All language subtitles for Black.Art.In.the.Absence.of.Light.2021.PROPER.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG.eng

- The Black artist
- In America has had to put up

- With a great deal
- Over the years.

It's not been simply a matter

of mastering the art

while surviving as a person.

- This has been the experience of
- Most white artists, of course.

- For the Black artist,
- It has also been the matter

Of being taken seriously as

an artist and as an individual.

Last week, a major

historical survey of Black...

Art by Blacks in America

called Two Centuries

of Black American Art,

- opened at the Brooklyn Museum
- In New York.

- David Driskell,
- A professor of art

- At the University of Maryland
- And formerly chairman

- Of the art department
- At Fisk University in Nashville,

Has organized this show.

Incidentally, it opened

last year in Los Angeles

as a bicentennial exhibition,

and it drew overflow crowds.

1976, um,

doesn't seem like that long ago.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- VALERIE CASSEL OLIVER:
- But it was remarkable

That David Driskell could

mount an exhibition

called Two Centuries

of Black American Art.

Because up until that point,

you really do not have

an exhibition which is

authored by a Black curator

which talks about the history...

and the contemporary

manifestations

of Black art production

in the visual arts.

It just didn't exist.

For the most part,

the general public

was not that aware

- of the contributions that
- African American artists

Had made to American culture

in general in the 19th

or even the 20th century.

It was a surprise to most

people when you come up

with a list of 50 to 100

Black artists

who had been working

all the time.

They say, "Well, we've never

heard of these artists."

Well, of course not.

There's no publication,

there's no exhibition.

- MAURICE BERGER:
- What David did was he said,

"This is Black art."

It matters. And it's been

going on for 200 years.

Deal with it.

♪ (RHYTHMIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

- Mr. Driskell, you take, uh,
- Issue with the fact

That it has been called

an exhibition of Black art,

- or we have been describing it
- This morning

As the history of Black art.

Why do you not think of that

as being Black art, so to speak?

- Well, first of all,
- When one says Black art,

It more or less isolates

the Black artist

- from the mainstream
- Of American art.

- And even though this has
- Happened throughout the years,

But we have critical acclaim,

historical analysis, et cetera,

the Black artist has not

attempted to set himself apart.

He has tried to be part

and parcel of the mainstream.

- But aren't you setting them
- Apart, in effect,

- By putting the show together
- With just Black artists?

Only because he has not

had an audience

with a... a majority culture

for the most part.

And because, uh,

an exhibition of this nature

gets his work before the public.

Had this exhibition not been

organized, many of the artists

who were shown here

never would have been seen.

♪ (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MAURICE: The show opens

in the Los Angeles County

Museum of Art.

There was a lot of resistance,

even at that museum.

There were some who said,

"No. We shouldn't be

even involved with this."

And yet when push came to shove,

the board and the curators

agreed that Two Centuries

of African American Art

would be a good idea.

- DAVID DRISKELL: I guess it was
- A teaching moment for them,

At the same time that I had

a chance to really say,

"This is something

that ought to be done

- because the American canon
- Is not complete without it."

When you understand

how difficult that was,

what a triumph it was

that it was actually done,

then you start to understand

the enormous struggle

and journey

that this country has been on

to feature and to display

and to honor the work

of Black artists.

What Driskell did

is he demonstrated,

absolutely,

that there was a lineage,

there was a history.

- And that history was filled
- Not only with painting

- And sculpture,
- But also, the decorative arts.

Architecture, drawings. I mean,

it... it... it really gave us

this enormous sense of

the legacy of African Americans.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

I would have been 21 years old

in '76.

Yeah. And I saw that show.

The scope of the show,

uh, the amount of work

- that was available,
- There was work in that show

That you had only seen

in books before.

And so, for an artist,

- I mean, always seeing the work
- In person,

Seeing the real thing

matters a lot.

I was there.

I remember the electricity.

I remember the fact

that it was packed.

There were lines down

Wilshire Boulevard.

- DAVID:
- People from all over coming

For that opening and it...

It was just spectacular.

After the count was taken

and after that exhibition

closed there

and went to The High Museum

in Atlanta the next year,

they found out that more people

attended that exhibition

than any other exhibition...

originated in the United States.

So the show opens

and it travels to Dallas,

it travels to Chicago,

- it travels finally
- To the Brooklyn Museum.

And it sends a message.

And what it says is that

these are the manifestations

of African American artistic

brilliance over two centuries.

Artists who were

still practicing,

who were living,

Richard Mayhew, Loïs Jones,

Selma Burke, Richmond Barthé,

Charles White, Romare Bearden,

Jacob Lawrence,

when they saw all of

their work together,

it was like a homecoming.

I didn't attend the show,

I was too young.

Maybe I did,

I wouldn't remember.

But I remember the book.

The book was in my home.

It was in my sister's bedroom.

So these were images that I saw

- before I could really
- Say the names.

They were just sort of

imprinted, um, in me.

And there was definitely

a sense of communication

- and education I was getting
- From those images.

- Because you have to remember,
- At that time,

There were very few

positive images of Black folks

that were widely available.

The artists of that time,

- not only
- Were presenting Black people,

They were presenting

nuance, idiosyncratic,

abstract, beautiful imagery.

- JORDAN CASTEEL:
- I just feel a sense of belonging

When I look at this book.

My community of Black American

artists that come before me

have created the ground

for me to build on.

- And that's a beautiful thing.
- That's what this book

And this exhibition and what

David Driskell has done,

um, represents for me.

I grew up in a home that had

the work of Charles White...

Hale Woodruff...

♪ (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JORDAN: Faith Ringgold,

Elizabeth Catlett.

Those were works that

were around my, um, home,

so I felt they belonged to me.

I felt ownership of those images

because they were a part of

my intimate and immediate space.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

KERRY JAMES MARSHALL:

in junior high school,

When I was

I got a summer scholarship

to take a drawing class

at the Otis Art Institute.

The, uh, drawing teacher

had a book

- that he put on
- The opaque projector,

- it was Images of Dignity:
- The Drawings of Charles White.

Because prior to that, you know,

- almost all of the artists
- I had encountered

- In our history books
- Were European.

- When I was 15,
- The first oil painting I made

- Was a painting... an original
- Painting that I made

In the style of Charles White,

so that I could understand

exactly what it was

he was trying to do,

how he used form,

how he used color and tone,

- and to try to make
- An original work

- That did some of the same
- Kinds of things that he did

- Without copying the work
- That he had made.

- You train yourself to
- A certain way of seeing form

And understanding form

- by copying
- What somebody else did.

- And at another point,
- You break free from that,

- Because then you can
- Do your own thing.

When I met Charles White,

- one of the things that stuck
- With me that he said was that,

"Whenever you make work,

it ought to be about something,

and it ought to be about

something that mattered."

- Because all of the work
- I was doing

Had some relationship

to the history of art.

It seemed to make a lot of sense

- that it also should have a lot
- In rel... a lot to do

- With the history
- Of Black people.

So that's what

I set myself to do.

To make pictures that had

historical relevance

- in terms of the story,
- The narratives they told,

- But also have historical
- Relevance

- Because they had a relationship
- To the way

In which the narrative

of painting

as an activity sort of

developed over time.

I think

that Kerry James Marshall has

all but redefined

the whole concept

of what Black art is about.

- I would say
- He had the audacity...

To concentrate on

just the Black subject

- and not bring
- All these other elements in.

- And I think it's fascinating,
- Not only from the point of view

Of what Black people

feel about themselves,

but it's intriguing

to whites as well.

- KERRY:
- In the history of painting

That we are introduced to...

you don't find many images

of Black people in pictures.

- You certainly don't see
- A lot of images

Of Black people making pictures.

At the end of the 19th century,

- and in the beginning
- Of the 20th century,

This notion that representation

was a useless artifact

of old-fashioned ideas

about what it meant

to make art

had sort of set in,

and people started thinking

that abstract painting is a more

advanced form of painting

than representational painting.

And that's what abstraction

sort of says, in a way,

that representing yourself

is no longer a viable approach.

