This issue of The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, "African Americans in Art: Selections from The Art Institute of Chicago," has been organized in recognition of the significant expansion of our holdings of works by African Americans, as well as of examples by other artists in which African Americans are the subjects. It provides as well an occasion to look back at the institution’s relationship to this aspect of American culture.

In the early years of their existence, the Art Institute’s museum and school––being relatively small in scope–– operated as one entity. Nonetheless, the school’s pedagogical efforts and the museum’s program of acquisitions and exhibitions did not always move in the same direction or at the same speed. At the turn of the twentieth century, the School of the Art Institute was far ahead of the museum in its commitment to art by African Americans. It was one of the few art academies in the United States in which blacks could enroll. While their numbers were relatively low in the early decades, it is significant that so many who studied at the School––among them, Richmond Barthé, Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Eldzier Cortor, Walter Ellison, Charles White (see Portfolio, nos. 11, 15, 18, 8, 5, and 17, respectively), and Archibald J. Motley, Jr. (see Mooney essay)––enjoyed full and active careers, working in Chicago, New York, and/or Europe and participating in such important cultural forces as the Harlem Renaissance and later in the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). These pioneers understood that they needed to assist one another by organizing support groups such as the Chicago Art League, which was founded in 1923 to organize exhibitions and programs focused on black artists and their work, and the South Side Community Art Center. Opened in 1941 to provide training in the arts and exhibition opportunities for the residents––primarily African American––of this neighborhood, the SSCAC is one of the few WPA-sponsored art centers still in existence.

After World War II, the G.I. Bill helped more blacks to enroll at the School; many trained to be teachers as well as artists. They were encouraged by a number of instructors, but most especially the artist and art historian Kathleen Blackshear and the art historian Whitney Halstead. Blackshear initially served as assistant to Helen Gardner, whose Art Through the Ages (first published in New York about 1926) was the standard college textbook for many decades. Gardner’s embrace of art from many non-Western cultures––including Africa––was far ahead of its time. Blackshear, who helped African American students in a number of ways, including financially, regularly took her classes to see the extensive collections of African, South Pacific, and Amerindian art at the Field Museum. 1 Courses on African art were introduced by Halstead in the 1950s; he was particularly supportive of African American artists, as well as of Outsider artists, including Joseph Yoakum (see Portfolio, no. 23), whose work he acquired in great depth. When written, the history of African Americans at the School of the Art Institute will undoubtedly prove enlightening. 2