In the 1950s and 1960s, only a handful of African-American artists were commonly understood or accepted in the mainstream art world. In spite of this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 26 African-American artists from Fort Pierce, Florida, produced picturesque, rapidly understood pictures of the Florida landscape and marketed some 200,000 of them from the trunks of their cars and trucks. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was difficult to discover galleries thinking about offering art works by a group of unidentified, self-taught African Americans, so they offered their art straight to the general public instead of through galleries and art representatives. This is the original version of back of the trunk style grassroots marketing!
Found in the mid-1990s, today they are acknowledged as a fundamental part of American folk history.
The Highwaymen
The present market value for an initial Highwaymen painting can quickly generate countless dollars. In 2004 the initial group of 26 Highwaymen were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Presently eight out of 26 have passed away: Ellis Buckner and George Buckner, A. Hair, H. Newton, L. Roberts, Hezekiah Baker A. Moran, and most lately Johnny Daniels. The complete list of 26 can be discovered in the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, along with numerous outlaws and Florida art sites.
African-American Art Works Post WWII
After the Second World War, some artists took an international method, working and showing abroad, in Paris, and as the years endured, transferred slowly in other inviting cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Stockholm: Expense Hutson, Bill Rivers, Edward Clark, Harvey Cropper, Herbert Gentry, Clifford Jackson, Sam Middleton, Larry Potter, Haywood Beauford Delaney, Merton Simps on, Walter Williams, and Barbara Chase-Riboud.
Some African-American artists did make it into essential fine art galleries of New York even by the 1950s and 1960s although Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Romare Bearden, Thomas Sills, and Sam Gilliam and William T. Williams were amongst the few who had actually effectively been gotten in a gallery setting.
Art During the Civil Rights Era
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1970s and 1960s led artists to catch and reveal the times and modifications. Galleries and neighborhood art focuses established for the function of showing African-American art, and college mentor positions were developed by and for African-American artists. Some African-American females were likewise active in the art movement of the 1970s advocating a feminist perspective. Faith Ringgold produced art that included African-American female topics which dealt with the combination of bigotry and sexism in the United States, while the cumulative Where We At (WWA) held exhibits solely including the art work of African-American females.
Hip-Hop Enters Mainstream Art
By the 1980s and 1990s, hip-hop graffiti ended up being predominate in metropolitan neighborhoods. Many significant cities had actually established museums committed to African-American artists. The National Endowment for the Arts offered increasing assistance for these artists.
Contemporary Collections of African American Artwork
Crucial collections of African-American art consist of the Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, the Paul R. Jones collections at the University of Delaware and University of Alabama, the David C. Driskell Art collection, the Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Mott-Warsh collection.
Kara Walker, a modern American artist, is understood for her expedition of race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity in her art works. Walker’s shape images work to bridge incomplete folklore in the Antebellum South and are similar to the earlier work of Harriet Powers. Her horrible yet fantastical images integrate a cinematic feel. In 2007, Walker was noted amongst Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People on the planet, Artists and Entertainers”.
Fabric artists belong to African-American art history. Inning accordance with the 2010 Quilting in America market study, there are 1.6 million quilters in the United States.
Prominent contemporary artists include the following, broken down A-Z:
African American Artists by Last Name
Black Artists – As
Larry D. Alexander
Laylah Ali
Amalia Amaki
Emma Amos
Ellsworth Ausby
Black Artists – Bs
Che Baraka
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Dawoud Bey
Camille Billops
Mark Bradford
Black Artists – Cs
Edward Clark
Willie Cole
Robert Colescott
Black Artists – Ds
Louis Delsarte
Terry Dixon
David C. Driskell
Leonardo Drew
Black Artists – Es
Mel Edwards
Black Artists – Fs
Ricardo Francis
Black Artists – Gs
Charles Gaines
Ellen Gallagher
Herbert Gentry
Sam Gilliam
Black Artists – Hs
David Hammons
Jerry Harris
Barkley Hendricks
Richard Hunt
Black Artists – Js
Martha Jackson-Jarvis
M. Scott Johnson
Rashid Johnson
Black Artists – Ls
Joe Lewis
Glenn Ligon
James Little
Edward L. Loper Sr.
Alvin D. Loving
Black Artists – Ms
Katie S. Mallory
Kerry James Marshall
Eugene J. Martin
Richard Mayhew
Sam Middleton
Howard McCalebb
Dindga McCannon
Charles McGill
Thaddeus Mosley
Sana Musasama
Black Artists – Ns
Otto Neals
Senga Nengudi
Black Artists – Os
Joe Overstreet
Black Artists – Ps
Martin Puryear
Adrian Piper
Howardena Pindell
Black Artists – Rs
Faith Ringgold
Gale Fulton Ross
Black Artists – Ss
Alison Saar
Betye Saar
John Solomon Sandridge
Raymond Saunders
John T. Scott
Joyce Scott
Gary Simmons
Lorna Simpson
Jeff Sonhouse
Renee Stout
Black Artists – Ts
Mickalene Thomas
Black Artists – Ws
Kara Walker
William Walker
Carrie Mae Weems
Stanley Whitney
Emmett Wigglesworth
William T. Williams
Jack Whitten
Kehinde Wiley
Fred Wilson
Richard Wyatt Jr.
Black Artists – Ys
Richard Yarde
Purvis Young
We know there are many others and would love to hear from you. Which of your favorite artists did we leave off the list? Who should we have included? Use the comments to list your favorite contemporary artists of the Black experience or who are of African descent. We will update our list!