Black Legacy at the SMFA Library: Home

Barbara Jones-Hogu : resist, relate, unite : January 11 - March 25, 2018 : DePaul Art Museum by Zoe Whitley (Contribution by)

In the Company of Black by Tempestt Hazel (Foreword by); Cecil McDonald (Photographer); Avery R. Young (Text by)

Ma(s)king her : Black Feminist futures by Honey Pot Performance, author, editor Matt Austin 1986- book designer.

Broad daylight and other times : selected works of Kevin Jerome Everson by Kevin Jerome Everson

Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash

É minha cara = That's my face by Thomas Allen Harris

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm : two takes by William Greaves

Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs

Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer by Diana Seave Greenwald (Editor); Makeda Best (Contribution by); Stephanie Sparling Williams (Contribution by) A richly illustrated look at how travel influenced the work of renowned contemporary artist Betye Saar Betye Saar (b. 1926) is an artist whose assemblages tell visual stories and convey powerful political messages. A leading figure of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, she works with found objects--many of which she gathers on her extensive travels--to explore themes like symbolic mysticism, feminism, racism, and Eurocentric chauvinism. Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer sheds new light on Saar's unique creative process, her trips around the world, and the diverse ways in which her artworks engage with global histories of travel and forced migration. It presents how the artist's work conjures the transporting experience of a voyage to a faraway place. This beautifully illustrated book draws on original, in-depth interviews with Saar and the companions who accompanied the artist in her travels across four continents over several decades. Essays by leading scholars contextualize Saar's journeys within her broader life and career, as well as how her practice fits into broader traditions--such as scrapbooking--in African American visual culture. In addition to providing this context, this book explores how Saar's assemblage practice both echoes and provides a critical counterpoint to the collecting practices of Gilded Age American art collectors like Isabella Stewart Gardner. Featuring a wealth of previously unpublished material--including almost thirty travel sketchbooks and two dozen finished assemblages--Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer provides a fresh look at a groundbreaking American artist while offering a timely social history of the impact of travel on the African American experience. Distributed for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Exhibition Schedule Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston February 16-May 21, 2023

Beverly Mciver by Kim Boganey (Editor); Richard J. Powell (Contribution by); Michele Faith Wallace (Contribution by) This survey exhibition captures the arc and continued ascent of contemporary artist Beverly McIver.   This exhibition catalog accompanies a survey exhibition of contemporary artist and painter Beverly McIver. Curated by Kim Boganey, this exhibition represents the diversity of McIver's thematic approach to painting over her career.   From early self-portraits in clown makeup to more recent works featuring her father, dolls, Beverly's experiences during COVID-19 and portraits of others, Full Circle illuminates the arc of Beverly McIver's artistic career while also touching on her personal journey. McIver's self-portraits explore expressions of individuality, stereotypes, and ways of masking identity; portraits of family provide glimpses into intimate moments, in good times as well as in illness and death. The show includes McIver's portraits of other artists and notable figures, recent work resulting from a year in Rome with American Academy's Rome Prize, and new work in which McIver explores the juxtaposition of color, patterns, and the human figure. Full Circle also features works that reflect on McIver's collaborations with other artists, as well as her impact on the next generation of artists. The complementary exhibition, In Good Company, includes artists who have mentored McIver, such as Faith Ringgold and Richard Mayhew, as well as those who have studied under her.   This catalog includes a conversation with Beverly McIver by exhibition curator Kim Boganey, as well as two essays: one by leading Black feminist writer Michele Wallace, daughter of Beverly's graduate school mentor Faith Ringgold, and another by distinguished scholar of African American art history Richard Powell.   Published in association with the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art   Exhibition dates:   Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art February 12--September 4, 2022 Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art December 8, 2022-March 26, 2023   The Gibbes Museum April 28-August 4, 2023   

