The Art of Kara Walker

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“One of my earliest memories involves sitting on my dad’s lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching him draw. I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that, too,’ and I pretty much decided then and there at age 2½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad.” —Kara Walker 1

Kara Walker (American, b. 1969) is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes that examine the underbelly of America’s racial and gender tensions. Her works often address such highly charged themes as power, repression, history, race, and sexuality. Born in Stockton, California, Walker moved to the South at age 13 when her father, artist Larry Walker, accepted a position at

Georgia State University and her family relocated to Stone Mountain, a suburb of Atlanta. Focusing on painting and printmaking in college, she received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991 and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. Walker was included in the 1997 Biennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Later that year, at the age of 27, she became the youngest recipient of the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant, which launched a public controversy around her work. In 2002 she was chosen to represent the United States in the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in the collections of major museums worldwide. The 2007 Walker Art Center–organized exhibition Kara Walker: My Complement, My Oppressor, My Enemy, My Love is the artist’s first full-scale U.S. museum survey. Walker currently lives in New York, where she is a professor of visual arts in the MFA program at Columbia University.

“Most pieces have to do with exchanges of power, attempts to steal power away from others.” —Kara Walker 1

Kara Walker’s work is layered with images that reference history, literature, culture, and the darker aspects of human behavior. Connecting all of her work is an examination of power. The characters in her environments display power struggles of all kinds: physical, emotional, personal, racial, sexual, and historical.

Making sense of these images requires careful looking and an understanding of the references the artist makes. To facilitate this process, this section contains information about five of the Walker’s key themes: Representing Race, History: Collusion of Fact and Fiction, Narrative, Desire and Shame, and Humor.

Each topic is described in a brief paragraph with related quotations by the artist, critics, curators and writers; examples of pieces in the exhibition that relate strongly to that theme; and same discussion questions. For different ways to approach the art, visit Types of Responses where you’ll find more general questions.

Use this section as a way to link Walker’s work to your curriculum, a book club discussion, or for a deeper look at the exhibition. For additional readings related to each theme, look for the color-coded tags in the Annotated Resource List.

For a more in-depth look at the subjects in Walker’s work, please download the Gallery Guide (PDF), and Yasmil Raymond’s “Maladies of Power: A Kara Walker Lexicon” (PDF) from the exhibition catalog Kara Walker: My Complement, My Oppressor, My Enemy, My Love available in the Walker Book Shop.

Women’s History Month Artists: Celebrating WHM With Kara Walker As The Seven Of Diamonds

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SEVEN OF DIAMONDS

 

HuffPost Arts&Culture is celebrating Women’s History Monthwith the help of our favorite artists — female artists, of course. Every day of March we’re rolling out a new key player in the art world with a playing card… Get it? Print them out for your own amazing (although probably a bit flimsy) card deck or use them to stay fresh on your favorite women in art.

WHO: Kara Walker

WHAT: Walker is known for her cartoonish paper-cut silhouettes exploring narratives of race, gender, desire, violence, racial stereotypes and shame. Her “magic-lantern” projections depict dark scenarios including rape, lynchings and slavery via absurdly cartoonish forms, yielding shocking results. Of her cutting works, Walker explained: “I was really searching for a format to sort of encapsulate, to simplify complicated things…And some of it spoke to me as: ‘it’s a medium…historically, it’s a craft…and it’s very middle-class.'”

WHERE: Get a feel for Walker’s artworks in her segment on Art21’s “Stories” episode.

WHY: Walker, who won a MacArthur Grant at only 28 years old, continues to stir controversy with her powerful works. A drawing depicting oral sex between a black woman and white man was hidden by a cloth at the Newark Public Library until last December. Walker is not one to shy away from controversy, responding: “The promise of any artwork is that it can hold us—viewer and maker—in a conflicted or contestable space, without real world injury or loss.”

Leon Keay – Visual Artist

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„Im watching u“ by Leon Keay
Abstract android by Leon Keay

L.@.K.ART began whilst on my travels through Israel in 1999,although i attended art college in Leicester before this,i didnt really class myself as an artist untill i started producing my own drawings whilst travelling.

On my travels in Israel i ended up in Eilat in the south of Israel,living in the famous Home Hostel.I was sitting in the garden of the hostel one day,with not alot going on and decided to pick up a pen and start drawing,it had been a while as i had lost interest since finishing college.

From that day as soon as i finished a picture i started straight on the next,i suddenly found myself with a small amount of work
and started to wonder what to do with it,this was the start of my progression into an artist but this stage it was more of a hobby,and wasnt really thinking much past getting more work done,as i needed a portfolio.

Just over a decade later i have a strong portfolio of work in many mediums from illustration to paintings and recently ive put my hand to stencil and spray paint art.

