Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection
Thursday, October 22, 1998–Saturday, December 19, 1998
Curated by: Juanita Holland, Ph.D.
Organized by: The University of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland was proud to host this exhibition of works from the collection of the noted artist, scholar, and collector David C. Driskell. The 100 works by 61 artists vividly documented changes in African American identity and belief from the 1870s until the present day. Narratives was on view October 22 through December 19, 1998 at The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland. After closing at The Art Gallery, Narratives traveled through 2002 to several venues throughout the United States.
We hosted a number of special events, including a tribute dinner in honor of Driskell and a symposium, Re-envisioning the Diaspora. In the West Gallery and running concurrently with this exhibition was a show featuring Driskell's own art, entitled Echoes: The Art of David C. Driskell.
Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection was made possible by a major contribution from the Rockefeller Foundation and additional support from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Prince George's Arts Council, the Washington Post Company, and WPFW 89.3 FM Washington, DC.
The exhibition was divided into five themes: Strategic Subversions, Emergence, The Black Academy, Radical Politics, and Diasporic Identities. The following tabs provide information about the theme, history, and artists in each section.
Comprehensive Guide to Artwork in this Exhibition:
Exhibition
Strategic Subversions
Cultural Emancipation, Assimilation, and African American Identity
A primary agenda for African American artists of the nineteenth century was to establish their right to participate in Western society. This they accomplished by mastering European American aesthetic traditions. Their success was dependent not only on satisfying the tastes of white patrons who were willing to support their forays into "high culture" but also on reaching the small pool of Black patrons who could afford to purchase paintings and sculpture. Moreover, their artistic identity presented a direct challenge to the cultural superiority so deeply embedded in Western society. Against the backdrop of legislative repression and the threat of physical violence, one road to emancipation came through cultural achievement; assimilation served as a strategic weapon against racism.
Honoring the legacy of nineteenth century Black artists, this section of the exhibition will feature works by such artists as Robert S. Duncanson, Edward Mitchell Bannister, and Charles Ethan Porter, as well as early twentieth century artists Meta Warrick Fuller, James V. Herring, Henry O. Tanner, and James VanDerZee. The work of these artists provides the first cornerstone for the discussion of racial and artistic identity that is the foundation of the exhibition.
Emergence
The New Negro Movement and Definition of Race
The first three decades of the twentieth century witnessed a growing awareness of the importance of African heritage in understanding and defining African American identity as the Great Migration established significant Black communities in northern cities. Leading intellectuals like W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke urged Black artists to look towards African arts for inspiration and to choose African and African American subject matter. Simultaneously, and against the backdrop of continuing violence against American Blacks, African Americans in the fine and performing arts gathered in cities like Chicago and New York, forming the New Negro Movement later called the Harlem Renaissance. While Black institutions and communities continued to support Black artistic achievement and Black artists mentored and taught a younger generation, white Americans began to notice what seemed to them a surge of creative expression by Black musicians, writers, and artists. Enthusiastic attention from white audiences grew into a kind of obsessive fascination. Whites flocked to Harlem to patronize the arts and sample an 'exotic' blackness. This combination of white patronage and Black achievement a collision of two very different agendas about the nature of Black identity produced a discourse about race, class, patronage, and reception that is key to our understanding of subsequent developments in African American art in the twentieth century.
The works selected from Driskell's collection to exemplify this discourse include paintings, sculptures, and photographs by Richmond Barthé, Roy DeCarava, Aaron Douglas, David Driskell, William H. Johnson, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, P.H. Polk, Augusta Savage, James VanDerZee, Laura Wheeler Waring, James L. Wells, and Hale Woodruff.
