Generational Effect
The Baltimore Museum of Art brings the previously touring Solidary & Solitary exhibition into a new era
The Baltimore Museum of Art brings the previously touring Solidary & Solitary exhibition into a new era
The power of abstract art is multifaceted.as a means for exploration both creatively and personally, abstract expressionism has been marked by profound political choices for decades of black artists. On view from September
29, 2019 through January 19, 2020, Generations:a History of Black Abstract
Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art examines the contributions that black artists have made to the development of this category of artwork from the 1940s to now.
Drawing on the extensive collection of Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida—recognized for their unparalleled holdings of works
by historic and contemporary black artists—generations builds upon the previously touring Solidary & Solitary exhibition, doubling its scale and scope. “In this case, [the exhibition] has those objects at its core but we’re also adding new acquisitions to BMA’S collection in order to narrate a very rich and convincing view of post-war art and sculpture by African American artists,” says Christopher Bedford, curator and BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis director.
Among the nearly 80 paintings, sculptures and mixed-media installations featured are works by Kevin Beasley, Mark Bradford,
Jennie C. Jones, Norman Lewis,
Lorna Simpson, Alma W. thomas,
Sam Gilliam and many others. By presenting the artists in both solo exhibitions and “duets”—which juxtapose works from artists such as Gary Simmons and Simpson, Melvin Edwards and Leonardo Drew, and Beasley and Shinique Smith—further context is given.
“We find ourselves today in an important moment of cultural reckoning—one in which it is imperative for institutions like the BMA to re-examine the histories of art and to tell a truer and more multidimensional story,” says BMA senior research and programming curator Katy Siegel. “in working with the visionary Joyner/giuffrida Collection, as well as the BMA’S own growing collection, we have an extraordinary opportunity to expand perceptions of what contemporary art was and can be, and celebrate the spectrum and brilliance of artists who have redefined and given depth to abstract art into the present day.” Represented in the “future of abstraction” category is Jack Whitten, whose acrylic and mixed-media painting, 9.11.01, relays his first-hand account of witnessing the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World
Trade Center’s Twin Towers from the window of his studio space in Queens. “having a strong background in African art in particular, he memorialized those who died in the attacks using materials from the Twin Tower buildings,” says Bedford. Another work by Whitten, Zen Master, 1968, is representative of his early career .“jack Whitten was a multi-dimensional artist who brought together painting and sculpture; Western modernity, africa and ancient Greece; jazz and quantum physics; physical labor and metaphysical thought,” explains Bedford. “As a young artist in the 1960s, he reinvigorated traditions of expressive painting, through his political and
psychological intensity. In the decades that followed, he invented new tools and processes, raking hundreds of gallons of paint across canvas with a giant squeegee, carving and casting acrylic paint into mosaic tiles.”
Like Whitten, Bradford is not confined to traditional tools of the trade, as is illustrated in his 2016 work, My Grandmother Felt the Color. “Using a variety of materials, including remnants of posters and billboards from his neighborhood, Mark Bradford has explored the street grid that defines Los Angeles, the tumult of the city’s protests and uprisings, and expressions of identity that represent members of its communities,” says Bedford. “To make this artwork, Bradford bleached, soaked and molded commercial paper with his hands to produce a sculptural surface. Bradford considers the scale of life in this painting: looked at one way, we see cells, another we see galaxies.”
This type of ingenuity is a common trait amongst the artists presented, who, Bedford says, “were not just painters, but makers.” He elaborates, “rather, they are artists who work and make things. this relates to an acceptance that one can be a worker in a highbrow field, not a rejection of tradition.”
The exhibition’s opening follows the museum’s re-conceptualization of its contemporary galleries, presented as a reinstallation titled Every Day: Selections from the Collection, which highlights major works and new acquisitions in an initiative to locate black artistic achievement at the center of a thematic overview of modern and contemporary art.
“The presentation of Generations is part of a broader vision to reshape the idea of the museum—who it belongs to and whom it represents,” says Bedford. “this effort occurs across our special exhibitions, collecting and public programs. In this way, we can recognize historical shortcomings, and provide our audiences with a richer, more vibrant and dynamic picture of art—one that speaks to different communities, perspectives and realities.”