STYLE & INSPIRATION

My style of artwork is a cross between many many things from,pop art,abstract art,comic books,surreal art,hip hop,popular culture of today really with anything goes really,no restrictions one rule i kind of have is it has to be bright and colourful and pleasing on the eye,art for arts sake and not always some deep meaningful explanation behind it.

My eyes are always open to art,everything i come across on a daily basis can be used in a piece of work,and with agood knowledge and interest in art history,this helps and inspires my work by learning from the best.

My inspirations mainly come from colourful abstract and surreal artists,such as Picasso,Dali,Joan Miro,Mc Esher,Gaudi and Kadinsky,but also pop artists like Warhol,Keith Haring,Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist.

I enjoy art and and hoping to carve out aliving from my work,so far to date i have been published,exhibited and have sold work also,and look forward to getting more involved in the coming years.

A special issue of the International Review of African American Art

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Eric Wilkerson Aquanauts: Distant Origins, 2011. On view in Riffing on the Real: Afro-Futurism in the Arts, Tubman Museum.

Vol. 24, No. 2 – A special issue of the International Review of African American Art on connections between mass media, pop culture, digital technologies and visual art.

“Artists are just as much products of contemporary popular culture, in all its mass technological – media frenzy, as we are — we average, non-artistic folk. As these artists push the boundaries of ‘fine art’ even further out and incorporate or address other media in their work, they increasingly connect with the realities of our every day lives.” – Samantha Ragland, from the “Is It Art” article in the issue.

I am interested in intergalactic space travel and extra-terrestrials, superheroes, psychic vampires, werewolves, time travel, alternate histories, matter transporters and alternate dimensions – real hardcore sci-fi geek stuff. I want to see how African American artists make use of these ideas… And it’s cool now to let your sci-fi freak flag fly. I’m happy to see that. – Jeff Bruce from the “Gallery Universe” article in the issue.

Since it’s coalescence in the early 1960s, there have been two major evolutions in the pop art genre. The second evolution, occurring today, is heavily influenced by hip hop culture; sci fi and other forms of mass media, and digital technologies, and encompasses the work of numerous African American artists working in many mediums.

Understanding the New Pop Art

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Tabitha Brown, Oh Mod Gosh, digital illustration inspired by vintage fashion and teen magazines. Photo: courtesy of the artist.


In production now for distribution in March 2013: a special issue on connections between visual art, mass media, popular culture and digital technologies.   The contemporary pop art genre is heavily influenced by hip hop culture; sci fi and other forms of mass media, and digital technologies, and encompasses the work of numerous African American artists working in many mediums.

Since it’s coalesence in the early 1960s, there have been two major evolutions in the pop art genre. The second evolution, occurring today, is heavily influenced by hip hop culture; sci fi and other forms of mass media, and digital technologies, and encompasses the work of numerous African American artists working in many mediums.

“Artists are just as much products of contemporary popular culture, in all its mass technological-media frenzy, as we are — we average, non-artistic folk.  As these artists push the boundaries of ‘fine art’ even further out and incorporate or address other media in their work, they increasingly connect with the realities of our every day lives.” –  Samantha Ragland, from the “Is It Art” article in the issue.

I am interested in intergalactic space travel and extra-terrestrials, superheroes, psychic vampires, werewolves, time travel, alternate histories, matter transporters and alternate dimensions – real hardcore sci-fi geek stuff.  I want to see how African American artists make use of these ideas…And it’s cool now to let your sci-fi freak flag fly. I’m happy to see that. –Jeff Bruce from the “Gallery Universe” article in the issue.

Also in this issue:  SCENE news on major exhibitions of African American art and image of the black figure in Western art, on view Fall 2012 – Spring 2013.

 

Art Aѕ A Fоrm Of Investment

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by October Gallery Staff

Thе idea thаt human beings саn put оntо paper, images depicting, thе surroundings, animals аnd buildings hаѕ bееn in practice fоr mаnу centuries. Thе оnlу thing thаt hаѕ changed iѕ thе fоrm in whiсh thiѕ iѕ done. Ancient tribes wоuld uѕе basic skills. Nowadays, thе application оf technology iѕ widely acceptable in аll types оf art. Nо wonder, it iѕ easy tо find mаnу paintings posted аt internet sales points.

 

With thе passage оf time, mankind hаѕ perfected thе manner in whiсh thiѕ means оf literary expression iѕ carried out. Schools whеrе people саn learn thе skills аrе nоw established аll оvеr thе world. Online institutions аrе quitе capable оf imparting knowledge оn hоw tо publish prints. High quality work iѕ sold tо customers, аnd саn еvеn bе painted оr printed оntо cups, plates, bеd sheets, pillows аnd gift vouchers.