But I don't look at it that way.

There's work

that needs to be done

using the Black figure

in painting as a meaningful part

of the historical narrative.

Kerry James Marshall

was a student of mine.

- He made a very good sketchbook
- In my class.

And he was a good artist.

- One of the exercises
- She had us do in that class

- Was to make a collage.
- We did a series of collages.

- You had to make a collage
- And then bring that collage back

Again the next week

and have it changed.

- And then to bring it again
- And changed again.

- And then to bring it again
- And changed again.

So that you never really

became too attached

to not make everything you do

seem so precious

- that it can't be transformed,
- That it can't be modified,

Or it can't be improved.

I was very interested in, uh,

non-Western philosophies

and the spiritualism

and the images that they use.

KERRY: I had seen, uh,

Black Girl's Window before.

- It was certainly an image
- That was in the back of my mind.

When I looked back at that work,

it certainly has a relationship

to a painting I did in 1980

- that was really transformative
- For me

And it really sort of set me

- on the path to doing the work
- That I'm doing now.

And I made a painting called

A Portrait of the Artist as

a Shadow of His Former Self.

Which is a Black figure

against a black ground.

And it was the first time

I had used this simplified,

kind of reductive representation

of a Black figure.

- And so that painting was the...
- The one that established

The Black figure as a mode

of operating for me.

One of the things I was trying

to do was to embody in a picture

- the concept that Ralph Ellison
- Had laid out

In his novel, Invisible Man.

- He describes the condition
- Of invisibility

As it relates to Black people

in America.

This condition of being seen

and not seen simultaneously.

- And that's what I think
- A Black figure

Against the black ground,

- where if you change the color
- Temperature of the black,

It creates enough separation

so that you can alternately

see and then sometimes not see

the figure that's present there.

I started creating the sense

of volume in those figures

by using the grayscale.

So, uh... You take black,

you add white to it,

you can create a grayscale,

- and then you can actually start
- Doing modelling,

- You know, with...
- With values.

- Black is not the absence
- Of color,

Black is particular

kinds of color.

- And so if I went
- To the paint store, as I did,

And I bought black paint,

I could see I could buy

three different variations

of black paint.

So I could buy an ivory black,

I could buy a carbon black,

and I could buy

an iron oxide black,

- or something
- That's called Mars black.

- And if you look at each one
- Of those colors,

They are not the same thing.

This is the full range

of the black flesh tones.

There are seven.

Every one of these tones

is on those... the later figures.

Every one of these colors

is on there.

- But, I mean,
- They all look the same,

But when you stack them on top

of each other,

then the... the variations

start to become more pronounced.

So I can end up with six,

seven, eight or nine

- different colors
- That are all made from black.

So that means I have a palette

- that's as complex and as broad
- And as ranged

As any other color

that's on the spectrum.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

KERRY: I think, in general,

really well received.

the paintings had been

But there's a lingering

controversy around

the sort of unequivocally Black,

kind of emphatically

Black figures.

- I wouldn't have done them
- If I didn't feel it.

But I tend to think

having that extreme, uh, color,

- that kind of black,
- Is... is amazingly beautiful.

There's a lot of overlap

in terms of structure

between the way

artists handle color

- and the way musicians
- Handle color

- And note and tone
- And all this.

- Because we use the same
- Kind of language, basically.

It's tone, it's texture,

it's color. It's intensity.

And it's... it's all basically

structural language.

the same sort of

I found my own sound.

I found my own tone.

Very often, something that

we wouldn't even consider major,

like a family picnic,

or the barbershop,

how we live, what we do.

He kind of popularized

the ordinary.

And in so doing, he made it

his own personal statement.

We see ourselves in

so many different ways.

'Cause he's looking at every

aspect of our being.

♪ (QUIET JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- VALERIE:
- The first major exhibition

That focuses on Black art

or cultural production,

before Two Centuries

of Black American Art

is Harlem on My Mind

by The Met in 1968.

Which received a huge backlash

from the community itself.

Why? It was not authored

by anyone who looked like

the subjects of that exhibition.

It framed it almost in

an anthropological framework,

which was the sights

and sounds of Harlem

from the 1900s to 1968.

It did not take into account

the wealth of cultural and

artistic production emerging.

That was, uh, shocking.

For all of the desires

of the curators,

they are missing the mark.

- REPORTER: Mr. Hoving, what
- Do you think of the exhibit?

- -Well, I personally like it.
- -REPORTER: Why?

I like it because

I think it is true.

- I think
- It is an honest portrayal

- Of a very difficult subject,
- Which is millions of people

Living in one area,

a large area of New York City,

over a period of about 70 years.

REPORTER: Some people,

especially some Harlem citizens

have criticized the exhibition

and said it's not art,

it's all photography.

They said that Harlem people,

Harlem-born people,

were not intimately involved.

They said it's too slick,

and that it lacks sensitivity.

- Well, I know some people
- Have said that.

- On the other hand, uh,
- There have been others,

- That have been on
- The advisory committee

And working for many,

many months

who said that they thought

it was, uh, moving,

and they thought it was, uh,

- powerful
- Where it should be powerful

And, uh, soft and lyrical

where it should be.

Again, this is, uh, these

diametrically opposed opinions.

- We're going to get
- A lot of that.

And, uh, I think that's good.

Harlem as a kind of fanciful,

mystical magical subject

was fine for

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But the artists

who were doing the work,

who were walking the walk,

- were somehow
- Irrelevant to the story.

- MARY SCHMIDT CAMPBELL:
- With one exception.

And that exception is that

they included the photographs

of James Van Der Zee.

The fact that they included him

turned out to be a revelation.

Because Van Der Zee's work

documented much of the cultural

day-to-day life of Harlem.

The rituals and ceremonies

of people who lived there.

- And his name became
- A name we all knew,

And the content of what he did

became known to people.

DAVID: My reaction was that

if The Metropolitan Museum

wanted to really

give a real depiction

of what Black artists

had been doing in the period

- of the Harlem Renaissance
- And thereafter,

Why not deal with the art?

Doing The Two Centuries

gave me the chance

to, uh, bridge the gap

to a certain extent

between what,

uh, I thought The Met should

have been doing from day one.

- MARY:
- People like Romare Bearden,

Benny Andrews,

were out protesting,

as well as people

from the community,

because it was not

reflective of Harlem.

MAURICE:

Why are museums so resistant

to opening their doors

to artists of color

- and particularly
- African Americans artists?

- For the first time,
- Perhaps ever,

- I think people really start
- To think of their museums

- As being their museums,
- As belonging to them

In a different way.

Faith Ringgold was a prime

agitator in this time period.

She was protesting

at The Whitney,

protesting at The Met,

protesting all around the city.

- FAITH RINGGOLD:
- We are Black. But we are equals.

I believe thoroughly and

completely in freedom of speech.

And no one's going

to change that.

I'll just stay out

till I get in.

♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MARY: I met Faith Ringgold,

when I was in graduate school

at Syracuse.

And what I heard was this,

- that she had gone to
- The Studio Museum in Harlem

And tried to get a show.

And, um, Studio Museum

did not give her a show.

Um, for whatever reason.

- They weren't a lot of women
- Back in those days

Who were getting, um,

solo exhibitions at the museum.

And she had all these

big paintings

she was... couldn't get

shown, uh, in New York.

And so she started doing

these, uh, soft sculptures.

And she would take

the soft sculptures

and she would lecture

on women artists.

Not only Black women artists,

but on women artists in general.

- Because she understood
- That it wasn't just an issue

About Black artists,

- it was an issue of gender
- As... as well as race.

- I was not invited to sit down
- With the men

Who were in the struggle

with me.

I realized I was really

doing the right thing

by becoming a feminist,

and trying to start a feminist

movement in the art world.

- Faith Ringgold is an artist
- Who hasn't received

The recognition she deserves,

in part because of the form

that she decided to use,

but also because of

just how incendiary

her political style was.

Her paintings in particular.

Her political work also

had such an invective,

that some places weren't

willing to be that radical.

I did what I wanted to do,

and, uh, paid the price.