Black American Portraits by Dhyandra Lawson (Text by); Jeffrey C. Stewart (Text by); Naima J. Keith (Afterword by); Christine Kim (Editor); Myrtle Elizabeth Andrews (Editor); Mary Schmidt Campbell (Foreword by); Michael Govan (Foreword by); Hilton Als (Text by); Bridget R. Cooks (Text by); Ilene Susan Fort (Text by) A celebratory visual chronicle of the many ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture to envision themselves Spanning over two centuries from around 1800 to the present day, Black American Portraitschronicles the ways in which Black Americans have used portraiture to envision themselves in their own eyes. Remembering Two Centuries of Black American Art, curated by David C. Driskell at LACMA 45 years ago, this book is a companion to the exhibition of the same name that reframes portraiture to center Black American subjects, sitters and spaces. This selection of approximately 140 works from LACMA's permanent collection highlights emancipation, scenes from the Harlem Renaissance, portraits from the Civil Rights and Black Power eras, multiculturalism of the 1990s and the spirit of Black Lives Matter. Countering a visual culture that often demonizes Blackness and fetishizes the spectacle of Black pain, these images center love, abundance, family, community and exuberance. Black American Portraitsdepicts Black figures in a range of mediums such as painting, drawing, prints, photography, sculpture, mixed media and time-based media. In addition to work by artists of African descent, Black American Portraitsincludes several works by artists of other backgrounds who have exemplified a thoughtfulness about, sensitivity toward and commitment to Black artists, communities, histories and subjects. Artists include: Alvin Baltrop, Edward Biberman, Bisa Butler, Jordan Casteel, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Bruce Davidson, Stan Douglas, rafa esparza, Shepard Fairey, Charles Gaines, Sargent Claude Johnson, Deana Lawson, Kerry James Marshall, Alice Neel, Lorraine O'Grady, Catherine Opie, Amy Sherald, Ming Smith, Henry Taylor, Tourmaline, Mickalene Thomas, James Van Der Zee, Carrie Mae Weems, Charles White, Kehinde Wiley and Deborah Willis.

Carrie Mae Weems: the Shape of Things by Carrie Mae Weems (By (photographer)); Tom Eccles (Foreword by); Huey Copeland (Text by); Thomas Lax (Text by); Hans Ulrich Obrist (Interviewer) Carrie Mae Weems has often confronted the uncomfortable truths of racism and race relations over the course of her nearly forty-year career. In The Shape of Things, she focuses her unflinching gaze at what she describes as the circuslike quality of contemporary American political life. For this new work, Weems created a seven-part film projected onto a Cyclorama-a panoramic-style cylindrical screen that dates to the 19th century-where she addresses the turmoil of current events in the United States and the "long march forward." Drawing upon news and television footage from the Civil Rights era to the present day, elements of some of her previous films such as The Madding Crowd (2017), in which intellectuals such as James Baldwin discuss contemporary politics, and new film projects that bring us into our tumultuous present, the films in The Shape of Things combine documentary directness with poetic rhythm to create an enveloping experience. The films are narrated by Weems, and the layering of her resonant voice with these densely woven images articulate the dangerous and mounting resistance to the "browning of America." Former President Donald J. Trump is the implicit grand master of the American circus, with its associated tea parties, alt-right parades, and big lie assaults, all working furiously to combat the fundamental shifts in power that loom. But as Weems shows in these powerful works, America is irreversibly changed and changing. It can't and won't go back.

Charles White: a Little Higher by Lowe Art Lowe Art Museum An influential painter, printmaker, and teacher, Charles White's work is primarily figurative and concerned with the challenges and triumphs of Black life in America. He created 'images of dignity' that ennobled his subjects while acknowledging the realities of systemic racism and oppression. This volume brings together a biographical overview of White's life, three thoughtful essays about White's work by noted scholars, an in-depth interview about White with contemporary Black artist Bing Davis, and full-page images accompanied by descriptions of approximately forty works by White. The book is a companion to the exhibition of the same name, which will be on view at the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum and will travel to Hickory Museum of Art (Hickory, NC) and the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Contemporary Black American Ceramic Artists by Donald A. Clark; Chotsani Elaine Dean The first book to honor the contributions, presence, and experiences of Black artists who are part of the contemporary clay community! Readers will gain a deeper knowledge of 38 of today's top African American artists in clay, the earlier Black artists who paved their paths, and how their work fits into the 21st-century conversation. donald a clark and Chotsani Elaine Dean begin by grounding us in history and context taking us from the colonial era of South Carolina to the Harlem Renaissance to today! Exhibit will travel to multiple museums beginning in Fall 2022: Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA),  Northern Clay Center (Minneapolis, MN), and several more. Authors are highly respected in the ceramic art field Reflects a diverse group: these makers range from new to the medium to more experienced and produce everything from tableware to sculpture. The book features an introduction and an interview with each artist plus more than 300 stunning photos of their work. Sharing their insights in compelling interviews, today's Black ceramists demonstrate a diversity of studio practices and ways of using clay.  Contemporary Black American Ceramic Artists is long overdue!