 

Thе items аrе made tо portray аrt in vаriоuѕ forms. Pictures оf animals аnd trees will оftеn bе рlасеd оn thе products, аnd оn a regular basis, thеѕе products аrе sold аѕ a limited edition run. Thе internet iѕ nоrmаllу thе рlасе whеrе customers аrе аblе tо access Collecting Art.

 

In fact, renowned artists mау earn thousands оf pounds frоm a single painting. However, fоr аnу work tо make a huge amount оf money, thе creator iѕ uѕuаllу recognized аmоng hiѕ peers аѕ a master artist. Arriving аt thе level аt whiсh thе signed pictures аrе аѕѕосiаtеd with professionalism mау tаkе years оf marketing аnd hаrd work.

 

Fоr thоѕе whо plan tо tаkе advantage оf thе numerous investment opportunities in art, thе availability оf designer products аrе ѕоmеthing worth considering. Thе distributor network iѕ аlwауѕ rеаdу tо tаkе оn agents in a vаriоuѕ parts оf thе world. Thе willing buyer саn аѕk fоr deliveries frоm factories. Uроn receiving thе goods, оnе саn start selling thеm tо local customers аt a handsome profit. Bеing appointed аѕ аn agent саn асtuаllу рrоvidе a breakthorough in financial dreams.

 

Thе signed work саn bе put оn offer thrоugh internet sites. Buyers frоm mаnу countries аrе invited tо рlасе bids. Thе products аrе listed аѕ limited editions, аnd аrе replicas оf thе original work. Collectors аrе givеn thе opportunity tо advertise thеir collections аѕ thеу continue tо lооk fоr items created in аn imaginative manner.

 

Mаnу people whо hаvе decided tо invest in аrt аrе uѕing thiѕ method tо earn a good livelihood. Whеn thе buyer hаѕ identified thе print thаt hе intends tо buy, hе iѕ оftеn interested in thе artist whо created it. All thе details аrе provided. Thiѕ type оf work iѕ highly rated аmоng thе items оn sale оn thе internet.

 

Tо start with, it iѕ good tо find оut whаt buyers in уоur region аrе mоѕtlу interested in. Whеn уоu decide оn whаt mау bе аn excellent opportunity fоr business, аn order саn bе рlасеd with global suppliers. Thе mode оf delivery iѕ uѕuаllу quitе fast, аnd уоu саn expect tо receive уоur goods within a fеw weeks.There аrе mаnу reasons whу customers аrе lооking fоr аrt whоѕе presentation iѕ diffеrеnt frоm everyday paintings. Mоѕt people wаnt ѕоmеthing unique in thеir homes. Hаnd signed work iѕ аlѕо a nice touch, аnd саn рrоvidе a talking point fоr guests in thе living room.

Black Humor

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The wispy, poetic tentativeness of Zoe Charlton’s figures recalls the soft focus of Gerhard Richter. But where Richter’s objective was to question the meaning of painting, Charlton’s two paintings and 24 drawings at Wendy Cooper question the nature of identity, especially as determined by culture. In the painting Three Grace Tryout (2000), three black women do the cancan in the foreground while three white women cluster behind them. The figures are all somewhat sketchy, their softly variegated skin echoing the patchy background. But one of the black women’s heads appears to be dissolving–even more than the other blacks, whose skin blends into the surrounding browns, she seems on the brink of total dissolution. Charlton’s work has an edge, but it’s also humorous. The painting . . . Wish You Were Here, Betty and John (2000) shows a water-skiing white couple being towed by a clipper, apparently a slave ship since there’s a brown hand rising from the water nearby.

Charlton first encountered the Graces in a Rubens painting as an undergrad. She also began noting that blacks were seldom pictured. “I’m not represented in earlier European paintings,” she says, “except maybe as a servant.” Up to the age of nine, she wasn’t much aware of race. Her father was in the air force, and she grew up on military bases around the world, including four years in Okinawa. When the family moved to California, a kid started throwing rocks at her twin brother, and their mom asked what color he was. “I didn’t know what she meant,” Charlton says. “I hadn’t thought in terms of race.” Her parents started telling them stories of their own youth: they’d grown up in Tallahassee in the 1940s and gone to segregated schools. Charlton’s maternal grandmother had raised nine children alone, working as a maid for a white family.