I think it's also partly

that she is...

extremely courageous,

ahead of her time.

Very fierce in her work,

loving in her work.

She doesn't accept

anyone else's leadership

about how art should be.

Which by the way, I think is

what it means to be an artist.

♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

DAVID: One of the great

American artists,

Richard Mayhew, was part

of Two Centuries.

His work was a continuum

of sorts.

It was in the tradition

of the great Black American

landscape painters.

Of Bannister, of Duncanson,

of others that we think of when

we say, "America the Beautiful."

RICHARD MAYHEW: My paintings

were based on mood space,

feeling of time,

and mood of the moment.

It's a joy. It's like a dance.

They look like landscapes,

but they're mindscapes.

(CHUCKLES)

So what we mean by mindscape

is it was all internalized

thinking and feeling.

I started painting

very, very young.

I... I used to see painters,

- and I used to go to the museum
- And watch them paint.

And it was fascinating, watching

the magic wand as you call it,

a dip in the paint

and images come out

on the canvas.

the other end... (LAUGHS)

So that kind of thrilled me

just seeing that

and that kind of

challenged me about

the whole idea of painting.

The mystique

and the magic of it.

Well, I was drawing all

the time, constantly drawing.

- How I learned to draw
- I can't imagine that,

Because I could draw almost

Very early on.

anything as in... Very early...

- I went to study
- At The Art Academy

In Florence, Italy

- and I went to study at
- The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

- I met Spiral
- When I came back from Europe.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

SARAH LEWIS: In 1963,

Mayhew joined The Spiral Group,

- founded by painters
- Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis

In response to the civil

rights struggle.

- They discussed the plight
- Of Blacks in America

And the direction

African American art

should take.

The, uh, legacy that

they've left is unbelievable...

and very special people.

So they weren't just artists,

these were the mentors of

the future of American society.

SARAH: Spiral began

in Romare Bearden's studio.

- The fifth floor
- Of his Canal Street loft.

Spiral came into being in 1963

- at the height of
- The civil rights movement.

And in fact, they got together

because there was an idea

that, uh, there should be

a group of Black artists

- who should go to
- The March on Washington.

- SARAH: The question became
- How can artists

- Engage with the civil
- Rights movement?

- Artists who were working
- In abstract means

And artists who were

more overtly political.

And Spiral was trying to

find a way to create a bridge

- between these two
- Seemingly separate worlds.

And it was really

the first major group

of Black artists that

assembled since the 40s.

And when they got together,

they really discovered

that they had an enormous

amount to talk about.

- So there was Hale Woodruff,
- Charles Alston,

Richard Mayhew, Romare Bearden.

- I think Emma Amos
- Was the only woman... (SCOFFS)

They permitted into the group.

I tried to join Spiral,

and they told me no.

- Didn't you write a letter
- To Romare Bearden

- -asking to join?
- -Yes, I did. Yes, I did.

- -MICHELE WALLACE: Actually, - What he did...
- -Oh, actually...

- -...was critic your work.
- -Yeah, that's what he did.

- -MICHELE: He never responded - To the question.
- -Absolutely.

- -It's coming back to...
- -MICHELE: Basically, he said,

- "You need to go back
- To the drawing board,"

- And the final lines were
- Something like,

- "In time, your works will find
- Its own friends."

There you go, yes.

And I didn't ask them

for a critique.

I... I... I was... I had

and more.

all the credentials they had

- SARAH: The fact that
- Norman Lewis is part of it,

- For me,
- Is an important signal here.

Norman Lewis asked

a question of those gathered

at one of the meetings,

"Is there a negro image?"

is how he put it.

What is a Black aesthetic?

Is there one? Right?

The fact that Norman Lewis

for me is interesting

was asking the question

- because if you teach
- The history of modernism,

You have to teach about

Normal Lewis' work.

- He becomes a kind of metaphor
- For how difficult it is

- To engage with
- Black abstraction.

Norman Lewis was one

of the artists from Spiral.

- He was involved
- With spiritual painting.

You're not painting

on the canvas,

you're inside the canvas,

- you're inside the painting,
- Painting out.

When I met this group,

it wasn't just artists.

It was composers and writers,

and those who came

and met with this group.

And that was fantastic.

Reginald Gammon was

a... a graphic designer.

He taught Romare Bearden

how to do paste-ups,

cut out Xerox pieces

and pasting them together.

That was the first

Romare Bearden collage.

Now, the gallery saw what

Romare Bearden was doing

and they clapped and applauded

the fact that, "Oh, this is what

you should continue to do."

So he took off in that direction

and that was the beginning

of the whole collage development

that was taking place.

- The story that I've heard
- Is that Romy, um,

Brought this brown bag of scraps

to one of the meetings one day,

and he tried to get

some of the artists

interested in doing a collage.

Uh, Norman Lewis,

Emma Amos, Mayhew,

and... and he said none of them

Were really into it.

could really...

- Um, he said they all were doing
- Their own thing.

- And he didn't mean
- That pejoratively,

- He just meant
- That nobody was interested

In this collaborative work.

So Romy continued to work

on his collages.

And one of the artists

from Spiral came

and saw the work and said,

- "You know what?"
- That... it was Reginald Gammon.

- He said, "You ought to
- Photograph that and blow it up."

And so that's how he came upon

taking those small collages

and blowing them up.

And they became his projections,

which was the work that, um,

he really... really, uh...

It was a milestone for him.

DAVID: I started working on

this piece last week,

and, uh, wasn't sure as to

where I was gonna take it.

Bearden was the main

inspiration for my collage work.

And, uh,

I did a piece in... in the 70s...

after he came to visit me

at Fisk.

And I called it

Homage to... to Bearden.

And, uh, I exhibited it

in New York in 1980.

- He came to the exhibition
- And he saw it.

And, uh...

he said, uh, "I'm taken

with the notion that you

like what I do well enough

to kind of celebrate it."

He said, "But what you're

doing there is not David,

it's... it's more of Romy."

And he went over to another

piece that I had done...

(CLEARS THROAT)

- in which I had
- Torn the pieces, you know,

He cut his out a lot.

I had torn the pieces.

And he said, "Now that's...

You're using collage there,

and that's you."

He said, "That's your voice."

And, you know, only a friend

would tell you that.

- Hilton Kramer,
- Who was the art critic

For the New York Times

- has had a rather mixed review
- Of your show,

- Saying that it was not generally
- Of the highest quality.

- -Does that disappoint you?
- -No, not at all.

I expect that from

as a mainstream critic.

what one refers to

Uh, because in many cases,

these persons are not familiar

- with what we might refer to
- As a Black experience,

They never had the experience

of knowing what it was like

to, uh, suffer injustices, uh...

Knowing what it's like to live

- in the poverty that many
- Of these artists

- Have experienced,
- And consequently,

- They have no real sensitivity.
- No real feel

- For what it has taken
- For these artists

To achieve what they've, uh,

achieved at this time.

I got to throw out props to...

To David Driskell at this moment

because he got all sorts of

flak from the New York Times,

from various mainstream media.

People... People who are

supposedly authorities on art,

who did not know anything

about African American art,

and he provides this

very, very important lesson

- on looking at African American
- Art historically,

Looking at African American art

in a more complex way...

And he fought, you know,

real resistance

on the parts of institutions

- to say there is something else
- That we can show.

- There is something else
- That we can engage with

That shows a much

more complex side

of both modernism

and American art.

No one had been accustomed

to seeing Black artists,

Black historians on television

talking about Black art.

They'd say, "Black art?

- What is it?"
- Even the critics, Hilton Kramer,

Who was just so taken

with the notion

that we had the audacity

to be talking about Black art.

And my response was,

"Hilton Kramer?

Who is Hilton Kramer?"

- It wasn't an exhibition
- That was supposed

To do everything for everybody.

- It wasn't supposed
- To include everybody.

- It was supposed to be
- A cross section of work

- That had been made in
- The United States

Over the past 200...

until that time.

Over the 200 years up

The selection process

was not an easy one.

Uh, first of all, you realize

that you're gonna be

subjecting yourself to criticism

because people are gonna say,

- "Why did you leave
- Such and such a person out?"