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century by Asma Naeem (Editor); Gamynne Guillotte (Introduction by); Hannah Klemm (Introduction by); Andréa Purnell (Introduction by) A sweeping survey of hip hop's resounding impact on contemporary art and culture across the past 20-plus years Accompanying a groundbreaking exhibition originating at the Baltimore Museum of Art, this book captures the extraordinary influence of hip hop, which has driven innovations in music, visual and performing arts, fashion, and technology and grown into a global phenomenon since its emergence in the 1970s. It features approximately 70 objects by both established and emerging artists, design houses, streetwear icons and musicians working in a wide range of mediums to demonstrate hip hop's proliferation from the street to the runway, the studio to the museum gallery, and countless sites in between. The exhibition also explores how hip hop has and continues to challenge structures of power, dominant cultural narratives, and political and social systems of oppression. This fully illustrated monograph documents the exhibition and contains texts and interviews from more than 30 artists and scholars. Artists include: Nina Chanel Abney, Dionne Alexander, Maxwell Alexandre, Devin Allen, Alvaro Barrington, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Wales Bonner, Mark Bradford, Jordan Casteel, Willy Chavarria, Caitlin Cherry, Troy Chew II, William Cordova, Carl Jones, Stan Douglas, John Edmonds, Gajin Fujita, Monica Ikegwu, Shabez Jamal, Kahlil Joseph, Nia June, LA II, Deana Lawson, Eric N. Mack, Emmanuel Massillon, Julie Mehretu, Murjoni Merriweather, Jayson Musson, Rashaad Newsome, Yvonne Osei, Zéh Palito, Gordon Parks, Adam Pendleton, Robert Pruitt, Rammellzee, Sheila Rashid, Rozeal, Joyce J. Scott, Tschabalala Self, Tariku Shiferaw, Devan Shimoyama, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, Abbey Williams, Pharrell Williams and Wilmer Wilson IV. Authors include: Ebony Haynes, Todd Boyd, Lester Spence, Jordana Moore Saggese, Greg Tate, Misa Hylton, Elena Romero, Ekow Eshun, Devin Allen, Michael Holman, Simone White, Salome Asega, Alphonse Pierre, David A.M. Goldberg and Tahir Hemphill, Jacolby Satterwhite, Wendel Patrick, Simon Reynolds, Seph Rodney, Jesse McCarthy, Danez Smith, Noriko Manabe, Lindsay Knight and Charity Marsh, Shaheem Sanchez, Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr., Sekou Cooke, Jessica N. Pabón-Colón, Martha Cooper, Skeme, Alex de Mora and Lawrence Burney.

Fighters for Freedom by Lonnie G. Bunch; Virginia Mecklenburg; Smithsonian American Art Museum Staff; Tiffany D. Farrell (Contribution by); Emily H. Rohan (Contribution by); Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum; William H. Johnson * Accompanies major exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, 8 March-8 September 2024, Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami FL, 28 September 2024-5 January 2025, Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC, 6 September-29 November 2025, and Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, OH, 20 June 20-13 September 2026, with other venues to be confirmed * Engaging imagery intended for general audiences and young people with an interest in African American history, art, and social justice William H. Johnson painted his Fighters for Freedom series in the mid-1940s as a tribute to African American activists, scientists, teachers, and performers as well as international heads of state working to bring peace to the world. He celebrated their accomplishments even as he acknowledged the realities of racism, violence, and oppression they faced and overcame. Some of his Fighters?--?Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Marian Anderson, and Mohandas Gandhi?--?are familiar historical figures; others are less well-known individuals whose determination and sacrifice have been eclipsed over time. Johnson elevates their lives visually, offering historical insights and fresh perspectives. Through their stories he suggests that the pursuit of freedom is an ongoing, interconnected struggle, with moments of both triumph and tragedy, and he invites us to reflect on our own struggles for justice today. In Fighters for Freedom Johnson reminds us that individual achievement and commitment to social justice are at the heart of the American story.

