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 Combining previously unpublished images with scrupulous archival research, Cutting a Figure illuminates the ideological nature of the genre and the centrality of race and cultural identity in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.

Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture

Arts & Photography

Powell, Richard J.

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities

This text documents a sampling of paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures owned by Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University, North Carolina Central University and Tuskegee University. The book serves as a catalogue for a major exhibition and conservation project organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem, in association with the Williamstown Art Conservation Center and the six participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It documents and discusses a century of art collected by America's HBCUs. The book contains a profile of each university collection, colour reproductions of many artworks, biographical information on the represented artists and documentation of the conservation and care practices helping to preserve the art for future generations. Two essays place the HBCU art collections in a historical context and develop six themes around which the exhibition was organized.

Reynolds, Jock

Addison Gallery of American Art

Studio Museum in Harlem

Addison Gallery of Amer Art

To Conserve a Legacy documents an outstanding sampling of paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures owned by Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University, North Carolina Central University, and Tuskegee University.
Many of this nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have amassed significant collections of American art and founded galleries and museums on their campuses. These collections provide a rich resource for the study of African American art, yet many also possess a diverse array of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American art. To Conserve a Legacy documents an outstanding sampling of paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures owned by Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University, North Carolina Central University, and Tuskegee University.This book serves as the catalog for a major exhibition and conservation project organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem, in association with the Williamstown Art Conservation Center and the six participating HBCUs. The book contains a profile of each university collection, color reproductions of many artworks included in the exhibition, biographical information on all the represented artists, and documentation of the conservation and care practices helping to preserve the art for future generations.
Two major essays place the HBCU art collections and this collaborative project in a historical context and develop six themes around which the exhibition was organized: Forever Free: Emancipation Visualized; The First Americans; Training the Head, the Hand, and the Heart; The American Portrait Gallery; American Expressionism; and Modern Lives, Modern Impulses. The artists include Romare Bearden, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, William H. Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Edmonia Lewis, Archibald Motley, Georgia O'Keeffe, Horace Pippin, P. H. Polk, Alfred Stieglitz, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Doris Ulmann, Carl Van Vechten, Thomas Waterman, James Weeks, Charles White, and many others. The book also contains forty-two entry essays by American scholars on many of the individual artworks. The exhibition was co-curated by Richard Powell, Chairman of the Art and Art History Department at Duke University, and Jock Reynolds, Director of the Yale University Art Gallery.

Mit Pr

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Going There: Black Visual Satire (Richard D. Cohen Lectures on African & African American Art)

Yale University Press

<div>A kaleidoscopic survey of black satire in 20th- and 21st-century American art In this groundbreaking study, Richard J. Powell investigates the visual forms of satire produced by black artists in 20th- and 21st-century America. Underscoring the historical use of visual satire as antiracist dissent and introspective critique, Powell argues that it has a distinctly African American lineage. Taking on some of the most controversial works of the past century--in all their complexity, humor, and provocation--Powell raises important questions about the social power of art. &nbsp; Expansive in both historical reach and breadth of media presented, Going There interweaves discussions of such works as the midcentury cartoons of Ollie Harrington, the installations of Kara Walker, the paintings of Robert Colescott, and the movies of Spike Lee. Other artists featured in the book include David Hammons, Arthur Jafa, Beverly McIver, Howardena Pindell, Betye Saar, and Carrie Mae Weems. Thoroughly researched and rich in context, Going There is essential reading in the history of satire, racial politics, and contemporary art.</div>

Profiles the life and work of the noted African American painter

Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Includes African American artist profiles, offers an examination of the social and cultural context of every type of art form from painting to performance art, and looks at the role of the Black artist

Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century (World of Art)

Thames&Hudson

"Excellent artists' profiles, lots of reproductions, and illuminating and original discussions of social and cultural contexts of African American art."―Booklist. The African diaspora―a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade and Western colonialism―generated a wide array of artistic achievements in the past century, from blues to reggae, from the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner to the video installations of Keith Piper. Richard Powell's study concentrates on the works of art themselves and on how these works, created during a time of major social upheaval and transformation, use black culture as both subject and context. From musings on the "the souls of black folk" in early twentieth-century painting, sculpture, and photography to questions of racial and cultural identities in performance, media, and computer-assisted arts in the 1990s, the book draws on the works of hundreds of artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Wifredo Lam, Jacob Lawrence, Spike Lee, Archibald Motley, Jr., Faith Ringgold, and Gerard Sekoto. This revised edition includes expanded coverage of video art and a new chapter that discusses work by a number of artists who have newly risen to prominence, such as Chris Ofili, Kara Walker, and Renée Cox. Biographies of more than 170 key artists provide a unique art-historical reference. Placing its emphasis on black cultural themes rather than on black racial identity, this groundbreaking book is an important exploration of the visual representations of black culture throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. 190 illustrations, 36 in color

Black Art: A Cultural History (Second Edition) (World of Art)

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. 217 illustrations

Black Art: A Cultural History (World of Art)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Powell, Richard J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Powell, Richard J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Powell, Richard J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture

To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities

To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Going There: Black Visual Satire (Richard D. Cohen Lectures on African & African American Art)

Going There: Black Visual Satire (Richard D. Cohen Lectures on African & African American Art)

Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson

Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century (World of Art)

Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century (World of Art)

Black Art: A Cultural History (Second Edition) (World of Art)

Black Art: A Cultural History (World of Art)