- "Why did you choose this one
- Over that one?"

I mean you have to accept that

- when a curator does
- An exhibition sometimes,

- I mean, they... By definition,
- It's gonna be limited

- To the scope that
- The curator has imagined.

And if it doesn't include

everything I like,

- that's not particularly
- Problematic for me

- Because I expect
- That there would be

Other exhibitions to follow.

I think it was probably

the first major

modern exhibition...

uh...

which brought

the Black subject period

to the attention

of the American public.

I came up with the notion that

in order to do it properly

and to do it historically,

I ought to talk about

the fine arts tradition

- of portrait artists, and artists
- Like Joshua Johnston

From Baltimore

in the late 1700s, early 1800s.

The assumption was

that Black artists, uh...

- There were no Black artists,
- First of all,

- But those who considered
- Themselves artists

Were not capable,

intellectually or practically,

of delivering a product

that fitted the so-called

European canon.

And so when artists

like Johnston came along,

people started buying

his portraits.

- Artists like Robert Duncanson
- Came along

- And people saw the beautiful
- Landscape and said,

- "Oh, he's painting within
- The boundaries

- Of the Hudson River School
- Tradition."

- Edward Mitchell Bannister
- A little later,

And they said, "Well,

he is very much like

the Barbizon painters

out of France."

- RADCLIFFE BAILEY: Those artists
- From the past really

Influenced my work.

But I think

it's important for us,

those that are younger,

to constantly mention

and bring up the names

of those that have

opened doors before us.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- RADCLIFFE: I am an artist,
- Black artist.

African American artist.

And I am an artist

just in general.

I wanted to go to collage

and play baseball.

I wanted to play ball.

Then I realized

that that was a dream.

And, um, I went back towards

where my mother guided me.

And I ended up

going to art school.

I went to art school thinking

- that I was going to study
- Something like graphic design.

And then I heard a lecture, um,

from an artist.

And I remember...

- hearing about the artist
- Talking about his work

And he was having so much fun

that I said, "No,

I need to make... make art,

make objects."

And then I just went

full throttle towards it.

I see myself as a vessel

and things come through me.

I found an old piano shop

in my neighborhood,

and I just remember these guys

tearing out these piano keys

and throwing them away.

And it just struck me like,

"No, don't throw those away."

So I collected maybe about...

close to 500 sets of piano keys.

And, uh, I didn't know what

I was gonna do with them.

- But I remember bringing
- Them in the studio

And dropping them on the floor.

And right then and there,

that was the piece.

And, uh, the piano keys

basically turned into ocean.

- And... and I was thinking about
- The connections

Between the oceans.

- So it was a combination of that,
- Plus the experiences of me

As a kid going fishing

with my father.

- And my father would go so far
- Out into the sea

To a point where

we couldn't see land.

And it just reminded me of that

experience of being lonely,

but that's also based on those

that were lost at sea, um,

during the Middle Passage.

And the figure itself

was like a bust that is, uh...

It was like a death mask.

He loves the materials

that he's using.

And it's paint and it's glass,

and it's photographs,

- and it's bit of paper,
- And it's fabric.

And he has an ability to

bring all of those

fragments together.

It's telling a story.

It's telling us about our past.

- And it's telling us something
- About where we're going.

- Radcliffe Bailey, for me,
- Kind of represents

The wonder and joy, uh,

of an artist.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- RADCLIFFE:
- This is where I pray.

This is where I think about

the future.

I think about the past,

I ask questions.

I have to separate myself

from everyday life...

when I start working.

So I have to tune out everybody,

everyone.

Um, it's usually sometimes...

It's in the middle of the night.

It's probably around midnight.

And then I kinda come in here

when I can actually hear

nothing moving around.

I just wanna create beauty.

Oil painting is about light.

The obsession with light

is at once visual,

religious and erotic.

♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

The fact that you could take

a hairy stick and colored paste

and through the act

of your mind and your hand,

you cook something

into being that... that stands in

as a representative

of someone that you love.

A landscape that you like.

There is something al...

It's like alchemy.

This week,

of former president Barack Obama

the official portraits

- and his wife Michelle
- Were revealed.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)

To be the first

African American painter,

to paint the first

African American president

of the United States

is absolutely overwhelming.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)

I think that canvas portrait

of Obama

in the National Portrait Gallery

is, um...

it's both... it's both beautiful

and it's a challenge.

What I was always struck by,

whenever I saw his portraits...

was the degree to which

they challenged

our conventional views

of power and privilege.

- MAURICE: There's
- Something about that portrait

Which is really, um,

rich and full and exciting

- in a way that none of the other
- Portrait of presidents are.

- I... I googled portraits
- Of presidents

And there they were.

All of them.

- All of the terrible, terrible
- Portraits of presidents

And they were mostly really

and...

conservative and really boring,

And it got me thinking

about how really far

the envelope got pushed.

- I think what Kehinde understood
- Was the stakes were different.

When you have two centuries

of straight, white men

who are president,

and then you have Barack Obama,

- that portrait better
- Be different.

There were a number of issues

to negotiate, um...

that we were trying

I tried to negotiate

less grey hair.

I tried to negotiate

smaller ears.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

-BARACK OBAMA:

-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

Struck out on that as well.

I showed up in 2016

- while he was still
- In the Oval office.

Incredibly nervous.

Uh, and trying to get words out

to communicate what it is

- that I could bring
- To the picture that's new.

- That's different
- From those paintings

That you see in the museums

- and that's different
- From all the contemporary art

That you see today.

I think I must have

said something right

because I got the gig.

But ultimately, uh, what I tried

to communicate was that

I will be looking not only

at the presidency,

- or the history
- Of received power,

Or the evolution

of power's form,

but rather, I would be looking

at him as a man.

His physical presence

in the world.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)

- The first thing I did when
- I found out that...

That I was chosen

- was I'd go online and, like,
- Look at the millions of images

- Of Michelle
- And the kind of person

That she presented to the world,

and then, you know,

- wanting to capture something
- Really private.

It's about capturing that moment

- when they're giving you
- Something different,

- Or where they're a little
- More relaxed,

And that can happen

in a split second.

- BERNARD LUMPKIN: Amy Sherald
- Did not become a household name

Until she painted the portrait

Michelle Obama.

of the First Lady

Tell us how game-changing

this moment is?

I am relieved... (CHUCKLES)

that, um, I can pay back

my school loans.

You know, it's something that...

- I mean becoming an artist
- Is not empirical,

So it's not about hard work.

put the work in,

I mean, you have to

- but that doesn't mean that
- You're going to make it

- And then the breakthrough comes
- And then you're like,

- "Oh yeah, that's who I am.
- Like, this is who I am. Yeah."

With that commission...

Amy, literally inspired

by the person Michelle Obama,

creates this image which is not

only deeply Michelle Obama,

- I mean that is her...
- You know, the whole...

Her whole gesture, the whole...

The beautiful fashion.

She created such an incredible

image of a powerful,

beautiful Black woman.

It's become a...

An international symbol.

That... That... And that shows

the power of an image.

- Here's part of what
- The former First Lady,

- Michelle Obama, said at
- The unveiling of her portrait.

-Sure.

-Take a listen.

I am also thinking about

all of the young people,

uh, particularly girls

and girls of color...

who, in years ahead,

will come to this place

and they will look up

and they will see an image

of someone who looks like them

hanging on the wall

of this great

American institution.

- AMY SHERALD: I think for me,
- Little Parker Curry,

- Being captivated
- By that image of Michelle

- And seeing her
- Own greatness in it

- And being able to go
- Into a space

- And realize that
- There were people

That existed before her,

whose legacies were so great

- that they've been archived
- In this institution,

And it was a woman.

Um, for her to walk away

with that sense

of being is really important.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

AMY: I see myself as

an American realist,

which maybe some people

would disagree with.

My artistic process,

the impetus of it,

is really my life.

- I think
- The most interesting work

That is being made

has that autobiographical

affect to it.

