#african american artist

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Charles Ethan Porter (1847-1923) "Autumn Landscape" (1890-1891) Oil on canvas Located in the SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia

[the-cricket-chirps]

Faith Ringgold

Mama Can Sing

2004

Silkscreen

[the-first-man-is-a-cat]

Self-Portrait (Malvin Gray Johnson, 1934)

[art-portraits]

Self-Portrait

Artist: Archibald John Motley Jr. (American, 1891–1981)

Date: c. 1920

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Description

Chicagoan Archibald Motley attended the School of the Art Institute at a time when many prominent art academies denied entrance to African American students. His affiliation with the school was thus of great significance to him. Around 1920, as a recent graduate, he painted a self-portrait meant to introduce him as a poised young artist, elegantly presenting himself in a dark suit jacket, crisp white shirt, and a dark tie accented by a diamond horseshoe pin. Furthermore, Motley painted this work following race riots in July 1919, which had heightened tensions in Chicago. The violence convinced him that he should use his art to influence perceptions of African Americans in a positive manner. This sophisticated self-portrait is thus an extraordinary declaration of his goals and ambitions.

[canvasmirror]

Loïs Mailou Jones (American, 1905–1998) • Self-Portrait • 1940 • Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., United States

[jadeseadragon]

Kehinde Wiley (Nigerian-American, b.1977), Portrait of Melissa Thompson (detail), 2020, oil on linen.

Ms. Thompson in front of her portrait.

[fashionlandscapeblog]

Charles White

Two Alone, 1946

Oil on board.

[scarlett-bitch69]

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A post shared by Maya Purdie | Artist (@mayapurdiee)

[nancydrewwouldnever]

Clementine Hunter, Melrose Quilt, ca. 1960, textiles (Smithsonian Institute American Art Museum, Washington D.C.)

Clementine Hunter was born on a Louisiana plantation where her grandparents had been slaves. When she was twelve, her family moved to Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches Parish to work as sharecroppers. Clementine worked as a field hand, cook, and housekeeper. The Henry family bought Melrose in 1884; they restored architectural structures on the property and moved historic log cabins from the area onto the property. When John Hampton Henry died, his wife Cammie made Melrose a retreat for visiting artists. Hunter’s exposure to artists and some leftover paints led her to own artistry. She painted quotidian stories she felt historians overlooked—primarily the activities of the black workers. She also made pictorial quilts. This one depicts several notable buildings at Melrose, including the Big House, Yucca House, and African House, in which Hunter painted a now-historic mural of plantation life in 1955.

[oilpalette]

Preserved from the Flood III, 2022

Tajh Rust - American, b. 1989

oil & acrylic on canvas, 62" x 48"

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) "The Young Sabot Maker" (1895) Oil on canvas Located in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, United States The painting depicts an older man proudly watching a boy push with his weight against the crossbar handle of an auger to carve a sabot, or wooden shoe.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Faith Ringgold, Coming to Jones Road #4: Under a Blood Red Sky

2000

Acrylic on canvas with fabric borders

[the-first-man-is-a-cat]

Harriet Powers, Pictorial Quilt, 1895, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

[sassafrasmoonshine]

Let the Children March • Frank Morrison, illustrator • (American, b. 1971) • Author, Monica Clark-Robinson • Clarion Books, publisher • 2018

In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, thousands of African American children volunteered to march for their rights after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak. They protested the laws that kept black people separate from white people. Facing fear, hate, and danger, these children used their voices to change the world.

[artblg2000]

ARCMANORO NILES

Got So Far from My Raising I Forgot Where / Come From (Spent My Youth among the Pines), 2023

oil, acrylic, and glitter on canvas

[leftoverlondoner]

I hadn’t come across the work of Renee Stout before a visit to the Washington Museum Of Art at the weekend. This is ‘Burn for Love’, 2000, and I like it.