Richard J. Powell: Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century (1997)

“The African diaspora—a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade and Western colonialism—has generated a wide array of artistic achievements in our century, from blues to reggae, from the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner to the video installations of Keith Piper. This study of 20th-century black art is the first to concentrate on the art works themselves, and on how these works, created during a major social upheaval and transformation, use black culture both as subject and as 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; biographies of more than 160 key artists provide a unique and valuable art historical resource.

Richard Powell discusses the philosophical and social forces that have shaped a black diasporal presence in 20th-century art. Placing its emphasis on black cultural themes rather than on black racial identity, this book is an important exploration of the visual representations of black culture throughout the twentieth century.”

Publisher Thames & Hudson, London, 1997
World of Art series
ISBN 0500202958, 9780500202951
256 pages

Reviews: Deborah Kempe (Art Documentation 1997), Steven Nelson (Art Journal 1998), Kymberly N. Pinder (Art Bulletin 1999), Elizabeth Harney (Nka 1999), Donna Seaman (Booklist).

Author (2nd ed.)
Publisher (2nd ed.)
WorldCat

PDF (59 MB, no OCR)

James A. Porter: Modern Negro Art (1943/1969)

cover of 1943 edition

“Called the ‘father of African-American art history’, James A. Porter (1905-70) was not only a distinguished art historian but also a successful painter in his own right. His groundbreaking survey Modern Negro Art was the result of ten years of collecting and collating documents about the history of African-American art, from its inception to the early forties. This seminal work made visible many little-known artists, especially Porter’s contemporaries associated with the Harlem Renaissance, the African-American social, literary, and artistic movement that had been gathering force since the end of World War I.”

First published by Dryden Press, New York, 1943
Reissued by Arno Press and the New York Times, New York, 1969
viii+272 pages

Review: John Fabian Kienitz (College Art J 1944).

WorldCat

PDF (74 MB)
PDF (low res, 27 MB)

nul = 0: The Dutch Nul Group in an International Context (2011)

“The legendary art collective Nul was founded in Amsterdam in 1961. Its members–Armando, Jan Henderikse, Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven and (briefly) herman de vries–revolutionized Dutch art, allying themselves with the German Zero group, the French Nouveau Réalistes and the Japanese Gutai group, as well as with artists such as Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana. Alongside these groups, Nul set the tone for the climate of the European avant-garde in the 1960s. The group collaborated on manifestos, happenings and publications, and individually produced serial, minimalist sculptures, installations and assemblages, which they exhibited collectively. Nul = 0 accompanies the Stedelijk Museum’s 2011 survey of the movement, offering extensive historical analysis through interviews, essays, archival photographs and an illustrated chronology. Featuring a die-cut cover (with two concentric zeroes), it constitutes a definitive overview of Nul’s activities, its kindred spirits and its legacy.”

With contributions by Colin Huizing, Antoon Melissen, Tijs Visser, Pietje Tegenbosch, Caroline de Westenholz, Renate Wiehager, Midori Yamamura, and Atsuo Yamamoto.

Edited by Colin Huizing and Tijs Visser
Publisher Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, and NAi Publishers, Rotterdam, 2011
ISBN 9789056628383
192 pages
via Zero Foundation

Video from The Nul’s 1962 exhibition at Stedelijk
Exhibition, 2011.
Nul at Wikipedia-NL

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (8 MB)