Published to accompany exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery, London, 19/6 - 17/8 1997.

"Drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's rich collection of African American art, the works include paintings by Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, Thornton Dial Sr., Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, and Lois Mailou Jones, and photographs by Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, Roland Freeman, Marilyn Nance, and James Van Der Zee. More than half of the artworks in the exhibition are being shown for the first time"--Publisher's website.

"In the past, histories of American art have traditionally highlighted the work of a familiar roster of artists, often white and male. Over time the achievements of others worthy of attention, including numerous women and artists of color, as well as white men, have gone uncelebrated and fallen into obscurity. In this collection of essays, sixty-three scholars from various institutions, specialties, and locales respond to the challenge to nominate one maker deserving remembrance and detail the reasons for their choice. The collection is headed by a preface from editor Charles C. Eldredge, explaining the genesis of the anthology, and an introduction by Dr. Kirsten Pai Buick, promoting the value of recovered reputations and oeuvres in the training of future art experts and audiences"--

This groundbreaking study explores the visual representations of Black culture across the globe throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The African diaspora—a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade and Western colonialism—has generated a wide array of artistic achievements, from blues and reggae to the paintings of the pioneering American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner and the music videos of Solange. This study concentrates on how these works, often created during times of major social upheaval and transformation, use Black culture both as a subject and as context. From musings on “the souls of black folk” in late-nineteenth-century art to questions of racial and cultural identities in performance, media, and computer-assisted arts in the twenty-first century, this book examines the philosophical and social forces that have shaped Black presence in modern and contemporary visual culture. Renowned art historian Richard J. Powell presents Black art drawn from across the African diaspora, with examples from the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. Black Art features artworks executed in a broad range of media, including film, photography, performance art, conceptual art, advertising, and sculpture. Now updated and expanded, this new edition helps to better understand how the first two decades of the twenty-first century have been a transformative moment in which previous assumptions about race and identity have been irrevocably altered, with art providing a useful lens through which to think about these compelling issues.

Examining portraits of black people over the past two centuries, Cutting a Figure argues that these images should be viewed as a distinct category of portraiture that differs significantly from depictions of people with other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The difference, Richard Powell contends, lies in the social capital that stems directly from the black subject’s power to subvert dominant racist representations by evincing such traits as self-composure, self-adornment, and self-imagining. Powell forcefully supports this argument with evidence drawn from a survey of nineteenth-century portraits, in-depth case studies of the postwar fashion model Donyale Luna and the contemporary portraitist Barkley L. Hendricks, and insightful analyses of images created since the late 1970s. Along the way, he discusses major artists—such as Frédéric Bazille, John Singer Sargent, James Van Der Zee, and David Hammons—alongside such overlooked producers of black visual culture as the Tonka and Nike corporations. Combining previously unpublished images with scrupulous archival research, Cutting a Figure illuminates the ideological nature of the genre and the centrality of race and cultural identity in understanding modern and contemporary portraiture.

Pat uses exciting contemporary fabrics and glorious colors while maintaining the gracefulness and charm of this classic needlework style, also known as "crewel work." Presenting 28 unique appliqué designs, adapted from the Jacobean embroidery style, to embellish quilts, clothing, and home decor items. Enjoy these exquisite needlework designs of sweeping branches, graceful leaves, swirling vines, and exotic flowers. Includes 10 quilt projects and instructions for Pat's own appliqué method. The book offers help with choosing appropriate fabrics, as well as strategies for achieving beautiful color and contrast in appliqué work.