They lived

In Nona Faustine's White Shoes series, she casts herself to stand for the women who survived the horrors of the Middle Passage and were then sold into a life of unrelenting terror. Her work is courageous and beautiful and heart wrenching. With her body, Faustine shows us enslaved Africans are in every sinew of this nation. It's bricks and mortar, fields and streams, and rocky coastlines harbor the degradation of slavery. Wall Street, the hub of international capitalism, was the auction block.

http://nonafaustine.virb.com/  

Artists in their studios: Selma Hortense Burke to Lorna Simpson

Earlier this year the artist Lorna Simpson gave a video tour of her new studio in Brooklyn. It was white, bright and expansive. When Simpson appeared on the screen to speak about the space, she exuded the calm and certitude one expects from an artist of her magnitude. The video was created for an exhibit of the work of British architect David Adjaye. The tour also functioned as a phenomenal display of fortitude and presence. Black women artists like Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, and Mickalene Thomas are esteemed in the Art world, but the portrait of the artist in the studio is still overwhelmingly that of a white man.

The portrait of the artist in the studio is a meaningful image. In The New Yorker, Lilly Lampe articulates its power. "The studios of famous artists are fascinating for the double insight they provide us: on the one hand, a view of the creative process; on the other, a view of the creative life." The artist in the studio also provides a view of what is possible.

Simpson's studio tour inspired me to find pictures and videos of black women artists ensconced in their creative workplaces. In some of the photographs the artists are in the midst of creation; in others they are posed next to or in front of a completed piece. There is a sense of pride and accomplishment in the photos. Seeing those artists in the realms of their creation is a reminder of the audacious feat of black American women making art and claiming the professional title of 'artist'. In an interview with Charles H. Rowell of Callaloo, Lois Mailou Jones spoke about the struggles of being a black woman artist in the mid-20th century. "I owed very much to my white friend Céline who would take my paintings to the juries. They never knew that the artist was black. That was very much in my favor. It's been a very unusual career. I would also send or ship my work to the Philadelphia Academy or to the National Academy of Design. Invariably, the works would be hung, and they would never know that the artist was black. I remember going to the Philadelphia Academy to see one of my paintings which had been accepted. While I stood there looking at it, the guard saw me looking at the painting and said, "I guess you like art, don't you?" I said to myself that he doesn't know that the painting is mine hanging there. [Much laughter.] And so that's how it was way back in those early days; I was exhibiting at all of the big museums, but they never knew that I was black because I either shipped my works or had a white person deliver them. Now you see how difficult it was."

Lois Mailou Jones was not alone in being erased from her own work. Sister Rosetta, the mother of Rock and Roll is little known beyond music aficionados and students of African-American history. It is important for black women artists to be seen and acknowledged. Once they are seen, their creative output can be recognized as vital, skillful, and beautiful without qualification. The portrait of the black woman artist in her studio is a statement of being in a world comfortable erasing her from the historical record. 

Selma Hortense Burke
Sculptor

 

Augusta Savage
Sculptor

Elizabeth Catlett
Printmaker and Sculptor

 

Dr. Samella Lewis
Painter and Printmaker

Interview with Dr. Lewis begins at :22 seconds

  

 

Lois Mailou Jones

Painter

 

 

 

 

Faith Rinngold

Painter, Sculptor, Perfomance Artist

 

 

  

 

Betye Saar

Painter, Multimedia and Installation Artist

 

 

 

 

Kara Walker

Mixed-media, Sculptor, Painter, Video and Silhouette Artist

 

 

  

 

Mickalene Thomas

Painter

 

 

Lorna Simpson

Photographer

 

Artist at Work: Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas is an artist who re-orients the perspective of the nude portrait.  In her work, the scene is depicted from the model’s point of view; she watches the viewer watching her. The model  is a dark skinned black woman. She exudes self –awareness. This is not the traditional nude. As Jon Berger notes in Ways of Seeing, “The nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for one ’s self. A nude has to be seen as an object in order to be a nude.”

Thomas also incorporate rhinestones in her portraits, a modern touch dramatizing the way women enhance themselves.

Watch Mickalene Thomas talk about her process.

More about Mickalene:

Mickalene Thomas

http://mickalenethomas.com/index.html

Lehmann Maupin Gallery: Mickalene Thomas

http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/#/artists/mickalene-thomas/

In the Studio: Mickalene Thomas

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/30446/mickalene-thomas/

Frida and Josephine

This photograph is intriguing and inspirational. Does it document their first meeting? What did they talk about? Where was the picture taken? Mexico City? Paris? New York?

Josephine Baker and Frida Kahlo were uniquely 20^th Century creations; artists and muses who were capable of taking advantage of the historical events of their time to be their true selves. The Great Migration and Paris between the world wars shaped Ms. Baker. Ms. Kahlo thrived in the freedoms provided to artists and middle class women by the Mexican Revolution.  

What can we make of ourselves today? Can we be as bold as Frida and Josephine?