- It's really been about writing
- A visual diary of me

Trying to figure out who I am

as a person, as an individual.

I consider the people

in my paintings archetypes.

They represent something

that's bigger

than who they are

as an individual.

It's important for me that

- they're just Black people
- Being Black.

- BERNARD:
- There is something

- Which people have written about
- In Amy Sherald's paintings,

Which is the gaze.

Her figures are often faced

with a very strong,

fixed gaze at the viewer.

And people have written a lot

about and she's talked about

- what that means
- And what's happening there.

And one of things

that's happening is

she's depicting,

or representing,

in some way, the gaze that,

you know, of the...

The white, dominant culture

has on... has on Black bodies.

- That sense of always being
- Looked at

- Through the eyes
- Of someone else.

- That sense of a doubleness
- Of identity.

Your African self.

Your American self.

- And so I think painters
- Are very interested

In representing that gaze.

- The eyes tell you
- What's in the soul and for me,

The people that I paint,

they're no longer themselves

in the painting.

They are these archetypes

that know they are present.

These aren't passive portraits.

They're maybe subversively, um,

confrontational, if you will.

But it's definitely a response

growing up

to a lot of images I saw

where our gaze

was always averted,

or thinking about the fact

that you couldn't look at

a white person in the eye.

You know, so this is my way

of nodding my head

to that narrative, and

empowering the image in a way.

- And so,
- I like the paintings, um,

Hung a little lower

for that reason,

so when the viewer walks up,

it's more of a...

- of a...
- It's a different conversation.

- Like you're not
- Looking up at it.

It's almost looking

directly at you.

And I think that creates

a different kind of sensation.

- MARY: She gives us this image
- Of a person.

And what's interesting

is that almost always,

they're not painted in, um,

their actual skin tone.

They may be kind of charcoal

or blueish.

So already, she's alerted you

to the fact that,

"I'm painting what appears to be

something that's super-real."

But in fact,

I am giving you clues

that this is just an exterior

that has been constructed

and that, in fact,

behind this exterior,

there is also this world.

- So she puts
- The exterior-interior, I think,

Into kind of a real tension

on her paintings.

- For that reason,
- I can just stand in front

Of one of her paintings for,

you know, hours. (LAUGHS)

- I think a lot of galleries
- Are now picking up Black artists

Because there is this, you know,

like, gold rush.

- I say that it's because
- We're making

Some of the best work

and the most relevant work.

- I think there is absolutely,
- Kind of,

- Something happening right now,
- But I'm also...

I always really want to

not, kind of, make this moment

seem so singular and special.

- Because I think we... There have
- Always been Black artists.

- There have always been
- Black curators.

- There have always been
- Black collectors.

They just perhaps have not been

part of the mainstream.

♪ (HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ It's me, snitches ♪

- KASSEEM DEAN: Art and music
- Are brothers and sisters.

- I got into collecting
- By accident.

Collect what you feel.

Collect what you love.

The Dean Collection is

promoting, uh, living artists.

African Americans

have to tell our own story.

The work is amazing.

- I am definitely
- Not just a collector.

I love being a disruptive.

I love activism.

Coming from the Bronx

and coming into money,

uh, very early.

- I got the bug.
- And then what I did was

I started going around, uh,

to local galleries.

Most of the galleries used to,

uh, not take me serious.

Baggy pants, braids.

But I didn't let that, um,

deter me.

♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪

- MICHELE:
- I admire Swizz Beatz and Alicia.

Because Swizz has allowed

himself to be positioned

as an African American collector

of African American art.

And he and Alicia

are about the culture.

Swizz and, um, Puff Daddy

and, uh, Jay-Z and Beyoncé

are collecting now.

Um, it really, um,

elevates the game.

- And there're a lot of people
- Who look at what they're doing

- And what...
- What is important to them.

Over the last few years...

uh, Swizz has built a collection

of Gordon Parks' photographs

- that is unequaled
- In private hands.

In fact, it is

the largest collection

of Gordon Parks photographs.

All we want to do is preserve

a piece of, uh, Gordon's legacy

for the next generation

to have access to it.

- The Dean Collection
- Started out

As this imaginary museum

for my kids.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- KASSEEM:
- And then, what happened was

I started posting artists, um,

on my Instagram

- that people weren't
- Familiar with.

And then I started getting, uh,

people writing me back saying,

"Man, I appreciate you,

thank you," this, that.

- I'm like, "No,
- Thank you for what?"

Like, "Your work is great."

"No, my show sold out.

- Galleries that wouldn't
- Talk to me are calling me now."

- Then I started understanding
- The importance

Of promoting living artists.

They used to laugh at me

for collecting art.

- I've been having fun with this
- For 20 years.

♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪

KASSEEM: The Kaws piece

and the Kehinde piece

were the two pieces

that kinda, like, started

the Dean Collection.

- Nobody ever thought that this
- Sculpture would be in a house.

This is the first time

a sculpture like this

is under a roof.

Well, this is... this is

from the Laying Down series.

- The fact that somebody's hand,
- Like the t...

A human's hand, did this,

and it looked like

he just did it yesterday.

I can't show this piece enough.

- You know, we put
- The Dean Collection museum

On our property, uh,

Can see the collection.

so the public can...

This is Hank Willis' ball.

We have artist of all colors

from all around the world.

When someone buys your work,

it's not ever really about

the money for an artist,

- it's about the vote
- Of confidence.

It's really someone saying,

"Keep doing what you're doing.

I'm making space for you

to make new things."

And what's exciting about

Karen Jenkins-Johnson,

Swizz Beatz, uh, Bernard Lumpkin

and many, many amazing

African American collectors

that I've gotten to engage

with over the years,

is that they have a...

A joy, a verve,

um, an enthusiasm for the work,

um, that really is affirming,

- that really
- Gives you confidence.

- I think
- It's absolutely necessary

That Black people with money

buy African American art.

- VALERIE:
- It's important when they see

Beyoncé and Jay-Z in The Louvre.

It's important when they know

that P. Diddy

has acquired a

Kerry James Marshall.

They see the people that they

celebrate and admire doing that,

and hopefully,

that is an imprinting.

Art is to be collected.

It is to be lived with.

It's part of a quality of life.

The collectors,

or the patrons, or supporters

of really good art, really have

to have a kind of a vision.

And have to have a kind

of a mindset that says,

"I want to engage with something

that... that may not be

universally appreciated

or loved,

but I see power in that,

I see potential in."

I'm always grateful

that people collect my work, um,

but I'm also grateful

when people give museums,

institutions, funds to bring

into public collections.

that work

Because that's the way that,

you know, I, as a young artist,

got to see the work.

Not in people's houses,

but in museums, you know.

- So I think its super important
- That Black collectors,

Or any collectors really,

think about public institutions.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- FRED WILSON:
- I go into an institution

And just absorb that place.

Uh, and for me, it's about

looking at everything

and talking to everybody.

- I look at their collections
- As much as I can,

And I talk to everybody from

the, you know, the maintenance

to the chairman of the board.

It's often not what anyone says

specifically, in...

- In conversation,
- It's what they don't say,

That gives me some, you know,

- ideas about what's going on
- In the museum

That creates the image

that the public sees.

- I'm just using the museum
- As my palette, basically.

I usually have a notebook

and I just write down things

during the period of research.

- It's, you know, things that
- I see, that I want to see again,

Objects, images.

And so, from that,

I build the exhibition.

- What you see or view
- Is one thing

But what people have

in storage...

- you know,
- Can be entirely different.

It brings up questions.

Whereas the public only sees

what is created for them

and those...

Those kind of incongruities

are all smoothed out.

And I'm seeing what's

not being discussed,

- that may not be of interest
- To the curator

Or part of their scholarship.

- It's the underbelly,
- It's what the museum... It is,

But it is not what they're...

to the public.

They're putting out

Museums now understand that they

need to tell a counternarrative

about American life

and about Black art.

They need to correct

what stories haven't been told

- through their
- Collecting practices.

Through the displays that...

- Through the exhibitions
- That they've had.

♪ (HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

KEHINDE WILEY:

In 1994, I was 17 years old

and I see Thelma Golden's

Black Male exhibition.