Charlton, who loved art, didn’t know of any African-American artists until high school, when she saw a Robert Colescott piece. He remains a favorite, she says, for his “commenting on history, rewriting of history, as in George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware.” She was doing routine work as an art major until her third year, when an African-American instructor, sculptor Ed Love, was blunt with her: “He said, ‘Doing this work is not going to mean anything. Really think about what you want to say.’ I painted a black woman with a pressing comb for straightening her hair. Her hair was straight on one side and Afro on the other, and she was being lifted by a woman with a huge Afro–rescued by an Afro angel. It was my first really original painting. At the time I had long straight hair down to my shoulders that I straightened every couple of weeks.” In grad school Charlton became intrigued by racist and sexist jokes because, she says, they “pinpoint the stereotypes.” She began looking at joke books and, she says, asking people at parties to “tell me the worst joke they knew.”

Two of the five drawings from Charlton’s “Undercover” series displayed here show African-Americans dressed in KKK outfits; the series is partly inspired by the 1934 film Imitation of Life, in which a black girl tries to pass for white. “I was interested in the idea of passing and subversion,” Charlton says. “I have relatives who could have passed and didn’t.” Other drawings include black, pointed, abstracted versions of clipper prows that look like strap-ons, a mix that reminds her of “manifest destiny and leisure travel.” In Destiny (2006) a tree-shaped air freshener dangles from the tip of a strap-on, which springs from the midsection of a man disappearing into the pale background. Now teaching at American University, Charlton sees a lot of white men in suits in D.C. but lives in a white blue-collar area of Baltimore, where a neighbor regularly gets drunk and yells. He “might be annoying,” she says, “but it’s great for my work.” She recently started a series that combines the two types, “showing men in business suits who look like they’re stumbling.”

Zoe Charlton

When: Through 7/15

Where: Wendy Cooper, 119 N. Peoria, #2D

Info: 312-455-1195

Hebru Brantley: Straight Out of Neverland

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Yesterday's Losers by Hebru Brantley

The Afro-Futurist painter talks about Kanye, Common, and living like a shark.

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Hebru Brantley has been putting his aesthetic mark on Chicago for years. He spent much of his youth tagging its walls, honing the graffiti style he eventually brought inside. Now the 29-year-old artist— who’s shown in Atlanta, Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles—is about to open his biggest local exhibit to date: Afro-Futurism: Impossible View, at the Zhou B Art Center.

Brantley’s studio still reflects a kid’s visual imagination. If Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie were a black graffiti artist, this could be his Neverland. Spray-painted cartoon villains glower, young heroes parachute through sea-green clouds, and lost boys stalk about in dinosaur suits. The tables are piled with Marvel comics and action figures, and a homemade model airplane the size of a condor dives from the ceiling.

Like Neverland, Brantley’s work contains much that’s harsh, even cruel. Several of his paintings reflect the stereotypes drawn into old Tex Avery and Chuck Jones cartoons. Though he never gives the sense of being on a soapbox about it, Brantley often references the imagery of racism.

Who were your first influences in art?

I idolized my older brother, who was a first-generation Tony Hawk skater kid. He’d cover everything with stickers, logos, and character drawings. I first learned graffiti through the sketchbooks that he’d leave around the house.

When did you start tagging?

In middle school. Back then the biggest thing was scratch tags. You’d take sandpaper or gravel, get on the bus, and scratch your name in different shapes. The goal was to get your scratches on as many CTA lines as possible. Later, in high school, I started stealing spray cans and writing on anything with no shame. There was no art to it—it was just about how much you could get your name up.

Was there a moment when you began to think about art?

My junior year of high school, my first art teacher challenged me to expand my work. She showed me fine art, and I began to understand it and no longer dismiss it. . . .

She gave me a book of pop art. Obviously, Andy Warhol was the godfather. I admired him. And then I found Jean-Michel Basquiat. My mom bought me a book of Basquiat’s work that showed the span of his career. I became very much a bastard child of Basquiat. To see someone so young make it happen was very inspiring.

How would you describe your work?

I consider myself an Afro-Futurist. I think my work merges the new and neon with more traditional brushstrokes and techniques. I’m a child of popular culture and heavily influenced by cartoons, comic books, and television. I also have a strong affinity for Japanimation.

Would you say your art is about being a black American?

No. Well, I guess it just depends on my mood. Last year I spent a lot of time getting things off my chest. I had a show called Lions Disguised as Lambs in Seattle, and a lot of imagery was based around early racist cartoons. Impossible View is lighter in nature and just comes from a place of imagination.

When you directed me to your studio, you told me to follow the music. Does music play an important role in your creative process?

Music is a huge component of what I do. I think it’s what influences me the most.

What music did you listen to while preparing for Impossible View?

For this show I’ve been listening to my hometown heroes, Kanye West and Common.

What makes them heroes?

They’re products of Chicago who actually made it. Also, a lot of their music is extremely soulful and it’s music I can relate to. A lot of trials that Kanye and Common talk about are coming from a familiar place. It’s like they are one of your own, one of your boys.

What are the trials that you most relate to?

On his Be album, Common talks about young black males who have to choose a direction in life. For example, they wonder whether to pursue higher education or come home and hustle for their families. And how sometimes it can be hard to look towards next week when this one is so bleak.

Are there personal hardships that most affected you?

Well, definitely losing my parents back-to-back. Three years ago, my mom was diagnosed with cancer, and then, immediately, so was my stepdad. I’d been living and making art in LA, but I dropped all that was me, all that made me happy, to come back and take care of my siblings and basically watch my parents—who were only 55 and 58—die.

How did that experience affect your work?

Initially, negatively. It was a very dark time and I went into a dark place. Sometimes I didn’t understand what my mission was. I didn’t want to create anything, and what I did create was shit. It was a creative depression.

What changed?

I was taking my mom to chemo for a year, and she could see how rattled I was. So she suggested I bring my sketchbook. So I started writing down things she’d say and drawing the scenes we were in: her in the hospital bed, us in the waiting room, etc. After she passed in 2009 and I was looking for the answer, I felt like that sketchbook was a codex. Making art is what I needed to do. Since then, the floodgates have opened. I know that has to do with my mom.

What was something she told you that sticks with you?

She told me to be sharklike. I hold true to that.

What does that mean?

To always keep moving and be ferocious in whatever I do.

Tell me about Flyboy, the character you’ve created for Impossible View.

The Flyboy is my homage to the [African-American] Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. They were just so cool. The character is like my version of Captain America. Captain America’s success in the war is glorified in Marvel comics, and I think to be a black man during that period of time and be given license to fly—to escape—is worth celebrating.   v

Care to comment? Find this interview at chicagoreader.com/galleries.

Kara Walker’s war

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Kara Walker, Rise Up Ye Mighty Race!, 2013, Installation view at the Art Institute of Chicago. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

The artist traces the outline of racism in “Rise Up Ye Mighty Race!”

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Kara Walker is known for her room-sized panoramas depicting scenes of racism, violence, and gender and power struggles. The panoramas are populated by life-size silhouettes, drawn by hand and cut out of black paper, that often portray stereotypical characters of the antebellum south. “The silhouette says a lot with very little information,” Walker has written, “but that’s also what the stereotype does.” By simultaneously flattening and exaggerating her characters, she highlights the reductive ways they’ve been perceived throughout history.

Walker, who has exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and MOMA, became in 1997 one of the youngest recipients of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, a controversial decision that brought her to the forefront of the modern art world. The title of this show comes from the black nationalist Marcus Garvey—by way of Barack Obama, who quoted Garvey in a passage on community organizing in his memoir Dreams From My Father. In its content, “Rise Up Ye Mighty Race!” is a response to the infamous 1978 novel The Turner Diaries, which the FBI called “the bible of the racist right.” The book imagines a race war that ends with the extermination of all nonwhite populations. In the new installation, specifically designed for the Art Institute, Walker’s signature silhouettes are interspersed with drawings and handwritten text that address the book and what she calls “my ever-present, never-ending war with race.”

Correction: This story has been amended to reflect the fact that Kara Walker was one of the youngest recipients of a MacArthur fellowship, but not the youngest.

“Rising Up”: Hale Woodruff’s murals on a northern tour

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The Underground Railroad Peter Harholdt

Six paintings by the Harlem Renaissance artist leave the south for the first time since their installation—over half a century ago.

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n 1938,

Talladega College commissioned the Harlem Renaissance artist Hale Aspacio Woodruff to paint six murals to hang in a campus library. Three tell the story of the slave ship Amistad: an onboard mutiny, the trial of the captives, and their eventual return to Africa. Three more depict the Underground Railroad; the first day of student registration at Talladega, one of the country’s first all-black colleges, in Alabama in 1867; and the building of Savery Library, the eventual home of Woodruff’s work, in 1937.

Woodruff’s vibrant, large-scale murals were influenced by American regionalist style, a Mexican sojourn during which he apprenticed to Diego Rivera, and the cubism he studied in Paris. He returned from France in 1931 to chair the first art department for African-American students at Atlanta University; also in the 30s, Woodruff, who was born in Cairo, Illinois, painted murals for the Works Progress Administration. He went on to teach at Spelman College, Clark University, and at Talladega before joining the art faculty of New York University, where he taught until his retirement.

In 2011, Atlanta’s High Museum of Art collaborated with Talladega College on an extensive conservation project to prepare the murals for a multicity your, removing them from Savery Library for the first time. At the Chicago Cultural Center they’ll hang alongside other, smaller paintings and prints from throughout Woodruff’s career.

