"Taking its title from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, exhibition Black Is, Black Ain't (April 20 – June 8, 2008) explored a shift in the rhetoric of race from an earlier emphasis on inclusion to a present moment where racial identity is being simultaneously rejected and retained. Curated by the Renaissance Society's Associate Curator and Education Director Hamza Walker, the exhibition brought together works by twenty-seven black and non- ..."
"Offering a close look at the exhibition, this volume includes an array of illustrations, a conversation between curator Solveig Øvstebø and the artist, and four newly commissioned essays by Carol Armstrong, Darby English, Rachel Hann, and ..."
"An absurdist provocateur and brilliant interventionist, Pope.L is a seditious force in contemporary American artPope.L is a consummate thinker and provocateur whose practice across multiple mediums―including painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, theater and video―utilizes abjection, humor, endurance, language and absurdity to confront and undermine rigid systems of belief. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum ..."
"Accompanying the landmark exhibition by renowned Hudson Valley–based artist Martin Puryear (born 1941), who is representing the United States at the 58th Venice Biennale, this book captures a high point in the career of one of today’s most acclaimed artists.In addition to extensive illustrations of new sculptures made for the Biennale, including a significant site-specific work, the book features major texts by Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Da ..."
1971(1st Edition) A Year in the Life of Color by DarbyEnglish Hardcover, 312 Pages, Published 2016 by University Of Chicago Press ISBN-13: 978-0-226-13105-4, ISBN: 0-226-13105-X
"Art historian Darby English is celebrated for working against the grain and plumbing gaps in historical narratives. In this book, he explores the year 1971, when two exhibitions opened that brought modernist painting and sculpture into the burning heart of black cultural politics: Contemporary Black Artists in America, shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The DeLuxe Show, an integrated abstract art exhibition presented in a ..."
1971 A Year in the Life of Color by DarbyEnglish 312 Pages, Published 2016 by University Of Chicago Press ISBN-13: 978-0-226-27473-7, ISBN: 0-226-27473-X
"basking in the colored light of Monet and Nicolas de Staël and marveling at the
solar intake of Paris studios, whose plentiful skylights meant “you can paint out-of
-this-world colors.”17 Since ... In the catalogue for the artist's retrospective that
same year at the Studio Museum, curator Anita Feldman displaces Clark's
practice from the context in which it finds its motive force, upon which it builds,
and away from which it decisi ..."
"Work by black artists today is almost uniformly understood in terms of its "blackness," with audiences often expecting or requiring it to "represent" the race. In How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness, Darby English shows how severely such expectations limit the scope of our knowledge about this work and how different it looks when approached on its own terms. Refusing ..."
"Glenn Ligon is one of the preeminent members of a generation of American artists who came to prominence in the late 1980s with conceptually-based paintings, photographs and text-oriented works concerning the social, linguistic and political constructions of race, gender and sexuality. Incorporating sources as diverse as photographic scrapbooks and Richard Pryor's stand-up comedy routines--his lush coal-dust paintings of excerpts from Ja ..."
"âThis collection of Walker's astonishing tableaux dramatizes black-white interactions via horrifically accurate imaginings of one-on-one encountersâencounters that, in their microcosms of exploitation and mutual dependency, seem to speak directly to current forms of black-white relations.â âPublishers Weekly"
"Work by black artists today is almost uniformly understood in terms of its "blackness," with audiences often expecting or requiring it to "represent" the race. In How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness, Darby English shows how severely such expectations limit the scope of our knowledge about this work and how different it looks when approached on its own terms. Refusing ..."
"This expansive collection of essays on nearly 200 works in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art is the first substantial exploration of MoMA’s uneven historical relationship with black artists, black audiences and the broader subject of racial blackness. By addressing these subjects through the consideration of works produced either by black artists or in response to race-related subjects, Among Others confronts two kinds of truth ..."
"Art History and Emergency assesses art history’s role and responsibilities in what has been described as the “humanities crisis”—the perceived decline in the practical applications of the humanities in modern times. This timely collection of critical essays and creative pieces addresses several thought-provoking questions on the subject. For instance, as this so-called crisis is but the latest of many, what part has “crisis” played in t ..."
"Winner in the book category of the AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers of 2003 competition presented by the American Institute of Graphic Arts Kara Walker (b. 1969) has emerged as one of her generation's most important artists. Best known for her provocative black paper cutout silhouettes, she confronts stereotypes, sex, violence, and power relationships through Civil War-era parodies, narratives, and a mastery of craft and installation. This boo ..."
"“The work of the sculptor Rachel Harrison is both the zeitgeist and the least digestible in contemporary art. It may also be the most important, owing to an originality that breaks a prevalent spell in an art world of recycled genres, styles, and ideas.”—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker In her sculptures, room-sized installations, drawings, photographs, and artist’s books, Rachel Harrison (b. 1966) delves into themes of celebrity cultur ..."
"Martin Puryear’s enduring approach has galvanized his art for more than five decades: issues of democracy, identity, and liberty have long propelled him. Readers of this volume will learn how an artist’s handling of a symbolic but vital human subject― namely, liberty―can be best expressed in sculptural form through a visual language of great originality and certitude. Liberty / Libertà, published on the occasion of the artist’s exhibiti ..."
Walter Price. Pearl Lines Ausst. Kat. Camden Arts Center, 2021 by Walter Price, DarbyEnglish Hardcover, Published 2022 by Verlag Der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, Cologne ISBN-13: 978-3-7533-0105-1, ISBN: 3-7533-0105-1
Theaster Gates Heavy Sketches by DarbyEnglish Hardcover, 80 Pages, Published 2017 by Skira ISBN-13: 978-88-572-3478-6, ISBN: 88-572-3478-9
"A book on the internationally renowned artist known for his blend of social practice, sculpture, and urban development. Gates has created a series of works that utilize bronze along with repurposed stone and wood, tar, and ceramics to explore the forms and imagery of African masks. Documentation of the works will be accompanied by images from the artist's expansive archives of anthropological slides, stills from a video performance, and ..."
"This groundbreaking exploration of appropriation and institutional critique assembles a wide variety of artists and mediums to offer new insight and make unprecedented connections. Exploring two parallel strands of post-conceptual art, Take It or Leave It highlights artists known for their use of appropriation and those who engage in "institutional critique." Focusing on American artists who emerged from the late 1970s to the early 1990 ..."