The Black Academy
Teachers, Mentors, and Institutional Patronage
Perhaps the least explored area of African American art history is the role of Black institutions and individuals in nurturing the development of Black artists. Scholars have tended to appraise the works and careers of Black artists only to the extent they have been recognized by influential white individuals and institutions in Europe and America. But there existed what can be called the 'Black academy,' a continuous flow of encouragement, patronage, instruction, and mentoring that Black artists received from other African American individuals and institutions. Artists who gained prominence during the Harlem Renaissance became devoted teachers to the next generation of artists. Historically Black colleges and institutions developed some of the most impressive collections of African American art. And throughout Black communities, libraries, schools, YMCAs and YWCAs, societies, fraternities, and civic organizations provided patronage and forums for exhibitions and competitions during a time when such opportunities were rare or nonexistent for Black artists in white mainstream institutions. Biographies of the artists, histories of significant mentor/teacher relationships, salons, workshops, and exhibitions by Black institutions, all illustrate the importance of this support system in nurturing African American art.
This section includes works by those who provided the structure of the 'Black academy,' as well as those who benefited from it: artists such as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Claude Clark, Allen Crite, Wilmer Jennings, James Porter, Augusta Savage, Charles Sebree, Bill Taylor, James Lesesne Wells, Charles White, and Hale Woodruff.
Radical Politics
Protest and Art
While African American artists engaged issues of identity and racism in their art throughout the twentieth century, the 1950s and '60s witnessed a heightened politicization. The increasingly radical and aggressive push for civil rights in the Black communities was mirrored in the art of these decades. The artists explored themes of the Black urban experience, Black labor, confrontation and resistance, and racial violence. Images directly related to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, depictions of important Black leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and documentation of racism's effect on Black America were integral concerns for African American artists of this period who vigorously participated in the discourse on identity and racism.
Works such as Bearden's Street Scene, Catlett's The Black Woman Speaks, Lawrence's We Declare Ourselves Independent, White's I Have a Dream, as well as works by John Biggers, Eldzier Cortor, Earl Hooks, James Phillips are included in this section.
Diasporic Identities
Global Arts
A central issue in the dialogue among Black artists, their work, and the public has been the conflict inherent in appropriating European-American aesthetic and art-historical traditions, especially when juxtaposed with the diversity of Black experience that was often not well-served by those traditions. Some Black artists rejected the growing popularity of abstraction in 1950s America, feeling that narrative and figurative conventions suited their message-oriented agenda much more than did subject neutral expression. Others pursued formalist styles not immediately identifiable with ethnic heritage. Still others, eager to explore artistic identities that would fuse Western and non-Western traditions, mined the rich cultural traditions of the African continent and diaspora communities in the Americas. As the context for making, exhibiting, and selling art became more global, the issues of identity for artists of color began to cross boundaries of nationhood, gender, and color. The transnational explorations of diaspora identity mark both the beginning of fresh perspectives and the continuation of a dialogue that has been going on since Africans were first brought to the Americas.
Artists in the Driskell collection who engage with these issues of international and diasporal identity include several of those previously mentioned in sections I-IV as well as Terry Adkins, Robert Colescott, Beaufort Delaney, Minnie Evans, Michael Harris, Margo Humphrey, Sam Gilliam, Norman Lewis, Richard Mayhew, Sam Middleton, Keith Morrison, Mary O'Neal, Stephanie Pogue, Ray Saunders, Frank Stewart, Alma Thomas, Yvonne Edwards Tucker, and William T. Williams. This last section of the exhibition will present a rich sampling of works from the last three decades which demonstrate the expression of multiple and varied artistic identities within Black art in the United States.
Project Participants
Ira Berlin, M. Colleen Chapman, Adrienne Childs, Tuliza Fleming, Terry Gips, Allan M. Gordon, Juanita Holland, Kim Kindelsperger, Keith Morrison, Sharon F. Patton, Carla Peterson, Richard J. Powell, Jennifer Strychasz
Catalogue Purchasing Information
The exhibition catalogue, Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection, contains essays contextualizing the exhibition objects, as well as Driskell's activity as scholar and collector, within the broader arena of American art. Art history scholars Juanita Holland, Sharon Patton, Richard Powell, Allan Gordon, and Keith Morrison apply a contemporary lens to Driskell's efforts as artist, critic, mentor, and collector. Object entries for each of the 100 works in the exhibition contextualize specific works within the larger picture of the artist's life and career, connecting them with the various societal influences surrounding their creation. Each object entry is accompanied by a color reproduction. The catalogue serves as a valuable reference guide to over a century of African American art and provides a chronology of the life and career of each artist and an extensive bibliography.
Published by Pomegranate Communications
Retail price: Hardcover, with dust jacket, $50.00
Catalogue No. A551; ISBN 0-7649-0722-0
Smythe-sewn paperback, with flaps, $35.00
Catalogue No. A504; ISBN 0-7649-0689-5
Bibliography and Reviews
Adams, Brooks. "Tanner's Odyssey." Art in America (June 1991): 108-113.
Adams, Clinton. "Art as a Testament: A Conversation with Margo Humphrey." The Tamarind Papers 9 (Spring 1986): 16-26.
Allen, Jane Addams. "Letting Go." Art in America (Jan. 1986): 98-147.
Andre, Linda. "Alma Thomas: Evening Glow," exhibition brochure. Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1996.
Baigell, Matthew. A Concise History of American Painting and Sculpture. New York: Harper & Row, 1984.
Belk, Russell W. Collecting in a Consumer Society. London/New York: Routledge, 1995.
Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson. A History of African American Artists from 1972 to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.
Benjamin, Tritobia H. The World of Loïs Mailou Jones. Washington, D.C.: Meridian House International, 1990.
Bennet, Lerone, Jr. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., 1988.
Bier, Justus. "Ellis Wilson: Kentucky Negro Artist." The Courier-Journal Magazine (April 30, 1950): 36-37.
Bishop, Robert, and Jacqueline M. Atkins. Folk Art in American Life. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.
Boime, Albert. "Henry Ossawa Tanner's Subversion of Genre." The Art Bulletin 75.3 (1993): 415-442.
Bon d, Fred F. A One-Man Exhibition: Prints and Paintings by James L. Wells. Nashville: Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk University, 1973.
Broadway, Bill. "Pictures at an Exhibition Paint Black Point of View." The Washington Post (Aug. 30, 1997): B6.
Brunson, Jamie. "Improvisation in the Realm of Memory." Artweek 20 (May 27, 1989): 1.
Byrd, Rudolph P., ed. Generations in Black and White: Photographs by Carl Van Vechten from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection. Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia Press, 1993.
Campbell, Mary Schmidt, et al. Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987.
Campbell, Mary Schmidt, and Sharon F. Patton. Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden 1940-1987. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Carrier, David. "Raymond Saunders/Carnegie Museum of Art/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts." Artforum International 35 (Oct. 1996): 122.
Cederholm, Theresa Dickason, ed. Afro-American Artists: A Bio-Bibliographical Directory. Boston: Trustees of the Boston Public Library, 1973.
Cohen, Jean Lawlor. "Sam Gilliam." ARTnews (May 1993): 145.
Cohn, Terri. "Raymond Saunders-Malcolm X: Talking Pictures at Stephen Wirtz Gallery." Artweek 25 (Oct. 20, 1994): 17.
Coker, Gilbert, and Corrine Jennings. The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art. San Antonio: San Antonio Museum of Art, 1994.
Conwill, Kinshasha Holman. "In Search of an 'Authentic' Vision: Decoding the Appeal of the Self-Taught African- American Artist." American Art 5.4 (1991): 2-8.
Crite, Allan Rohan. An Autobiographical Sketch. Unpublished manuscript. Boston: Suffolk University archives, donated 1984.
Dallas Museum of Art. Black Art Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in African-American Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989.
Davis, Tonya Bolden. "Collecting Black Art." Black Enterprise (Dec. 1986): 85-86.
Davis, Tonya Bolden, and Devin D. Thompson. "Going Once Going Twice Sold." Black Enterprise (Dec. 1988): 73-76.
D onaldson, Jeff Richardson. "Generation '306' Harlem, New York." Dissertation. Northwestern University, 1975.
Douglas, Robert L. "Robert Colescott's Searing Stereotypes." New Art Examiner (June 1989): 34-37.
Driskell, David C., ed. African American Visual Aesthetics: A Postmodern View. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
Driskell, David C. Contemporary Visual Expressions. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987.
