Helen Levitt, Untitled, 1942
A safe place for art about and by artists of the diaspora. This tumblelog does not claim the rights to any of these images.
This tumbelog is moderated by blackqueerdo, ranaa, and blueberryplatitudes (occasionally).Interested in moderating or submitting?
Email: blackcontemporaryart [at] gmail (dot) com
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Two cheers for the Nasher Museum at Duke University! Visit their site linked below:
African American Close-Up
The works of art featured here are part of a group studied in the Fall 2012 Art History course at Duke University taught by Professor Richard Powell entitled Modern and Contemporary African American Art. This course examined the social and philosophical forces shaping a black presence in contemporary and modern visual culture.
Because the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University is the repository for, or is in close proximity to, many important works of art by and about African Americans, it was decided that rather than requiring a conventional term paper, students might benefit more from conducting original research on works of art they could see in person. To showcase this student-generated scholarship this online exhibition was created.
African American Close-Up: Prints, Photographs and Works on Paper from North Carolina Collectionsgratefully acknowledges the support from the Ph.D. Lab in Digital Knowledge, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University.Image: Arthur P. Bedou, (1880 – 1966), Booker T. Washington & Party, Daytona, Fla., 1913. Gelatin silver print. North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company archives, Durham, NC. Provided by the North Carolina Mutual Collection, held by North Carolina Central University and Duke University.
Behind the scenes with film director Shola Lynch discussing her documentary “Free Angela” earlier today.
View the trailer here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh49nbTq268.
(via sheilastansbury)
“In art, there’s no privileged
path of access to truth,
on the contrary, there are
an infinite number of access points.”
— Tomás Maldonado
(Source: coleccioncisneros.org)
So excited to announce this! See more info below and be sure to apply! http://rhizome.org/commissions/
The Rhizome | Tumblr Internet Art Grant expands upon Rhizome’s existing Commissions program to specifically target Tumblr’s significant artistic community. The Internet Art Grant will award three commissioning awards with a special focus on projects from emerging artists engaged with Tumblr.
The grants will be determined by a jury of art and Tumblr experts: Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions at the New Museum and Artistic Director of the 55th Venice Biennale; Laurie Anderson, noted experimental performance artist and musician; Jon Rafman, leading contemporary artist; Zoë Salditch, Rhizome’s Program Director; and Topherchris, Tumblr Editorial Director.
Super thrilled to see this come to fruition. See the writeup on Gallerist NY!
go internet!
(via hyperallergic)
“The Situation” (2013)
Shikeith Cathey
Mixed Media Animated Digital Art
A music video for South African artist Spoek Mathambo, a cover of the Joy Division classic “She’s Lost Control”, directed and shot by Pieter Hugo and Michael Cleary.
[Control] explores the world of township cults, street preaches and teen gangs and was shot on location in a squatted train boarding house in Langa, Cape Town. The cast is mainly made up of the neighborhood kids who run their own dance troop, Happy Feet.
[h/t: @colossal]
Ralston Crawford and Jazz (noma.org)
“Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be talked about in mainstream news, the rap that gets in national news is always the rap music that perpetuates misogyny that is most obscene in its lyrics and then this comes to stand for what rap is. Really its for me the perfect paradigm of colonialism, that is to say, we think of rap music as a little third-world country, that young white consumers are able to go to and take out of it whatever they want. We would have to acknowledge that what young white consumers, primarily male, oftentimes suburban, most got energized by in rap music was misogyny, obscenity, pugilistic eroticism and therefore that form of rap began to make the largest sums of money.”
— bell hooks, cultural criticism — rap: authentic expression or market construct? (via ellesugars)
(via seemstween)
Possibility, 2008
Acrylic on Canvas
84 x 109 inches
odili donald odita
Point of Return, 2010
Acrylic on canvas
90 x 92 inches
“I’m hoping to start each morning with a short film (as I did yesterday), so we’ll see how this goes. At least, maybe it’ll encourage more filmmakers to put their shorts online (after they’ve toured the film festival circuit, and whatever else the filmmakers have planned for them), and send to us so we can share the best of the bunch here on S&A.
This one comes from French animators Simon Chansard, Lucas Dworianyn, Hollie Gach, Duc Duy Nguyen andVictor Pillet. It was their graduation film while at ESMA Toulouse - an arts school in Toulouse, France.Synopsis:Dropped off at his grandmother’s, a young boy who lives with every possible comfort is to be denied it all through an adventurous discovery of her world.It’s titled CutOff.” MORE from Shadow & Act
“While Cave’s Soundsuits are almost entirely whimsical and otherworldly, HEARD•NY takes on the representation of something much more recognizable to us: an animal whose basic movements we know instantly. In this sense, the piece has an inherent element of theatricality and narrative, a transubstantiation of strange to familiar.” (Nick Cave’s Equine Exercise in Puppet Magic by Emma Wiseman)
See the film and enjoy a Q&A discussion with filmmaker Tiona McClodden on Saturday, April 20, 2013 at the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Seattle WA - presented in partnership with Sistah Sinema. Sistah Sinema started in Seattle, WA in January 2011. In the Spring of 2012, Women of Plenty launched Sistah Sinema - San Antonio (curently in hiatus). In June 2012, Sistah Sinema - Cleveland was launched. Sistah Sinema - Portland & Atlanta launched in January of 2013. Sistah Sinema - Greensboro went live in April 2013 and Sistah Sinema - Kingston in May. For details on bringing Sistah Sinema to your city, click here. Our goal is to become an international distribution network for Queer Women of Color cinema.
Bumming Cigarettes (USA, 2012) 22 minutes
Directed by Tiona McClodden
Bumming Cigarettesis a short film about a brief and intimate meeting between a young Black lesbian woman who is in the process of taking an HIV test and a middle aged Black Gay HIV Positive man. Coming off of the devastation of a bad breakup with a girlfriend, Vee musters up the courage to go and take an HIV test to put her worst fears to rest. What she experiences during her trip to a local clinic is much more than she expects while sharing a cigarette with a stranger, Jimmy, during the 10 minutes that she awaits her test results.
Alia Hatch makes a strong debut in this short film, as a young Black lesbian woman looking to discover her status. This is a breakthrough performance for James Tolbert, a native Philadelphian and professional actor living with HIV for 21 years. Alia and James deliver a moving performance in this film that explores complex issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic including the loss of intimacy and stigma that persons living with HIV/AIDS may encounter, while also encouraging awareness around HIV/AIDS testing and the way we treat persons living with the disease.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/51232736
Shown with Zanele Muholi’s Difficult Love
Difficult Love (South Africa, 2011) 48 minutes
Zanele Muholi / Peter Goldsmid
A highly personal take on the challenges facing black lesbians in South Africa today emerges through the life, work, friends and associates of “visual activist” and internationally celebrated photographer, Zanele Muholi. How real are the freedoms of newly won democracy for this diverse minority? This documentary offers a moving answer - and a compelling plea for understanding and tolerance. It offers a poignant personal journey illustrated by Zanele’s photographs and a diverse range of encounters - lesbian activists, critics, commentators, victims and even a lesbian sangoma (traditional healer). It counters the charge head-on that being lesbian or gay is “unAfrican” or unChristian.
(via decolonizeyourmind)
SO I DID A LITTLE SHOOT WITH CAMERON COOPER AND ZAK KREVITT FOR OAK NYC. I’M SO GLAD THE PHOTOS TURNED OUT THE WAY THEY DID AND THE CLOTHES ARE AMAZING - SEE THE FULL FEATURE HERE AND I’LL BE POSTING MORE OF THE IMAGES SOON!
proud of you girl!
