An important new exhibition traces the life and work of Thomas W. Commeraw, free Black potter of early New York.
In the galleries: Winfred Rembert
The art of a self-taught giant is on view at Hauser and Wirth.
Absent minded
It’s only late summer, but I believe we can already declare an award for bravest museum of the year: the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, DC.
The world of Bill Traylor
A sweeping retrospective at the Smithsonian examines the life and work of one of the most remarkable figures in American art
Take the 3 train (or the 2)
On 135th Street in Harlem, one of New York’s most remarkable public art collections can be seen and studied at the Schomburg Center.
Black dolls
Dolls are the only toys made in our image, the only human-like creatures children are given dominion over.
An appreciation of Henry Ossawa Tanner
September 2009 | Within nine years of moving abroad, Henry Ossawa Tanner, America’s first major African American artist, had become an international success. By 1900 he ranked among the leading American artists in Paris and was widely considered the premier biblical painter of his day. Exhibiting regularly at the Paris Salon, he was attracting even greater critical acclaim than Thomas …
Endnotes: African American schoolgirl embroidery
“Amy is a treasure,” Linda Eaton, curator of textiles at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, said to me referring to Amy Finkel, the Philadelphia needlework dealer, who recently brought a rare Berlin work picture stitched by a black American schoolgirl to her attention. Knowing that Eaton has long felt that Winterthur’s collection does not adequately represent the cultural diversity that …