African Americans in Art: Selections from the Art Institute of Chicago

The city of Chicago, particularly its South Side, has rivaled Harlem as an important locus for African American culture. While it has been rightfully celebrated for its contributions to jazz, Chicago has also been a flourishing center for the visual arts. This book reflects the growing collection of art by African Americans in the city’s leading art organization, the Art Institute of Chicago. Intended to provide an overview of the concerns surrounding race in art, to celebrate the achievements of a number of gifted African American artists, and to provide a broad and multifaceted view of American art and culture, this book includes four intriguing essays and a stunning portfolio of twenty-nine images illustrated in full color, with informative, brief entries examining individual works. A study of a striking daguerreotype of Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass is followed by two essays discussing the work of seminal, Chicago-based artists: the complex, engaging paintings of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., and the impassioned sculpture of Marion Perkins. The fourth essay looks at recent, mixed-media work by Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, and Willie Robert Middlebrook. The contributors to this publication include Art Institute of Chicago curators Colin L. Westerbeck and Daniel Schulman; and scholars Andrea D. Barnwell, Kirsten P. Buick, Amy M. Mooney, Cherise Smith, and others.

Table of Contents

Introduction
by Susan Rossen

Frederick Douglass Chooses His Moment
by Colin L. Westerbeck

Representing Race: Disjunctures in the Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.
by Amy M. Mooney

Continuing the Dialogue: A Work in Progress
by Andrea D. Barnwell and Kirsten P. Buick

A Portfolio of Works by African American Artists

Marion Perkins: A Chicago Sculptor Rediscovered
by Daniel Schulman

Fragmented Documents: Works by Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, and Willie Robert Middlebrook in The Art Institute of Chicago
by Cherise Smith

Notes

Credits