Driskell, David C. Earl J. Hooks. Nashville: The Art Gallery, Fisk University, 1966.
Driskell, David C. Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art 1800-1950. San Francisco: The Art Museum Association of America, 1985.
Driskell, David C. "James Lesesne Wells 1902-1993." Washington Review 18.6 (1993): 22.
Driskell, David C. Two Centuries of Black American Art. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.
Driskell, David C., and Gladys E. Rodgers. Claude Clark: On My Journey Now. Atlanta: The Apex Museum, 1996.
Ebony, David. "Richmond Barthe and Richard Hunt at the Anacostia Museum." Art in America (July 1993): 109.
Elsner, John, and Roger Cardinal, eds. The Cultures of Collecting. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Ferris, William, ed. Afro-American Folk Art and Crafts. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1983.
Fifty Years of Paintings by Georgia Artist Claude Clark. Atlanta: Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center for African American Art, 1990.
Fusscas, Helen K. "The Paintings of Charles Ethan Porter." Charles Ethan Porter. Marlborough, CT: The Connecticut Gallery, Inc., 1987.
Gaither, Edmund Barry. Massachusetts Masters: African American Artists. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1988.
Gibson, Eric. "William H. Johnson" (review). ARTnews (Dec. 1995): 141.
Gilliam, Sam. Small Drape Paintings 1970-1973. Washington, D.C.: Middendorf Gallery, 1990.
Glueck, Grace. "Richmond Barthé, Sculptor, Dies." The New York Times (March 16, 1989).
Gonzalez, Michel. "Notre Lois Jones." Pot Pourri 7 no. 4 (27 July 1978): 6-7.
Greene, Carroll Jr., ed. American Visions: Afro-American Art--1986. Washington, D.C.: The Visions Foundation, 1987.
Harlem Renaissance Art of Black America. The Studio Museum in Harlem. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987.
Harley, Sharon. The Timetables of African-American History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. Sharing Traditions: Five Black Artists in Nineteenth-Century America. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Hedgepeth, Chester M., Jr. Twentieth-Century African American Writers and Artists. Chicago: American Library Association, 1991.
Heller, Jules, and Nancy G. Heller. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1995.
Henkes, Robert. The Art of Black American Women: Works of Twenty-Four Artists of the Twentieth Century. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1993.
Henry, Gerrit. "A Metaphor for Human Being: New Paintings by Sam Gilliam." Arts Magazine 59.6 (Feb. 1985): 78-79.
Herzog, Melanie. "Elizabeth Catlett in Mexico: Identity and Cross-Cultural Intersections in the Production of Artistic Meaning." The International Review of African American Art 11.3 (1994): 19-25.
Hirsch, Faye. "L'École de Paris is Burning." Arts Magazine 66 (Sept. 1991): 52-57.
Holland, Juanita Marie. Edward Mitchell Bannister 1828-1901. New York: Kenkeleba House, 1992.
Howard University. James A. Porter: Artist and Art Historian: The Memory of the Legacy. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Gallery of Art, 1992.
Howard University. Lois Mailou Jones and Her Former Students: An American Legacy. Washington, D.C.: Department of Art, Howard University, 1995.
Hulick, Diana Emery. "James VanDerZee's Harlem Book of the Dead: A Study in Cultural Relationships." History of Photography 17.3 (1993): 277-283.
Igoe, Lynn Moody, and James Igoe. 250 Years of Afro-American Art: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1981.
Impressions/Expressions: Black American Graphics. New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1980.
Intimations of Immortality. Washington, D.C.: The B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, 1997.
Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent. Los Angeles: California Afro- American Museum Foundation, 1989.
James, Curtis. "Richmond Barthe, Richard Hunt." ARTnews (March 1994): 146-147.
Johnson, Ken. "Colescott on Black and White." Art in America (June 1989): 148-153ff.
Jones, Loïs Mailou. Peintures 1937-1951. Tourcoing, France: Georges Frére, 1952.
Karp, Ivan, Christine Mullen Kreamer, and Steven D. Lavine, eds. Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
Kenkeleba Gallery. Norman Lewis: From the Harlem Renaissance to Abstraction. New York: Kenkeleba House, Inc., 1989.
