blackartists – Page 12 – Painting After Art is Dead

Al Loving

I’ve been following a hashtag on IG for Al so I can see snaps of his work that still gets shown. You can see from the first image why I was first drawn to him. Loving was well known for hard-edge, geometric abstract painting. However, he felt a tension between his work and his identity as an African American in a time of racial injustice, civil rights struggles, and the rise of the Black Power movement. In the early 1970s, he took a new direction with shaped, colorful, fabric-based works inspired by quilts.

#alloving

Frank Bowling

One of Frank’s painting is the image for this good read. More Frank.

#frankbowling

Mark Bradford

I wish I lived in London- Mark is having a great moment in Art history and these massive new pieces are another step forward.

#markbradford

Alma Thomas

If you ever hear a painter refer to another painter as a “painter’s painter”, this

#almathomas

Jack Whitten

Looks like a fantastic show at the Baltimore Museum of Art that inspired me to create a gallery of Jack’s work.

#jackwhitten

Ed Clark

RIP to a real painter’s painter.

#edclark

Mike Henderson

Congrats to Mike on his recent Artadia Award, recognizing his significant career.

#mikehenderson

Patrick Alston

I’m occasionally tempted to title pieces- given the socio-political interests Patrick engages it seems necessary in this case.

#patrickalston

Sam Gilliam

Caught this great read on Artsy and decided to explore Sam’s catalog. 60 years of painting (and installation, and printmaking, and…) sounds like a dream come true.

#samgilliam

Robert Reed

I’d say this is a profound read about the first and only tenured African American faculty member in the history of the Yale School of Art. Amazing story and really excellent formalist work that belies the notion that abstraction doesn’t stand for other ideas.

I also made a Pinterest “gallery” of his work, including uploading some images myself from other sources.

#robertreed

Norman Lewis

Since February is Black History Month, I thought it was worth digging in a little bit to find out what part of US History had perhaps been missing from my education- I know for a fact of course that there are black painters making work I love (Stanley and Elias, looking at you).

After reading this great article from Art News circa 2014, I settled on Norman. If you guessed from the print below that he was influenced by Ad Reinhardt, my theory is that went both ways. Read this bio from the Smithsonian and check out this Pinterest board I made as well.

#normanlewis

Elias Simes

Glad I went to see the O’Keefe show at NCMA because I discovered they’ve also got a huge piece from Elias Sime’s show at James Cohan in 2015 (Tightrope 9)- it’s pretty spectacular if you haven’t seen it yet. The composition is clearly non-representational- abstract if you will- but his use of computer parts (and the social and cultural context for the acquisition of the materials) clearly carries a rich depth of content. Even more interesting to me was the conceptual bent he shared with O’Keefe and they both shared with their subject matter- the materials they make work about and from have a visceral attraction for both that comes through loud and clear. Check out his bio for more of this type of color on this amazing artist.

#eiliassimes

Stanley Whitney

Great write up on Stanley with the context of the current show he has up in NYC by, no surprise, John Yau over at Hyperallergic. I literally can’t add anything other than I have wanted to lick every one of these I’ve ever seen in person.

#stanleywhitney

Julie Mehretu

Some images on Pinterest of other work by Ms Mehretu. I haven’t yet seen any of these in person- but Artsy thinks her show at White Cube in London is a must see if you are doing Frieze Week.

#juliemehretu