‘Migration’ exhibit shows effects of movement

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“Migration,” on display at the Paul R. Jones Gallery through April 19, is an exhibit showcasing art illustrating the effects of the movement of large groups of people, with a focus in its permanent collection on predominantly African-American works and depictions.

 

By Alexis Paine
Special to Tusk

The Paul R. Jones Gallery’s exhibit “Migration,” on display through April 19, showcases art that illustrates the effects of mass movements of people to different locations.

The exhibit features works from the permanent Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art. The collection is made up of 1700 pieces valued at $5 million, which were donated in 2008 by Paul R. Jones, an Alabama native and collector of African-American art.

A committee of University of Alabama faculty, made up of members of the Black Faculty and Staff Association, wanted to exhibit works that were relevant to a variety of different disciplines.

Lucy Curzon, the director of education and outreach for the collection, said the exhibit includes works that show geography, biology and other subjects related to arts and sciences and the university.

“We have prints, photographs, paintings — basically we’ve tried to cover a lot of the media areas included in the collection itself, so we’ve ended up having a wide variety,” Curzon said.

A portion of the works in the permanent collection reflect the “Great Migration,” the movement of African-­Americans from the southern United States to northern regions in the 20th century, and will be displayed in the current exhibit.

“We have a reflection of what happens when a large group of people moves from one location to another,” Curzon said.

On display in “Migration” is a photograph titled “Harlem, 1935” showing that growing center of cultural production in the early parts of the 20th century because of the first great migration, Curzon said.

Also included in the exhibit is a work called “Looking for a Friend,” which Curzon said is a more abstract view of moving to a new area and trying to create relationships.

While the permanent collection is predominantly African-American works, the exhibit will also feature pieces that show the movement of Native Americans across the country, as well as the migration of other ethnicities.

“It’s migration locally, migration of ethnicities,” Curzon said. “It emphasizes integration and Mr. Jones’s wishes for the use of the collection.”

Curzon said Jones believed that art was precious, but that everyone should be able to view it. Jones wanted the collection to be open to the public and integrated into the university’s curriculum.

“He believed firmly that art could be used to start a conversation and bring people together,” Curzon said. “This exhibit is very much about understanding art to understand broader issues.”

The Paul R. Jones Gallery is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays from noon to 8 p.m.

Royal Academy of Arts, an Artistic Showpiece

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Auburn Silver

The Royal Academy of Arts in London will delight any visitor to the British capital who admires quality art. The Academy aims to promote the artistic sphere in the United Kingdom, enabling visitors to appreciate fine artworks. When holidaying in London, the place is a must- visit.

Any visitor to London with an interest in the sphere of art will be enthralled by a visit to the Royal Academy of Arts. This one of a kind institution has the status of being an independently administered establishment which is controlled by distinguished architects and artists and funded privately.

The Academy\’s objective is to create interest in the varied field of visual art and stimulate the appreciation and enjoyment of quality artworks created by talented artists. To achieve this aim the institution aims to present regular and diverse exhibitions, promoting education in the artistic sphere and stimulating discussion and debate in related topics.

Originally the Academy had its inception in 1768 under the initiative of King George III. There were 34 founder Members, representing a cross-section of prominent architects and artists, of whom Sir William Chambers and Sir Joshua Reynolds were amongst the pioneers. These eminent practitioners were committed in their objective of gaining professional recognition for the fields of architecture and art as they existed in Britain.

This group of professionals also desired to create a showcase where the public could view and appreciate the work of British exponents in the artistic sphere. Further they wished to found an establishment where aspiring artists could learn from the talents and expertise of their predecessors.

Today the Academy continues to pursue its goals of spearheading and developing the artistic arena in Britain, presenting quality exhibitions and programmes for the benefit of the artistic community.
The Academy features many invaluable artworks and exhibits, of which the most significant is the prized Taddei Tondo crafted by Michelangelo. This masterpiece has the distinction of being the sole work in marble by this great sculptor existing in the United Kingdom.

The venue is also made especially attractive by the numerous paintings adorning the ceilings and walls of the building. Of these special prominence goes to works by Angelica Kauffman and Benjamin West, which are very highly regarded artworks in their own right.

The selective visitor seeking luxury hotels London will be pleased by The Langham London, one of the outstanding suite hotels London offers. This quality accommodation presents fine interiors and attentive service.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-tips-articles/royal-academy-of-arts-an-artistic-showpiece-6501014.html

About the Author

Thanuja Silva is a travel writer who writes under the pen name Auburn Silver. She has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world.

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The World’s Best Art Consultancy

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Art Exchange

The World\’s Best Art Consultancy
art-exchange.com unveils Release III of its art tool for designers

The Future Art Consultancy
Locating and placing artwork in a design project is arguably the most difficult part of the project. While some designers take on this task themselves, many enlist the assistance of an art consultant. One limitation of this approach is the consultant\’s limited universe of artists. Most art consultants end up with a few ‘go-to’ favorites.