Ketner, Joseph D. The Emergence of the African American Artist: Robert S. Duncanson 1821-1872. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993.
Ketner, Joseph D. "Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872): The Late Literary Landscape Paintings." The American Art Journal 15.1 (1983): 35-47.
King-Hammond, Leslie. Black Printmakers and the W.P.A. New York: Lehman College Art Gallery, 1989.
King-Hammond, Leslie. Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African American Women Artists. New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 1995.
Kirschke, Amy Helene. Aaron Douglas: Art, Race, and the Harlem Renaissance. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995.
Koota, Sharon D. "Cosmograms and Cryptic Writings: 'Africanisms.'" The Clarion 16.2 (1991): 48-52.
Kozloff, Max. "Time Stands Still: The Photographs of Roy DeCarava." Artforum 34.9 (1996): 78-83.
LeFalle-Collins, Lizzetta. "Grafton Tyler Brown: Selling the Promise of the West." The International Review of African American Art 12.1 (1995): 27-44.
LeFalle-Collins, Lizzetta, and Shifra M. Goldman. In the Spirit of Resistance: African American Modernists and the Mexican Muralist School. New York: The American Federation of Arts, 1996.
Lehman College Art Gallery. Black Printmakers and the W.P.A. New York: The City University of New York, 1989.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Lewis, David Levering, ed. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Viking Press, 1994.
Lewis, Samella. African American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
Lewis, Samella. Art: African American. Los Angeles: Hancraft Studios, 1990.
Lippard, Lucy R. "Crossing into Uncommon Grounds." The Artist Outsider: Creativity and the Boundaries of Culture. Ed. Michael D. Hall and Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.
Livingston, Jane, and John Beardsley. Black Folk Art in America 1930-1980. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 1982.
Locke, Alain, ed. The New Negro. Atheneum Edition ed. New York: Atheneum, 1925.
Main Gallery of Art. "Resonance": Williams/Edwards/Gilliam. Baltimore: Morgan State University, 1976.
Matthews, Lydia. "Kate Delos and Margo Humphrey, an Artweek Interview," Artweek 22 (Feb. 14, 1991): 16-17.
McElroy, Guy C., Richard Powell, and Sharon F. Patton. African-American Artists 1889-1987: Selections from the Evans-Tibbs Collection. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989.
McManus, Michael. "Recognition for the Invisible Man." Artweek 18.1 (1987): 1-3.
McWillie, Judith, John Mason, and Robert Farris Thompson. Another Face of the Diamond: Pathways through the Black Atlantic South. New York: INTAR Latin American Gallery, 1989.
Metcalf, Eugene W. "Black Art, Folk Art, and Social Control." Winterthur Portfolio 18.4 (1983): 271-289.
Mhire, Herman. Baking in the Sun: Visionary Images from the South. Lafayette: University Art Museum, 1987.
Miller, Henry. The Amazing and Invariable Beauford Delaney. New York: The Alicat Book Shop, 1945.
Minnie Evans: Artist. Greenville, N.C.: Wellington B. Gray Gallery, 1993.
Montclair Art Museum. Fourteen Paintings: William T. Williams. Monclair, N.J.: The Monclair Art Museum, 1991.
Morrison, Keith. Art in Washington and Its Afro-American Presence: 1940-1970. Washington, D.C.: Washington Project for the Arts, 1985.
Mosby, Dewey F. Henry Ossawa Tanner. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1991.
National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center. Uncommon Beauty in Common Objects: The Legacy of African American Craft Art. Wilberforce, Ohio: National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, 1993.
No Justice, No Peace? Resolutions... Los Angeles: The California Afro-American Museum Foundation, 1993.
Pearce, Susan M. On Collecting: An Investigation into Collecting in the European Tradition. London/New York: Routledge, 1995.
Perry, Regenia A. "Contemporary African American Folk Art: An Overview." The International Review of African American Art 11.1 (1993): 5-29.
Perry, Regenia A. Free within Ourselves: African American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art in association with Pomegranate Artbooks, 1992.