And it was life changing.

Here for the first time,

you're seeing Black masculinity

- not as something on television
- That's menacing,

Or at arm's length,

- but rather artists embracing it
- As the subject matter.

Another color on their palette.

It was mind blowing.

- An exhibition that
- Really tore down

- The meaning
- Of the Black body itself.

GLENN LIGON: Thelma asked me

to participate in that show

- at the Whitney.
- It was all kinds of artists

Of all races, all genders,

who were dealing with

Black muscularity

as a subject matter.

It was really, really engaged

with notions of identity,

but in a provocative way

around gender and sexuality

and race in this kind of

And fusion.

surreal melding and...

DAVID: There had been all

of this talk about

a negative aspect

of Black lifestyle,

and especially amongst men.

When an exhibition

was put together

which represented so much

of what people did not know...

about the African American male,

it was a shock.

And yet it was a revelation,

- because nothing like that
- Had been presented

In the museum before.

To show the nuances, the beauty,

the allure and loathing,

if you will,

- that comes with
- The Black male body

In particular...

was very important to put that

into the larger conversation.

- The fears
- Of otherness are so played out

Most often around this notion

of Black masculinity,

- that I think it's very important
- That in looking at it,

We understand much of what comes

to be racism or even sexism

or even the homophobia

that exists in this culture.

- MAURICE:
- I think what a lot of people

- Don't remember,
- Even folks in the art world,

Is that back in the early 90s,

it was still very difficult

to, uh, pull off a show

with African American content

at a mainstream art museum

- mostly because the curators
- In that museum

Weren't interested

- or, in the case of something
- Like Black Male,

It would engender controversy

in a very mixed audience.

It's an historical show. I mean,

you know,

it's a show that now has been,

- in hindsight considered
- Highly historical

Despite the reaction,

you know, at the time.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

There was a Lyle Ashton Harris

picture in the tutu,

which was incredibly disturbing

at the time

and alluring at once.

It... It looked at the body

as a site of strength.

It looked at masculinity

as a site of performance.

It looked at femininity

as... as an invention.

And it really threw open

this question of,

how does choice become

the central role of the artist?

I think people were shocked, um,

by just the... Maybe the boldness

and the rawness of the works.

It's speaking your truth.

It's not so much trying

to make the work stand out,

as opposed to trusting

your process, your ideas,

and your inner guidance.

- I think, in retrospect,
- People look back at Black Male,

- And realized that Thelma
- Was really on to something.

And what came out of it

was a really definitive work

on the meaning of Blackness

and maleness in visual culture.

♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪

- MAURICE: In a survey
- Of major American museums,

It was determined

that 85 percent of artists

in major American art museum

collections are white.

If you break down the number

of artists of color

in those collections,

it's 1.2 percent Black.

If the person sitting

in a curatorial meeting,

at the table

or the people sitting

at that table are all white,

you're gonna have a problem.

- You're gonna have a problem
- Of interpretation.

- You're gonna have a problem
- In terms of trying to figure out

- What you're doing
- Right or wrong,

- And most importantly,
- You're gonna have a problem

In terms of the work

you're gonna select.

- If all of the critics writing
- Are white,

The same problem exists...

until the institutions

become more diverse.

And it's happening.

You're beginning to see young

brilliant curators of color

- assume pretty important roles
- In American museums.

But until that happens

in a widespread way...

and... or until white critics

and curators and journalists

look into themselves...

research the world around them,

and look into the past

openly and honestly

until they change,

until they're open minded,

it's not gonna change

as fast as it needs to.

- I feel like it is important
- For us to own our own culture

- As African Americans,
- Because it is our culture.

And we hate the way people...

Other people tell our story.

- There's always flaws in it
- Because they didn't live in it.

Most of the...

The primary institutions,

most of the cultural

institutions have been behind.

They've been behind in film.

They've been behind in TV.

- They've been behind in
- Popular culture generally.

They've been behind in,

you know, in museums

- and sort of cultural
- Institutions.

They're simply behind.

There are more exhibitions

featuring

African American artists,

Black artists,

- whether they're
- African American or not.

Um, there are more exhibitions

featuring women.

Those are exhibitions.

They don't always translate

into acquisitions.

- I always,
- When I go around to museums

- And I see the work
- Of Black artists up,

I do this little game

where I look at the wall label

- and look at
- The acquisition dates.

And when I look at those dates,

I find in a lot of museums

that they're very recent.

So I think institutions

do have a long way to go

in terms of catching up.

Now I guarantee you

they're selling off pieces

- to get some color
- In those museums

To balance that scale.

So it is only a matter of time

that greatness, uh,

will shine through.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

- MARY:
- We love heroes.

We love celebrities.

We love "the one."

It is just part of our culture.

- It's... It's our culture
- In music.

It's our culture in visual arts.

It's our political culture.

It... You know... We just...

We just like superheroes.

RICHARD J. POWELL:

uh, in the art world

Jean Michel Basquiat emerges,

in the early 1980s.

This was a moment where

the art world was kind of...

They were kind of hungry

for something fresh,

something exciting,

something different,

something youthful.

He is also doing work

that really kind of grabs

at certain kind of notions

of the street,

and of the urban decline

that we're all experiencing

- towards the end
- Of the 20th century.

- I think he changed
- The conversation in a big way.

He just got

a lot of publicity, uh,

from being around

the right people at that time.

The meteoric rise of his career

was un... unprecedented for...

In terms of Black visual artist.

And this is also the moment

- when many of these
- Younger artists,

Um, like Glenn Ligon,

and Lorna Simpson,

- and Kara Walker are
- In art school.

And so by the time

we get to the early 1990s,

when they explode, I think

that Basquiat's legacy

and his... and the message

he sends to the art world

is something that they are

the beneficiaries of.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- MARY:
- I remember distinctly going

To the Whitney to see

a Kara Walker exhibition.

I was struck by several things.

One, she has such

an incredible mastery

of that medium

of the silhouettes.

And she has that, um,

attentiveness to her materials

and... and representation,

and the sense of space,

and design,

and dramatic scenario.

KARA WALKER:

The cut-outs I started doing

partly as an antidote

to painting.

Painting was too

readily recognized,

too quick from the hand,

too, um, gestural,

too personality-laden perhaps.

And I wanted to distance

myself from the idea

that this was me talking,

but that it was a... a kind of,

uh, a masked character talking

about masked characters.

- SARAH:
- Kara Walker is a crucible

- For the field
- Of African American art.

She's a crucible for the field

of modernism.

You know, I have

for her willingness

an enormous amount of respect

to go into that kind

of underbelly

of the neo-Confederate

narrative in American culture,

and bring it to our attention

through forms that disturb,

that command and that reshape

our understanding

about Black life

and... and white Americans

in this country.

Love the work.

Hate the work.

You have to reckon

with the work.

- If you don't,
- You're not reckoning

With the history

of this country, effectively.

VALERIE: I think

what people push against...

is a sense of irreverence

about the moment

or time and space

where Africans were enslaved.

I think they push against what

they see is the perversity...

sexual perversity,

degradation of Black bodies

or complicitness

in that perversity

that she brings to bear.

So to pull on that history

and to play upon that history

is something that she does,

much to the chagrin

of the Black community.

- KARA:
- I'm not trying to, like,

- Drop a bomb
- On the public necessarily,

- But I... sometimes I think
- The work does have that impact.

My approach initially was, um...

decidedly tongue in cheek.

Your reality, my reality.

My fantasy, my fear,

my humanity, my clownishness,

all of that has to kind

of come to bear.

- There's all these
- Narrative tropes,

Stereotypes, mythologies

that we live with.

Some are very overt.

Some are parading around

in broad daylight.

Some are unconscious fantasies,

fears, wishes,

loathings, uh, anxieties.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

KARA: In 2013, I was approached

to do a public art project

in the Domino Sugar factory.

This old, derelict plant

on the waterfront.

It was a good collaboration,

- and the best kind
- Of collaboration is the kind

Where an organization says,

"We really wanna support

what artists do.

