Photo By Gail
This monumental portrait of a claimed opera singer Marian Anderson (1944) was part of artist Laura Wheeler Waring’s Outstanding Americans of Negro Origin series, commissioned by the Harmon Foundation for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Anderson had become a celebrated star of the concert stage in Europe, where Waring first saw her perform in 1916. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Portrait of Marian Anderson By Laura Wheeler Waring
All Photos By Gail
Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978) is a conceptual artist working across film, performance, sculpture, and installation. Through exhaustive research into topics including colonial history, social segregation, and marginalized stories, Kiwanga constructs artworks that tease apart power imbalances and the imperceptible nuances that comprise the aesthetics of power.
Continue reading On Growth By Kipwani Kiwanga on The High Line
Photo By Gail
Jarvis Boyland’s sensitive paintings conjure feelings of intimacy and leisure. In Pop Out (2019) — the title being a Chicago-based expression for hanging out — the artist depicts himself standing alongside an artist friend, both dressed in lustrous outfits and meeting the viewer’s gaze. The stand in a lived-in space with arms interlocked, exuding a familiarity that confirms their comfort in each other’s presence. It is as much a portrait of their relationship as it is of them as individuals, echoing Borland’s broader portrayals of queer Black people in domestic settings.
Photographed in the Brooklyn Museum as Part of the Exhibit Giants: Art From The Dean Collection.
Photo By Gail
William H. Johnson (1901 – 1970) created his lively Jitterbugs series of paintings and screen prints from about 1940 to 1942 while teaching at the Works Progress Administration’s Harlem Community Art Center. After long periods spent abroad, the artist returned to the United States in 1938 to record the daily lives of African-Americans in a manner akin to folk art.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: William H. Johnson, Jitterbugs V
Photo By Gail
Artist Vaughn Spann’s figurative compositions are vivid in their palette and imagination. Brilliantly saturated canvases such as this painting  reflect the artist’s careful study of color, form, line and shape. His painted narratives, while dreamlike, are grounded in the complex realities of navigating life as a Black person. Basking in the Wind (2019) evokes the duality of this experience with a two-headed Black figure seated next to a pair of black and white rabbits.
Photographed in The Brooklyn Museum as Part of the Exhibit Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys