Black Art: A Cultural History (Second Edition)

World of Art

by Richard J. Powell

"Excellent artists' profiles, lots of reproductions, and illuminating and original discussions of social and cultural contexts of African American art."― Booklist . The African diaspora―a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade and Western colonialism―generated a wide array of artistic achievements in the past century, from blues to reggae, from the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner to the video installations of Keith Piper. Richard Powell's study concentrates on the works of art themselves and on how these works, created during a time of major social upheaval and transformation, use black culture as both subject and context.

From musings on the "the souls of black folk" in early twentieth-century painting, sculpture, and photography to questions of racial and cultural identities in performance, media, and computer-assisted arts in the 1990s, the book draws on the works of hundreds of artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Wifredo Lam, Jacob Lawrence, Spike Lee, Archibald Motley, Jr., Faith Ringgold, and Gerard Sekoto.

This revised edition includes expanded coverage of video art and a new chapter that discusses work by a number of artists who have newly risen to prominence, such as Chris Ofili, Kara Walker, and Renée Cox. Biographies of more than 170 key artists provide a unique art-historical reference.

Placing its emphasis on black cultural themes rather than on black racial identity, this groundbreaking book is an important exploration of the visual representations of black culture throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. 190 illustrations, 36 in color

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, History, African American, Art Design, Race

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

Reviews

[silly_ebadu · Rating 3 out of 5]

i might bump this to 4 stars but i can’t decide because i found it way too US-focused (about 140 of the artists mentioned were American). this was extremely dense but enjoyed the overall discussion of the shift in how black art is shaped.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I appreciated the cultural/social perspective that placed Black artists and art within the context of their times, the author tried to cover too much ground—too many artists given too little space. And instead of focusing entirely on the traditional visual arts (painting and sculpture) that I wanted to read about, the narrative wandered into performance art and film which don’t interest me as much. I pretty much skimmed the last 50 pages.

[jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting - i think it does a good job of showing how art affects culture and how culture in turn can affect art, put simply, and how both art and culture go hand in hand. gets pretty infodump-y at times, but i think that's just par for the course in terms of the purpose of the book itself.

[Cheryl]

Way too academic for me. March 2025.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not bad for what it is, but there are major problems with doing an art survey, particularly when you're dealing with a type of art meant to combat stereotypes by re-presenting a people's role in the world. Also, the tone was extremely curatorial, which made some portions drag.

[Mills College Library]

709.73 P885 2003

[Liam Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trite, passionless rubbish. Lots of pictures, but few in colour - and the ones that do appear in colour are usually the ones that benefit least from it.