Celebrating Black American Artists

In honor of Black History Month, Comic Relief US has been using our social media channels to highlight Black American artists who captured the zeitgeist of the time, using their work to speak out against injustice and promote social change. You can see that work here.

‍Robert Scott Duncanson: Pompeii (1855)
As a free Black artist in pre-Civil War America, Duncanson was active in abolitionist society. With the support of Abolitionist patrons and the Anti-Slavery League, he traveled extensively to Europe, refining his art and becoming the first internationally recognized African American artist. Although not confirmed, some art historians have suggested that Pompeii symbolizes the Civil War. The ruins of the ancient Italian city represent a civilization whose time had passed (the slave South), while Mount Vesuvius (the threat of Civil War) looms in the distance.

‍Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
“The Queen of the Harlem Renaissance,” poet, writer, anthropologist, and civil rights activist, Hurston amplified Black women’s voices through her work. Their Eyes Were Watching God challenged 1930s literary norms, exploring love, inequality, self-discovery, and female empowerment.

‍Gordon Parks: Outside Looking In (1956)
Director of pivotal films like The Learning Tree and Shaft, Parks is credited as one of the inventors of the “blaxploitation” genre in the 1970s and was also a prolific photographer. Outside Looking In appeared in the September 1956 issue of Life magazine as part of his The Restraints: Open and Hidden photo essay. Each image captured the everyday struggles of the Thornton family to overcome discrimination in segregated Alabama.

Faith Ringgold: For the Women’s House (1971)
With over 75 awards, including 23 honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees, Ringgold is one of the most prolific artists of our time. Portraying women of different ages and ethnicities in professions scarcely occupied by women in the early 1970s, For the Women’s House echoes the feminist movement of the time. The mural illustrates a society where equal opportunities are not merely aspirational but a reality where women have unrestricted access to all occupations regardless of age, race, or gender.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Defacement - The Death of Michael Stewart (1983)
A self-taught painter, Basquiat brought a distinct perspective to the 1980s neo-expressionism movement. A powerful indictment of police brutality and racial injustice, Basquiat’s Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) depicts the 1983 beating of young Black model and graffiti artist Michael Stewart. The artwork was created on drywall within fellow artist (and friend) Keith Haring’s studio. Later, after Basquiat’s untimely death, Haring carefully extracted the drawing and framed it in gold.

‍Spike Lee: Do the Right Thing (1989)
With a career spanning almost 40 years, Academy Award winner Spike Lee has written, directed, and/or produced at least 50 films. Known for delving into some of the most heated issues of our time, Lee pushes boundaries to the very limit and then takes us over the edge, challenging us to face the harsh realities of our society. Although released almost 35 years ago, Do the Right Thing explores many of the issues (racism, police brutality, and cultural misunderstanding) that are still prevalent today.

‍Glenn Ligon: Untitled (Hands/Stranger in the Village) (1999)
Best known for text-based paintings, Ligon samples writings and speeches of influential cultural figures to create modern conceptual art. In Untitled (Hands/Stranger in the Village), Ligon merges a mass-media photograph of 1995’s Million Man March with text from “Stranger in the Village” by the late writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin. Using coal dust to stencil text over the image of hands, the meaning of both is blurred, simultaneously underscoring the position and visibility of black and gay identity in America.

Amanda Gorman: Call Us What We Carry (2021)
Seamlessly blending themes of feminism, race, and oppression with hope, unity, and courage, Gorman became our nation’s youngest Poet Laureate in 2017. Gorman’s book, Call Us What We Carry, includes “The Hill We Climb,” which she recited during President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. Through her poetic expression, she instills hope amid uncertainty. Connecting the past, present, and future, she eloquently positions young changemakers as crucial in shaping the future.

Credit for photo of Amanda Gordon (top): Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | Credit: Carlos M. Vazquez II; OCJCS

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