Confessions of an artist who did not plan to be an art critic
I must admit that I did not begin my professional arts career with the idea that I would one day write exhibition reviews, curator profiles and book reviews and would conduct interviews with artists. I was an artist — “a sketchbook with a person attached to it.” Drawing and painting was my caffeine late at night because the joy of experiencing a creative idea come to life is priceless.
However, as I participated in art shows and continued to upgrade my skills in art classes, the opportunity to show in galleries increased, especially exhibitions featuring African American artists. But I noticed that art critics of color were scarce. Who would unpack the meaning embedded in the art and make it accessible to viewers? Let me clarify.
There were those few well-known Ph.D. art historians of color who wrote the survey books on African American art history as well as the critical essays in major exhibition catalogues. Believe me, it is a small world that these folks inhabit. But locally, I did not know a single African American art critic in the Inland Empire who consistently wrote reviews about Black art. But let me offer a disclaimer: The scarcity of African American art galleries to showcase Black artists is another essay. However, my journey to become a writer was not planned.
It all started with enrolling in a Black literature course many years ago at San Bernardino Valley College. Professor Diana Anderson (now retired) opened my mind to the writers and poets
Richard Allen May III of Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, and knowing about these significant historical events sparked my curiosity. Who was writing about African American art back then? Why have there been historically more African American artists than Black art critics? This is not to say that not being a person of color disqualifies one from critically analyzing Black art. It’s just where’s the Black representation in such an aesthetically canonizing art world that tends to marginalize and exclude while simultaneously celebrating the same artists over and over? These were the difficult questions I faced as an emerging artist.
Moonwalking forward, taking art history classes provided the opportunity to learn about the major art movements in the United States as well as the various critical frameworks utilized by the mainstream art world to analyze art. Specific assignments had the kind of flexibility I needed to move beyond the traditional biographical approach used when discussing African American art. I was applying contemporary art theory and criticism to work created by artists who looked like me.
My participation in exhibitions led to being embraced by the African American arts community in Los Angeles that included such giants as John Outterbridge, Dr. Samella Lewis, Ron Griffin and Varnette Honeywood, as well as already established creative persons like muralists Noni Olabisi and Richard Wyatt, photographer Willie Middlebrook, artist/writer Greg Pitts, arts administrator Vida Brown and my own peer contemporaries: painter/public artists such as June Edmonds and Michael Massenburg. Most of all, it was the mentorship of Cecil Fergerson, arts activist, retired assistant curator from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He encouraged me to write, stating that I could do both: make art and write about art.
Listening to Cecil, commonly referred to as “The Godfather of the Arts,” was confirmed when my critical research on African American art was accepted for presentation at several art history conferences. This in turn resulted in the opportunity to be a consistent contributing writer to the Los Angeles-based arts magazine, Artillery.
Toni Morrison once said, “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Well, with the support of Inlandia, I am teaching the class that I would want to take: How to Write About Black Art.
Upcoming workshops
• Writing about Black Art through a Psychoanalytical Lens:
4-5:30 p.m. May 7, 14 and 21
This workshop explores writing about Black art from a psychoanalytic perspective with specific attention devoted to how theories related to Black psychology correlate to Black art.
To register: tinyurl. com/WritingAboutBlackArt2022