Frank Stewart's Nexus by Ruth. Fine; Fred Moten; Wynton Marsalis; Mary Schmidt Campbell; Cheryl Finley The first complete monograph and retrospective on the sixty-year career of Frank Stewart, photographer of an astonishing range of intimate and empathetic images of Black life, music, and culture. Frank Stewart's Nexus presents an overview of the career of this noted photographer, who since the 1960s has captured spontaneous and sensitive portrayals of African American culture in many forms, including art, food, dance, and music--especially jazz. Best known for his work as senior photographer for Jazz at Lincoln Center, Stewart produced energetic street scenes and profound landscapes on his worldwide travels with the orchestra. The intimate and subtle relations between and among people are at the heart of Stewart's art, whether shot at a Manhattan jazz concert, in the studio of artist Romare Bearden, or during a sacred rite in an African village. This sweeping survey of 103 images, with an artist interview and texts by multiple critical voices, illuminates the evolution of a remarkable career. Exhibition Itinerary: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.: June 10-September 2, 2023 Artis-Naples, The Baker Museum, Naples, FL: October 14, 2023-January 7, 2024 Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA: February 9 - May 12, 2024

Multiplicity by Kathryn E. Delmez (Editor); Anita N. Bateman (Contribution by); Tiffany E. Barber (Contribution by); Valerie Cassel Oliver (Contribution by); Patricia Hills (Contribution by); Maria Elena Ortiz (Contribution by); Richard J. Powell (Contribution by); Rebecca VanDiver (Contribution by); Chase Williamson (Contribution by); Fisk University students (Contribution by) An engaging introduction to contemporary Black American collage brings together art by fifty artists that reflects the breadth and complexity of Black identity   Building on a technique that has roots in European and American traditions, Black artists have turned to collage as a way to convey how the intersecting facets of their lives combine to make whole individuals. Artists have assembled pieces of paper, fabrics, and other, often salvaged, materials to create unified compositions that express the endless possibilities of Black-constructed narratives despite the fragmentation of our times.   As artist Deborah Roberts asserts, "With collage, I can create a more expansive and inclusive view of the Black cultural experience."   More than 50 artists are represented in the book's 140 color images, with some creating original artworks for this project. Featured artists include such well-known figures as Mark Bradford, Lauren Halsey, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Howardena Pindell, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, and Kara Walker. In addition to scholarly essays, the publication contains short biographies of each artist written by Fisk University students.   Distributed for the Frist Art Museum   Exhibition Schedule   Frist Art Museum, Nashville (September 15-December 31, 2023)   Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (February 18-May 12, 2024)   The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (July 6-September 22, 2024)  

Onyx by Adrienne Raquel (Photographer) '[a] glimmering monograph, which celebrates the performance and artistry of its dancers.' - Vanity Fair 'This book will serve as a starting point for conversations around the Black female body with Raquel at the forefront of provocative image-making' - Aesthetica 'By focusing on the performers themselves, the series elevates the images from straight reportage to curated and highly intentional... Raquel's captivating imagery portrays the empowerment and inclusivity in strip clubs that society has tended to ignore.'- Creative Review In ONYX, photographer Adrienne Raquel explores the intensity and escapism of the nightclub experience, documenting the power of the performers at Houston's famed Club Onyx. Raquel's photography is usually editorial, with high-power celebrities as her subjects. Her work has broken glass ceilings for Black female photographers. Now, for this passion project commissioned by Fotografiska New York, she has turned her lens towards a community of underrepresented artists in her hometown. At Club Onyx, strippers step on stage displaying their bodies, strength, and seduction, but there's a virtue to this particular space. "They don't get naked" is a common idiom to describe the club's ambiance. Performers there take the word "stripper," and negotiate what that means to them, on their own terms. Raquel captures elements of southern strip culture and the power of these performers with her signature glossy photographic style. From powerful images of the dancers mid-movement to detailed shots and intimate portraits, Raquel's striking images put the divine beauty and compelling energy that enlivens Houston's nightlife on full display. She also takes viewers behind the scenes, giving us a window into the community the dancers have built in the privacy of the locker room. There they prepare for the evening together before moving to the stage, each dancer in her moment. Uniting their star power to conquer one customer at a time, dancers continue into the early morning, performing and collecting bills. ONYX displays the empowerment and inclusivity in strip clubs that society has ignored. As captured by Raquel, the night club experience is revealed with layered meaning - granting the chance for these performers to be seen as elevated as the culture they influence.

Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America by Sean Anderson (Editor); Mabel O. Wilson (Editor); Robin D. G. Kelley (Preface by); Emanuel Admassu (Text by); Germane Barnes (Text by) During the Museum of Modern Art's 90-year history, African American architects and designers have had little to no purchase in its permanent collection and exhibition histories, reflective of larger trends in museum and architectural discourses at large. The exclusion of Black architects and designers from the academic imagination have largely been waylaid in favor of dominant formalist and stylistic concerns. This book, conceived as a field guide to accompany the exhibition at MoMA, examines how contemporary architecture may address the varied contexts of systemic anti-Black racism that have fostered violent histories of discrimination and injustice in the United States. The invited contributors reimagine the legacies of race-based dispossession in ten American cities and how individuals and communities across the United States have mobilized Black cultural spaces, forms, and practices as sites of imagination, liberation, resistance, and refusal. The catalogue will feature a portfolio of new photographs by artist David Hartt.

Songs of My People by Eric Easter (Editor); Dudley Brooks; D. Michael Cheers A historic photo documentary of the world of African Americans, this is a self-portrait seen through the eyes and lenses of a rare assemblage of some of the nation's best black photojournalists.

Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers by Maxwell L. Anderson (Contribution by); Paul Goodwin (Contribution by) For generations, Black artists from the American South have forged a unique art tradition. Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces in clay, driftwood, roots, soil, and recycled and cast-off objects that articulate America's painful past - the inhuman practice of enslavement, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and institutionalised racism. Their works date from the early twentieth century to today and respond to issues ranging from economic inequality, oppression and social marginalisation, to sexuality, the influence of place, and ancestral memory. Among the sculptures, paintings, reliefs and drawings included here are works by Hawkins Bolden, Thornton Dial, Sam Doyle, Bessie Harvey, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Joe Minter, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary T. Smith, Henry and Georgia Speller, Mose Tolliver, Charles Williams and Purvis Young. Also featured are the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, Alabama, among them Mary Lee Bendolph, Marlene Bennett Jones, Loretta Pettway and Martha Jane Pettway.

Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon by Stanley Whitney (Artist, Editor); Cathleen Chaffee (Editor); Janne Sirén (Foreword by); Kim Conaty (Text by) The first in-depth survey of Whitney's endless experimentation with color The esteemed American painter Stanley Whitney has, for 50 years, created joyful, immersive abstractions characterized by a bold, experimental palette and unique rhythm. Over the last 20 years, he has structured his paintings as loose grids: a consistent framework that frees him to work through seemingly infinite painterly variations and allows viewers to focus not on each painting's subject, but rather on our own response to color. These large-scale paintings are joined by improvisatory small paintings; drawings and prints, which constitute their own practice for Whitney; and the artist's sketchbooks, which offer a view into Whitney's engagement with the written word and politics. This traveling North American exhibition is Whitney's first museum survey, presenting 170 paintings and works on paper spanning from the 1970s to the present day. The catalog includes an introduction by exhibition organizer Cathleen Chaffee, scholarly explorations of the artist's paintings and works on paper, a chronology and illustrations of all works in the exhibition. Stanley Whitney was born in 1946 near Philadelphia. By the early 1970s, following studies with Philip Guston and Robert Reed, and influenced by artists including Jack Whitten, Josef Albers and Piet Mondrian, he had come to see "endless possibilities" in abstraction. Over the past five decades, he has honed a unique body of densely gridded, but endlessly variable, abstract paintings, as well as drawings and prints, reflecting his interests in art, architecture, textiles and music.