Porter, James A. Modern Negro Art. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1992.
Powell, Richard J. Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
Powell, Richard J. "Talking with James Lesesne Wells." Print Review 9 (1979): 65-75.
Powell, Richard J., and Jock Reynolds. James Lesesne Wells: Sixty Years in Art. Washington, D.C.: Washington Project for the Arts, 1986.
Raboteau, Albert J. "African Americans, Exodus, and the American Israel." Religion and American Culture. Ed. David G. Hackett. New York: Routledge, 1995.
Reflections of a Southern Heritage: 20th Century Black Artists of the Southeast. Charleston, S.C.: Carolina Art Association, 1979.
"Resonance" The Gallery of Art. Baltimore: Morgan State University, 1976. A Retrospective Exhibition 1937-1971. Nashville: The Carl Van Vechten Gallery of Fine Arts, Fisk University, 1972.
Reynolds, Gary A., and Beryl J. Wright. Against The Odds: African American Artists and the Harmon Foundation. Newark: The Newark Museum, 1989.
Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance. Berkeley: Hayward Gallery, Institute of International Visual Arts, University of California Press, 1997.
Riggs, Thomas, ed. St. James Guide to Black Artists. Detroit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 1997.
"Rimbaud, (Jean Nicholas) Arthur." CD-ROM. Encarta 1994. Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft, 1994.
Roche, Paul. The Bible's Greatest Stories. New York: Mentor, 1990.
Romare Bearden: Paintings and Projections. Albany, New York: The Art Gallery, State University of New York, 1968.
Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1971.
Sam Gilliam: Extensions Part One. Anderson Gallery. Richmond: Virginia Commonwealth University, 1978.
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art. Lewisburg, Pa.: The Center Gallery of Bucknell University, 1985.
Spelman College. Bearing Witness. New York: Spelman College and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1996.
Stange, Maren. "Shadow and Substance." Art in America 84.3 (1996): 35-39.
Studio Museum in Harlem. Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987.
Terry Adkins. Richmond, Va.: Anderson Gallery at the Virginia Commonwealth University, 1991.
Tesfagiorgis, Freida High W. "Afrofemcentrism and its Fruition in the Art of Elizabeth Catlett and Faith Ringgold." The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History. Ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Thompson, Robert Farris. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. New York: Vintage Books, 1984.
Three Masters: Cortor, Lee-Smith, Motley. New York: Kenkelba House, Inc., 1988.
Traditions and Transformations: Contemporary Afro-American Sculpture. New York: The Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1989.
Trechsel, Gail Andrews, ed. Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen. Birmingham, Ala.: Birmingham Museum of Art, 1995.
Turner, Nannette. "Barthé: A Giant Returns Home." Neworld no. 7 (1978): 29-35.
Wallach, Amei. "The Contemporary Collector's Art." The New York Times Magazine (Oct. 26, 1997), 42-46.
Walter O. Evans. Collection of African American Art. Savannah, Ga.: Beach Institute, 1991.
Wardlaw, Alvia J. The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1995.
Wayne, Cynthia. Dreams, Lies and Exaggerations: Photomontage in America. College Park: The Art Gallery, University of Maryland at College Park, 1991.
Wheat, Ellen Harkins. Jacob Lawrence: American Painter. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986.
Williams, Reba, and Dave Williams, eds. Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930's-40's by African American Artists. Reba and Dave Williams, 1993.
Willis-Braithwaite, Deborah. VanDerZee, Photographer 1886-1983. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993.
Willis-Thomas, Deborah. An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers 1940-1988. New York: Garland Publishing, 1989.
Wilson, James L. Clementine Hunter: American Folk Artist. Gretna, La: Pelican Publishing Company, 1990.
Wolf, Conradin, and Jacqueline Battle. Terry Adkins: Arbeit/Work, 1986-1987. Zurich: Galerie Emmerich- Baumann, 1987.
Yelen, Alice Rae. Passionate Visions of the American South. New Orleans: New Orleans Museum of Art, 1993.
Yolles, Sandra. "Gilda Snowden." ARTnews 87 (Dec. 1988): 169.