Tag: blackartists

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