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria presents a major part of the extraordinary corpus of ancient Ife art in terra-cotta, stone, and metal, dating from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Artists at Ife, the ancient city-state of the Yoruba people of West Africa (located in present-day southwestern Nigeria), created …

Continue reading “Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria Tours World Museums”