Tell Me Your Story. 100 years of storytelling in African-American art
8 February – 17 May 2020, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
Opening February 7, 2020
About:
A first in Europe: 100 years of African-American art in an exhibition about storytelling. From 8 February, visitors can explore the visual richness of black culture through the work of 50 African American artists. Around 140 works – mainly on loan from the United States – will be exhibited in Amersfoort. Many of the participating artists have never been exhibited in the Netherlands before. Meet the keyfigures of African-American art and learn about their unique stories.
The exhibition is being curated by guest curator Rob Perrée: ‘Black American artists are creating beautiful, profound art and have a great deal to say. They want their voices to be heard, which hasn’t really been possible in the Netherlands until now. This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to find out what we’ve been missing out on.’
Harlem in the 1920s saw a flurry of activity by African-American authors, musicians and theatre makers, resulting in a vibrant visual arts scene. Black culture is currently enjoying another renaissance, and African-American artists are more visible than ever in the United States. The exhibition places present-day artists in the context of their predecessors, and is based around five chronological periods: the Harlem Renaissance, Post Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights, Black Renaissance and Bloom Generation. The artists in each of these distinct periods shared one common characteristic: the need to express themselves and safeguard the vital African tradition of Storytelling.
Storytelling
Slavery ultimately strengthened the tradition of oral storytelling rather than destroying it. Owners consciously deprived enslaved persons of education: it was assumed learning would only make them more outspoken and defiant. This ban on education stimulated storytelling, helping to conserve African history. Stories were handed down through the generations.
Harlem Renaissance
Black Americans travelled north from the southern states, settling in districts such as the New York borough of Harlem. It was here that black culture blossomed a hundred years ago, during the so-called jazz age, inspiring the Harlem Renaissance movement. Its legacy includes poetry, novels, articles, works of art, music and theatre. This exhibition features first editions of various key books that inspired the movement.
Post Harlem Renaissance
The generation born during or after the Harlem Renaissance turned to the visual arts. The works of Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Charles White and Betye Saar depict the daily lives of black Americans, capturing their predecessors’ poems and stories in striking imagery.
Civil Rights
Many hoped that the 1964 Civil Rights act would finally end the discrimination and segregation that had continued. However, racial inequality endured, leading to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power and the Black Panthers. Black artists felt both motivated and obliged to address the problem. The AfriCOBRA group founded by Wadsworth Jarrell and others sought to communicate their ideology through an accessible visual language. Emory Douglas, the Black Panthers’ Minister of Culture, advocated a more activism-based approach.
Black Renaissance
The 1990s saw another resurgence of black culture that was comparable to the Harlem Renaissance. The movement’s success is directly linked to the emergence of a black middle class. The collapse of the art market in the late 1980s sparked an interest in ambitious young African American artists. The themes of their work also drew attention due to the growing popularity of socially engaged art. Kara Walker first came to the art world’s attention in 1994, when her silhouette installation was exhibited in The Drawing Center in Soho. Kerry James Marshall held his first major solo exhibition at the moCa Cleveland in the same year.
Bloom Generation
Black culture is currently enjoying a renaissance. African-American artists are now more visible than ever in the United States. Artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Hank Willis Thomas, Trenton Doyle Hancock and Devan Shimoyama are the focus of much attention. MoMA director Glenn Lowry has referred to African American artists as the most interesting artists of our current era. While their work is still relatively unknown here in the Netherlands, that’s all set to change with the Kunsthal KAdE exhibition.
Tell Me Your Story serves as an introduction to the figureheads of African-American art, teaching us how to tell stories and keep them alive for coming generations. A catalogue describing each participating artist will be published as part of the exhibition.
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Participating artists: Carl van Vechten (1880-1964), Winold Reiss (1886-1953), James van der Zee (1886-1983), Horace Pippin (1888-1946), Palmer Hayden (1890-1973), Augusta Savage (1892-1962), Aaron Douglas (1898-1979), Hale Woodruff (1900-1980), Richmond Barthé (1901-1989), William H. Johnson (1901-1970), Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), Romare Bearden (1911-1988), Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), Charles White (1918-1979), John Biggers (1924-2001), Robert Colescott (1925-2009), Betye Saar (1926), Benny Andrews (1930-2006), Gordon Parks (1912-2006), Wadsworth Jarrell (1929), Faith Ringgold (1930), David Driskell (1931), Bob Thompson (1937-1966), Aminah Robinson (1940-2015), Gerald Williams (1941), Emory Douglas (1943), Carrie Mae Weems (1953), Kerry James Marshall (1955), Todd Gray (1955), Alison Saar (1956), Henry Taylor (1958), Whitfield Lovell (1959), Lyle Ashton Harris (1965), Radcliffe Bailey (1968), Kara Walker (1969), Trenton Doyle Hancock (1974), Hank Willis Thomas (1976), Omar Rashid (1976), Kehinde Wiley (1977), Latoya Ruby Frazier (1982), Paul Mpagi Sepuya (1982), Jordan Casteel (1989), Jonathan Lyndon Chase (1989), Dáreece Walker (1989), Devan Shimoyama (1989), Cameron Welch (1990)
About Rob Perrée
Rob Perrée is an art historian, independent author and curator. He is the founder/editor of online magazine africanah.org and board member at CBK Zuidoost. He has been closely following African-American art since the 1990s.
Aaron Douglas, The Judgement Day, 1927. SCAD Museum of Art, Gift of the Walter O. Evans Foundation for Art and Literature. c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2019
Dáreece Walker, Made in the USA, 2016. Courtesy of the artist
Kerry James Marshall, Vignette, 2003, Private collection. c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2019
Faith Ringgold, United States of Attica, 1972. Courtesy of ACA Galleries, NY. c/o Pictoright Amsterdam 2019