Imagine an art consultancy able to directly access 10,000 artists, with technology capabilities aggregating art choices in a portfolio for emailing or high-resolution printing for presentations. Add the ability to correspond with clients via e-postcard including selected images. And finish with the ability to access framing options online thus enabling the designer to actually show the customer how the pieces will look framed.

Does It Work?
Can a website help you find art? Art-Exchange (www.art-exchange.com) is not a new website, not a new service, not a new company. It does, however, take a new approach to providing art to designers. And it has a new site design that Art-Exchange claims will make the service even more powerful and easier to use.
I spoke with Richard Gipe, President and CEO of Art-Exchange, to find out why he thinks his company\’s service is so special. I asked him, ‘If you had to communicate Art-Exchange\’s value to designers in a single sentence, what would you say?’
Here\’s what he said: ‘If you want to access as much art as we have on Art-Exchange, you would have to go to 20,000 galleries, and you would have to deal with so many different sellers that the logistics would be overwhelming.’ That sounds pretty good. But does the site work?

About Art-Exchange
Art-Exchange is a business service provider that specializes in solutions for the design trade. They can offer solutions to designers as an art consultancy, or they can provide solutions to art consultants to help them be more effective and efficient.
For the past five years Art-Exchange has been actively contacting artists to list their works on the exchange. Today there are approximately 100,000 different works of art created by over 10,000 different artists. Imagine searching 100,000 records to locate the perfect art solution. Nearly 60of all the works are originals, and the remaining 40is a variety of editions. All of these works are organized in a database, and a search engine locates works using any or all of the following criteria:

• Artist\’s name
• Title
• Subject matter
• Style
• Medium
• Size
• Colors
• Price
• Orientation

Suppose you need oversized original works and price is an issue. Maybe you want only works with lighthouses. Or perhaps you need large public works. That\’s how specific the search engine can be. And with the new design, if you enter several criteria and the search engine can\’t find a work that matches all your criteria exactly, it will refer you to the works that match your criteria most closely, so that you don\’t have to start over. As one of the new site\’s designers said, ‘We don\’t ever want to show nobody anything.’
Normally, designers hire an art consultant or visit multiple galleries or view print books to find the perfect art solution. That\’s the old way of finding art. Now designers can look in one place and view tens of thousands of originals alone. This is the new way of finding art. Art-Exchange let\’s designers search for all the art they need in one place. That alone has the potential to save time, but the website has some other very powerful features that give designers even more flexibility and power.

Powerful Features
One very important new feature is the Designer Portal. Art-Exchange has four different portals that members can use to enter the site. There\’s one for retail clients, one for community partners, and another for artists and other sellers. But the Designer Portal is available only to designers. Once you enter the portal, you can search for the art you want, view images of the art, and immediately see designers\’ wholesale pricing.
Here\’s another great new feature: Portfolios. How do you keep track of the works that fit your client\’s needs? You keep a portfolio. Designers can set up portfolios for individual clients, different locations, or just for future reference. It\’s easy to save works to custom-made portfolios. And it\’s easy to show the portfolio to clients—from anywhere in the world.
Another terrific feature is the Exhibitions section. Exhibitions include the works of around 200 artists and are compiled topically. Prior exhibitions, which are still accessible, include Realism, Landscape, Watercolor, and Impressionism. In order to have fresh ideas readily available for clients, designers need to be reviewing art all the time, and these exhibitions can help. It takes only fifteen minutes to view an entire exhibition.
Another feature that can help designers and clients work together—especially when clients have trouble describing their interests—is the Postcard feature. Clients can go to the website to browse for themselves. They can view an exhibition, browse by artist, or do a search. When they find something they like, they can send images to their designer using electronic postcards.
Soon, Art-Exchange will even offer the ability to create Custom Frames online so that clients can view the artwork in different frames and choose the one they like best.

Full-Service Art Consultancy
Art-Exchange goes far beyond just the website, however. They also provide full-service art consultancy. They have a full staff of qualified art consultants who can do as much or as little as a designer wants them to. Anything a typical art consultancy does, Art-Exchange will do. If a designer works with an art consultant already and wants to maintain that relationship, Art-Exchange will even work with his or her current art consultant.