What do you wanna do?"

- And you say, "I want
- To build a 40-foot sphinx...

Made out of sugar."

- The scale was determined
- By the space.

The sphinx became a...

A kind of monumental marker.

- It was such a new way of working
- And collaborating

And working with the team

and working three-dimensionally.

I'm always interested

in the challenge of working, uh,

in, sort of, public space

and the challenge being

new audiences for the work.

I wanted to create

a compelling space to enter.

- I got a longer historical lens
- To view sugar production

- That enslaved African people
- Who were commodified

And then segregated, excluded,

oppressed, destroyed.

It brings a lot of feeling

forward.

I think that my approach in

making art doesn't involve, um...

- Or doesn't actually know
- What the rules are

Of what can and can't be said.

"She hasn't paid her dues."

"She doesn't know her history."

"She's selling us downriver."

Um, I mean, those are just

phrases I heard.

"She must hate Black people

as much as she hates herself."

The experience of white America

and Black America

is very different.

- Because white America very often
- Will look at this

- And find it incredibly
- Entertaining.

And Black America will look

at it and... and almost, uh,

cringe at the pain

that's being depicted.

And... And that's,

in and of itself, very telling.

I think there is something

about the Black community

that feels we have ownership

of these stories

because they come out of us.

They come through us.

They're about us.

But again, we're not

a monolith either.

And for, um, moments where

there were enslaved Africans,

there were also freed Africans.

We're a composite

coming together.

of many different histories

So, to say that

this is a monolithic reaction...

to artwork, I think, is,

at best, skewed.

And then to say that

that relationship

of how people react

should only be cast in white,

which is not a monolith,

and black,

which is not a monolith,

is also a bit skewed.

- DAVID:
- There are those who feel that

Kara represents certain aspects

of our history that is being

negatively portrayed in her art.

Be that as it may,

you can't say to an artist,

"You have the freedom

to do whatever you want to,

however, you can't do

such-and-such a thing.

I won't let you do this.

I won't let you do that."

Either you have the freedom

to do it or you don't.

- She put herself out there,
- Or her work was put out there,

When she was very young.

It was very hard to digest.

Everybody attacked her,

and then some people

totally embraced her.

- It must have been
- Very confusing.

- But she stayed with her program,
- And she's still on her program,

- And, to me,
- That's a huge inspiration.

It's not always about being

appreciated and liked.

Sometimes it's being about,

you know, about being reviled

and, um, criticized.

But it's that activity that

makes the art important.

And I think she's shown

extreme courage and, um...

strength in doing her work.

So, to me, that's inspirational.

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- CARRIE MAE WEEMS:
- When I came to New York

In the 60s, I was very young.

I was moving between

San Francisco and New York.

And I discovered

the Studio Museum fairly early.

- Everything happened there.
- It was like... It was a...

It was a focal point for anybody

that was interested in culture.

And so I became, sort of,

instantly a part

- of that group
- And wanted to be

A part of that...

That group of... of intellectuals

and artists asking questions

about the moment

in which we lived.

- Shortly after leaving Yale,
- I was accepted to become

- The artist in residence
- At the Studio Museum in Harlem,

- Which came as a great shock
- To me.

- Uh, principally because it's one
- Of the most desired

- Artist in residencies
- In the world.

- There's a stamp of approval
- That comes

From having the artist

in residency

at the Studio Museum.

For Black art to thrive,

it's always required spaces,

fellowship, community.

- The Studio Museum
- Has provided that

When really no other

institution did.

- JORDAN:
- Knowing all the people

- Who had come through
- The Studio Museum

In Harlem program,

being a part of that space,

that is clearly... There's magic

that must exist there.

Uh, knowing what that magic was,

- was something I wanted
- To be a part of.

I knew that

that was a moment of real,

potential change in my life.

♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JORDAN: This is a painting that

I am working on currently.

I spend time looking at

the image and really trying

to parse out from it

an emotion or sense of feeling

that I think is going to be the

aura of the painting as a whole.

I'm pulling colors that

I think are most vibrant

- or most important
- That I want to make sure

That I include in the painting.

As it comes to life,

I get really excited.

I always start with their faces

and their eyes.

Um, it's an opportunity

to really connect with them.

- And then I can make
- Everything else happen

Once I've done that.

- BERNARD: I mean,
- What can I say about Jordan?

She's amazing.

- You know,
- She is working in the tradition

Of African American portraiture.

- You know,
- In a realist tradition.

But she's bringing to it

her own unique perspective

as a woman and, I think,

as a young person also,

depicting young people today

in their everyday realities

in... in their everyday lives.

- JORDAN:
- I made the decision

To explicitly represent

Black men and boys,

in an effort to push

against the narratives

that I felt were

kind of dominating

the public sphere at that time.

And my, um, initial decision

in representing them nude

was featuring Black men, um,

centered in their homes,

- trying to capture them
- In their most vulnerable

And intimate spaces.

♪ (FUNKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- JORDAN:
- I wanted to treat the Black body

With, um, as much care

and attention as possible.

When I started to decide

- that I wanted
- To make these paintings,

The scale was really important.

- I wanted them to feel like they
- Could step out of the canvas

And be participants

in our day-to-day lives.

♪ (FUNKY MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

- JORDAN: I also wanted them
- To feel like they're pushing

Against the confines

of the canvas itself.

When I was a resident at

the Studio Museum in Harlem,

I had the opportunity to have

a studio visit with Thelma.

And she came into my studio

and she, uh, made a comment

that my work reminded her

of landscape painting.

And I remember thinking that

that felt very far fetched

- and... and distant
- From what it was

That I was identifying

around this work.

- It was like,
- "I'm a portrait painter,"

Was probably how I was, um,

recognizing myself.

- And the fact that
- She said landscape

Really resonated over time,

- specifically thinking about
- The landscape

In the full breadth of

the environment that we occupy,

- and the spaces
- That we move throughout.

- I look at my body of work
- And I see

A scrapbook of my life,

that there are various

moments in time

- where I've been somewhere
- And met someone

And then they've been invited

to participate in my practice.

Being at the Studio Museum

in Harlem brought me home.

All the resources

within that institution

would be at my fingertips,

and the prospect of that

I knew was immense.

There's an oasis for me there,

- and a place
- To always go back to.

- There is a real community
- Of people who care about me,

Still, and are invested in me.

And that investment

can take you, you know,

- beyond anything
- You ever imagine,

When other people believe in you

from the beginning.

SARAH:

The Studio Museum has created

- this extraordinary program,
- Called

The Artist in Residency Program.

It gives artists studio space,

time, a community

- an exhibition of their work
- At the end.

Mentorship along the way.

From that, we have some of our...

What you might call

"art stars" today.

- KERRY:
- I was an artist in residence

At Studio Museum in 1985.

You can understand

from experience,

the value of places like that

for creating what people

understand to be community.

- So it's the place
- Where you can go

And if you wanna meet people

who are in the art world,

you can only meet them

at The Studio Museum.

That matters.

- I mean, it matters that there's
- A place you can go and do that.

- And it mattered,
- That there was a place

- That was run by Black folks,
- That was owned by Black folks

In which a whole lot of people

- who came through there
- Were all Black folks.

- That all still...
- That mattered too... (CHUCKLES)

You know, it mattered.

The Studio Museum had always

been a beacon.

It was one of the places that

appreciated and showcased

our work at a very,

very early point

in the conversation.

And I was very honored

to be invited to New York City

as a Studio Museum

in Harlem resident.

That's how I moved

to New York City.

The people who funded the arts

and who supported the arts,

some of them thought that what

we were doing was laughable.

Why do you need

a Black fine-arts museum?

You have MoMA, you have Met,

you have the Guggenheim.

You know, why do...

Why do you even need a museum?

So the fact that people

were asking that question

was a clear evidence that

we really did need that museum.

- I am still at the Studio Museum.
- (LAUGHS)

I mean,

assuming the Studio Museum is...

is still the focal point

of, uh, African American

culture production

and artistic production

in the country

if not... on the planet.

It is one of the most

important institutions

that we... that we have.

