black art
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High Art: Artist Lorna Simpson to Receive the 2019 J. Paul Getty Medal
She’s a visionary who envisions us wholly; artist Lorna Simpson has been announced as one of 2019’s recipients of the J. Paul Getty Medal, the highest honor of the J. Paul Getty Trust, alongside Classicist Professor Mary Beard and fellow artist Ed Ruscha. “We award the Getty Medal to recognize outstanding achievement in the fields…
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Kendrick Lamar and SZA Settle Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Black Panther Music Video
Just in time for the Grammys… Black Panther earworm, “All The Stars” from Kendrick Lamar & SZA is having a good year, having just secured Grammy nominations. But a serious lawsuit hanging over their heads likely tainted things a bit. However, it looks like a settlement has been reached. The copyright infringement lawsuit, filed by…
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Local Color: Your Museum-Worthy Guide to Getting Cultured Over the Holidays
So, maybe you’re back home for the holidays—or maybe you’re hosting this year. Maybe you’re spending the break blessedly solo. No matter the specifics, you’ve hopefully got some long overdue downtime coming your way over the final days of 2018. But how many rounds of leftovers, good-natured (we hope) family feuds, epic sleep-ins and Hallmark…
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Sculptor Simone Leigh Becomes 12th Artist to Win Guggenheim’s Hugo Boss Prize
Black excellence has been awarded again. On Thursday, the Guggenheim Museum awarded its coveted Hugo Boss Prize to Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist Simone Leigh. The Hugo Boss Prize recognizes achievement in contemporary art. Leigh, a Chicago native of Jamaican descent, works in various media but was recognized for her work in ceramics, which incorporates traditional African…
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Today Is National Black Poetry Day. Here’s a Totally Biased List of 10 Black Poems You Should Hear
Today is national black poetry day and I am, among many things, a black poet. I could link to Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” or some other literary poets, but there are these things called books that you should totally check out. And because The Root’s Social Media Editor Corey Townsend hates spoken word poetry, I…
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It's Bigger Than a Hip-Hop Exhibit: What the Controversy Around White Curators in Black Spaces Reveals [Updated]
It wasn’t breaking news, by any means: Timothy Ann Burnside, a specialist in Curatorial Affairs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, had been collecting hip-hop artifacts for the Smithsonian for years. But a discussion about her position and her work dominated parts of the Twittersphere this past weekend, as a long-simmering…
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The Exhibit ‘Black Women: Power and Grace’ Shows the Timeless Strength and Beauty Within Us All
Long before social media liberated unadulterated images of black women’s beauty, there was Kamoinge. The Kamoinge photographers collective, founded in Harlem in 1963 under the direction of the venerable photographer Roy DeCarava, author of The Sweet Flypaper of Life, is officially opening its newest exhibition, “Black Women: Power and Grace,” Thursday night at the National…
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Judge of Characters: Black Men, White Wives … This Is America
Donald Glover basically broke the internet when he released his video for “This Is America,” a disturbing visual with enough interpretable art all up and through it. Even the biggest art intellectual likely needed to go back and watch it 47 times. I know I did. But that’s a testament to good art, right? You…
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Of Art and Plunder: Why Black Curators Are Still Shut Out of the Art World—and Why It Matters
In the movie Black Panther, the first person we see Erik Killmonger confront is a white museum curator. Contemplative and curious, Killmonger gazes at a series of African artifacts—his locs, denim jacket and designer combat boots thrown into sharp relief by the female curator’s prim, blond cut and dark suit. He interrogates the white expert…