How to Access the Features and Benefits of Art-Exchange
Go to www.art-exchange.com and visit the Designer Portal. Log in as a designer and learn about how the service works. You can easily search for art, access their full-service art consultancy, or guide your favorite art consultant to Art-Exchange. A subscription is free. Art-Exchange is paid by the sellers on completed transactions; so they only get paid if they\’re helping designers find the right art, for the right job, at the right price.
When asked what he would most want to communicate to designers about the company and the service it provides, Gipe said, ‘I want the members of ASID who place art to try the art consultancy service at Art-Exchange, and if they\’ll give us 10of their trust, we\’ll earn the other 90’ If you\’re a designer or an art consultant, it\’s worth trying. Does it work? Is it really whole new way of finding art? Yeah, that\’s what it is. And for designers, the world of art will never be the same.

Article Source: www.art-exchange.com

Contemporary and Antique Art Work Available on Online Art Gallery San Diego

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by Katie Winchester

Many people love colleting collecting antiques. In such cases art gallery San Diego proves to be an ideal choice. They have ample collections of art pieces for your space. However you might be skeptical about the originality of the piece. But when it comes to buying original art or exquisite paintings you need to be highly careful. There are many fraud websites that offer to sell original art works at low rates. As a buyer you need to be highly careful.

Specialty of art gallery San Diego:

Online galleries save energy – There are two ways of shopping from galleries in San Diego. Either you fly to the place and visit all the local galleries personally or indulge in online art gallery shopping. When it comes to online galleries in San Diego you get the opportunity to check out various paintings and art forms. Locating all the galleries under one roof has become possible with internet and online options of gallery. Online art gallery San Diego saves the time and effort of the buyers.

Multiplicity of options – When it comes to online galleries, they offer enormous options to be viewed. This is because there is no form of restriction on displaying their art form. They do not have to hunt down space that would have the potential to showcase all their art works. Also the online option comes with great affordability. There is no reason to invest outrageous amounts of finances in building a mortar art gallery and keep waiting for the buyers to shop.

Discounts – Since the website owners save their money on the galleries they can offer certain discounts on various art works. There are many antique as well as modern art lovers. But they find it difficult to set out some time to shop for art work. Also when they step into an art studio they find the rates humungous. With the online discounts and schemes available on various art works every art lovers dream comes true with online shopping.

Certain tips:

• Look out for the authenticity of the website.
• Carefully go through all the art works and read the description.
• Cross check the details of the art work with the artist.
• Involve in safe transaction of monetary details.
• Look out if there is any policy to return the art work in case of any damage. If there is no such policy then it would be better to avoid shopping from such art gallery San Diego.

About the Author

FineArtMaya Fine Art Gallery offers a great collection of exquisite bird painting abstract and watercolor fine art paintings. Based in San Diego it is one of the most prominent fine art galleries in California.

 

PHILADELPHIA: Radcliff Bailey

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Radcliffe Bailey, Nest, 2012, steel, piano keys, and taxidermied bird, 80 x 80 x 30 inches. Image courtesy of Bridgette Mayer Gallery.
Notes
April 3 – April 27, 2013
Opening reception: Friday, April 5, 2013, 6 – 8:30pm

709 Walnut Street, 1st Floor
Philadelphia, PA
Bridgette Mayer Gallery is pleased to announce its premier solo exhibition of work by artist Radcliffe Bailey. The exhibition, entitled Notes, will feature new sculptures in steel, bronze, porcelain and wood, as well as paintings and works on paper. As installations and spatial complexities are an interest of the artist, Bailey will pay special attention to the architecture of the gallery space for his overall installation.
Radcliffe Bailey’s work layers family histories with historical motifs, using antique family portraits, personal objects and musical references.  In the artist’s words, “My art is about history and the mystery of history. Scientists, preachers, tricksters; they are my muses. I am also very much influenced by musicians, poets, inventers, and practitioners; by people like George Washington Carver and the recently-deceased Charleston blacksmith, Philip Simmons.”  African and African-American themes are common in Bailey’s work. The nautical journey from one land to another- mainly that of African slaves to the new world – can be seen in his series of works on paper that will be on view at the gallery. Carved African figures look out onto colorful expanses of water with musical scores behind them as their night sky. Heavily influenced by music (jazz and hip-hop specifically), Bailey takes cues from the styles in his painting and sculpting practice, piecing together different mediums and imagery to create a harmonious work. Although Bailey’s work pulls from the diverse histories of the United States, art, music, and the world, his work is still meant for the general public. The goal of Bailey’s work is to be “sincere, complex and honest” and to perpetuate conversations about anything from race, to art, to our commonalities as people of this world.
Radcliffe Bailey received his BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991.   He is in the permanent collection of numerous museums including, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution, Washington,  DC among many others. Bailey has been the recipient of the Gibbes Museum of Art Factor Prize as well as the Johnnie L. Cochran,  Jr. Art Fund,  Inc. Aware for Excellence in the Visual Arts. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad including High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA,  McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX,  Jack Shainman  Gallery, New York, NY, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, Tate Liverpool, UK.
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