And what Thelma, uh,

is doing there, um...

What she's done there.

Uh, the way she's led

the organization

into the 21st century is

absolutely extraordinary

and, uh, and really important.

♪ (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- DAVID: I don't see
- The Studio Museum

As the only place for funneling

Black talent

into the mainstream,

- if there is such a thing
- As the mainstream.

I think it's one

of the major places.

- I think Black colleges
- And universities

Still play an important role

in that kind of definition of

who one becomes as an artist.

- Without the work of historically
- Black colleges and universities,

We wouldn't have a repository

of African American art

that we could draw from.

- DAVID:
- The HBCUs have not been given

The credit that they are due.

When nobody else was out there

championing in these artists,

HBCUs were there claiming them,

showcasing them,

putting them up on the wall,

teaching about them.

- RUJEKO HOCKLEY:
- When we think of Clark Atlanta,

When we think of Spelman,

- when we think
- Of Fisk University,

When we think of Howard,

- these are all spaces in which
- Black artists and Black art

- Has flourished for, you know,
- Hundreds of years.

They were the patrons

of African American artists.

So that's why these institutions

- now have some
- Of the most important works

By those, uh, kind of

important historical figures.

- I think one of the most exciting
- Things about

- The progression of contemporary
- African American art

- And the artists that are working
- Today inheriting that tradition

Is that they said,

"Hey, you know what?

My artistic forebearers,

- as it were,
- Have paved the way for me

To make work of a whole

different range of topics

- in a whole different
- Kind of way."

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

THEASTER GATES:

Being a clay guy

isn't about a tea bowl

or a tea pot.

It's about having a sense

that a thing

that is under-fashioned...

lesser understood, unbuilt...

dirt, that with skill

and a knowledge of form...

one could then take this stuff

- and turn it into
- Something useful.

And that the only limitation

between dirt

becoming a useful form,

or just dirt, is ability.

And so, this idea that we could

be, uh, active participants

in the reshaping of nothingness

is super important to me.

And that the actors,

the makers of the 60s and 70s,

were all too aware of the truth

of the complexity

of nothingness.

♪ (MUSIC STOPS) ♪

When I was an undergrad

studying ceramics,

I was studying all the greats.

There were, like,

all these amazing makers.

None of them looked like me.

I, like, read and read

and found the story

of Dave Drake.

And I just thought,

"Finally, uh,

an individual in the history

of American making

that I can root myself in."

And so I... I remember

trying to embody Dave.

- SARAH: Dave Drake was one
- Of the most proficient potters

In the United States at the time

in which he was making his work.

And he was subversive

with his practice.

He would inscribe, at a time

when it was, you know, illegal

for a slave to know how to read,

he would inscribe messages

on these pots

to declare his own mastery.

And he was a master.

An artistic master.

David Drake was in Two Centuries

of Black American Art.

- And what it also reminds us
- Is that

The arts were a way

to exert power,

even in a moment of slavery,

you know?

This is an artist

what the term master meant.

who even defied

He was a master at his craft.

Introducing Dave's story would

mean there was a...

There was a name that people

didn't know from the past.

- And that by bringing him up,
- Maybe it wouldn't mean

Anything to anyone,

but I at least had

a Black potter

that I could identify with.

It was the beginning of a kind

of hopefulness within Blackness

that I could be myself

in this craft

and know that there were some

part of it that had a legacy.

When I was only making pots,

when I was just working in clay,

I reached a point

in the material

- where they were other things
- I wanted to say

- And... and they couldn't be done
- Through the material.

So I graduated, if you will,

into using whatever.

So I went from being a potter

to being a conceptualist.

It didn't matter what

the material was, I was open.

But I needed the right material

to tell the right story.

Here is one of the earliest

civil rights tapestries.

It's basically, uh,

um, fire hoses

that had been discontinued,

um, sewn together and framed.

And this body of work grew

out of me

- starting to have
- A conversation about

The history of protests

and the use of the fire hose

in places like Selma

and Birmingham.

Then there were moments

where the material form...

The material world couldn't

say certain things for me.

Then I was back to

the first route,

which was the immaterial form,

the spiritual form.

And that's when voice

became super important.

-Speech acts, choirs, music.

-♪ (SINGERS VOCALIZING) ♪

(SINGING) ♪ Oh, I wanna

Cross the ocean of illusion ♪

♪ (SINGERS VOCALIZING) ♪

- THEASTER:
- Sound had its own material form.

Its own ability

to transform space.

- Its own ability to resurrect
- The soul

- And that... that there
- Was something that I didn't want

To leave behind in the story

of my people...

that I felt music could do

in a way that some of

these objects couldn't.

He sings.

And to a certain extent,

he preaches.

He had that whole vernacular

of understanding the definition

of what Black culture is about.

Here's an artist

who studied ceramics,

but also studied urban planning.

So utilizing his artwork

to really expand...

expand modes

of how one produces,

how art could spearhead

economic vitalization.

Theaster Gates is...

Is one of the beacons

of this kind of change.

He has done this through

The Rebuild Foundation,

with his actual spaces.

- He has done this through
- The creation

Of the Black Artist Retreat.

- He's done it through
- His own practice,

His own art making practice,

- and he has done it through
- The fellowship

- That he offers and provides
- To other artists.

Going to a Black artist, uh,

retreat in Chicago

was the first time

I was ever able to meet

my contemporaries.

Um, because I didn't

live in New York,

so I wasn't going to openings.

And it was

a magnificent experience.

It was, um...

- I mean, I think we all left
- There changed and invigorated,

And we all support each other.

You can get people involved

in art on many, many levels,

knowing that art plays

a significant role

in the wholeness of life,

not just one aspect of it.

You don't have to go to

the museum to see it.

You can be part of it

in your own community.

He has really revolutionized

the whole concept of art

- more than any other artist
- I know.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Are you a artist?

Yes, I'm the artist

who made these pictures.

- You can see, of course,
- That I was greatly influenced

By Romare Bearden.

Enamored by his work.

-I wanted to integrate

-VIEWER: Mm-hmm.

the painting...

And make

the painting primary.

♪ (PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

DAVID: I devoted my life

to teaching,

through collecting,

through curating.

But I saw the need

to participate

in the cultural awareness,

helping to revise

and redefine American art.

- In my opinion, David Driskell's
- Presence in the art world

Is... is the significance of him

sending the elevator back down.

He was a trailblazer for...

For all of us.

- And when there were
- No Black voices

In the art world,

um, for him to assert himself

in the way that he did,

- helped move us forward, um,
- During a time when we were

Still fighting for space

in museums and, um,

and in galleries.

- You know, traditionally,
- There was a moment

When, you know, there were not

many images or representations

of African Americans in

paintings, in the visual arts,

in our collective

visual culture.

And now, thanks to

Two Centuries of Black Art,

the world was given

these amazing portrayals

and images about Black culture.

And they became seared

in the collective imagination.

And I think we... we're part

of a continued renaissance.

It's been happening.

What I'm most excited about

is...

do we have the capacity

to be great makers

in the absence of light?

And if Blackness

has something to do

with the absence of light...

does Black art mean

that sometimes I'm making

when no one is looking?

And for the most part,

that has been the truth

of our lives.

Is there a light? Yes.

But until we own the light,

I'm not happy.

Until we're in our own houses

of exhibition, of discovery,

of research.

Until we've figured out a way

to be masters of the world,

then I'd rather work

in darkness.

I'd rather work in darkness,

because at least I know

that I'm working.

That I'm... That...

I don't want to work

only when the light comes on.

And my... my fear,

- is that we're being trained
- And conditioned

To only make

if there is a light.

- And that makes us
- Co-dependent upon a thing

That we don't control.

Are you willing to make

in the absence of light?

There has been an awakening,

an awareness.

But that's enlightenment

through education,

through desire...

to want, to know,

to improve.

- And I think
- A lot of that's going on.

On the other hand, in the words

of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

"We haven't reached

the promised land.

We've got a long way to go."

♪ (JAZZ MUSIC FADES) ♪

♪ (RHYTHMIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