Stephen Towns by Kilolo Luckett; Stephen Towns (Artist) "This is the catalog publication that will accompany the art exhibition "Stephen Towns: Declaration & Resistance," curated by Kilolo Luckett, for which Towns created thirty-five new figurative paintings and story quilts. The exhibition examines the American dream through the lives of Black Americans from the late eighteenth century to the present. Using labor as a backdrop, Towns highlights the role African Americans have played in building the economy and explores how their resilience, resistance, and perseverance have challenged the United States to truly embrace the tenets of its Declaration of Independence"--

Unnamed Figures by Emelie Gevalt (Editor, Volume Editor, Curated by) Unnamed Figures, Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North. Across seven long-form essays and several object studies, this publication fleshes out the long history of objects by analyzing how Black representations may have been further marginalized or misconstrued by early American art and material culture. Contributing scholars from different academic fields interrogate the socio-political forces that have undermined or obscured Black stories and reconstruct the contours of early African American lived experience by mining evidence from visual, material, literary, and archival sources to uncover narratives of Black endurance, agency, and creativity as evinced in various forms of cultural production. A trans-temporal perspective infuses the book with contemporary relevance as essayists consider images and histories not only within the context of their making but also in terms of their significance to present-day readers. The exhibition "Unnamed Figures, Black Presence and Absence in the Early American North" will be on view at the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) from November 15, 2023, to March 24, 2024, and at Historic Deerfield from May 1, 2024, to August 4, 2024. The exhibition explores African American representation in 125 exceptional works of art and material culture produced in New England and the Mid-Atlantic during the long 18th century. Many of the assembled objects feature African American figures in secondary positions to primary white subjects, whereas others wholly eliminate Black presence from the visual landscape of early America.

Wangechi Mutu by Margot Norton (Editor); Vivian Crockett (Editor) A comprehensive survey of the work of the influential Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu's multidisciplinary practice grapples with contemporary realities while proffering new models for a radically changed future informed by feminism, Afrofuturism, and interspecies symbiosis. Her work addresses some of today's most critical questions concerning historical violence and its impact on women, together with our inextricable ties toward one another, our ecosystems, and other life forms. Accompanying a major solo exhibition at the New Museum opening in February 2023, this expansive survey will trace the entirety of Mutu's influential career chronologically, from early sculptural works of the late 1990s to her collage works of the early 2000s and more recent video works, large-scale sculptures, and site-specific interventions. This monograph provides the opportunity to see thematic through-lines and progressions across the entire arc of Mutu's career to date. Her sculptures inaugurated the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Façade Project, and her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate Modern, London, among other major institutions. 

Whitfield Lovell by Bridget R. Cooks (Text by); Michele Wije (Editor); Cheryl Finley (Text by) The most comprehensive survey to date of the contemporary artist Whitfield Lovell, whose poetic and intricately crafted tableaux and installations document and pay tribute to the history and cultural memory of the African American experience. Whitfield Lovell: Passages accompanies a major traveling exhibition of the artist's powerful Conté crayon drawings combined with objects to create assemblages and multisensory installations that focus on aspects of Black history, raising questions about identity, memory, and America's collective heritage. Whitfield Lovell (b. 1959, Bronx), a 2007 MacArthur Foundation fellowship recipient and conceptual artist, creates exquisite drawings inspired by his own collection of vintage photographs of unidentified African Americans taken between the Emancipation Proclamation and the civil rights movement. He pairs his meticulously rendered drawings done on paper or salvaged wooden boards with found objects, creating enigmatic assemblages and stand-alone tableaux that are rich with symbolism and ambiguity and evoke personal memories, ancestral connections, and the collective American past. This richly illustrated volume features essays by leading scholars that contextualize Lovell's work through the exploration of compelling elements such as sound and card playing, contemplating memory as method. Exhibition Itinerary (exh is circulated by American Federation of Arts): Boca Raton Museum of Art February 11-May 21, 2023 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts June 17-September 10, 2023 Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts October 13, 2023-January 14, 2024 Cincinnati Art Museum March 1-May 26, 2024 The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC June 29-September 22, 2024 McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX October 26, 2024-January 19, 2025