SOUTHERN BLACK AESTHETIC JUL 1 ^ Southeastern Center For Contemporary Art ThiscataloguewaspublishedbytheSoutheasternCenterforContemporaryArt(SECCA),Winston-Salem, NorthCarolina,inconjunctionwiththeNEXTGENERATION:SOUTHERNBLACKAESTHETICexhibitionwhichwas organizedbySECCA. FundingforNEXTGENERATION:SOUTHERNBLACKAESTHETICwasgenerouslyprovidedbytheNational EndowmentfortheArts,theLyndhurstFoundation,theMetropolitanLifeFoundationandtheMaryReynolds BabcockFoundation.ThisprojectwasalsosupportedbyfundsfromTheUnitedArtsFundDrive,Winston-Salem andfromtheGrassrootsArtsProgramoftheNorthCarolinaArtsCouncil,astateagency. Copyright 1990SoutheasternCenterforContemporaryArt Allrightsreserved. TheTripleNegationofColoredWomenArtists, ©AdrianPiper,April 1990 LibraryofCongressCatalogueCardNumber;90-70273 ISBN:0-0878-4301-6 Price:$29.95 DistributedbytheUniversityofNorthCarolinaPressfortheSoutheasternCenterforContemporaryArt. Cataloguedesign:VickiKopf/SECCA Editors:DennisSzakacs,VickiKopf/SECCA Printedby:WinstonPrintingCompany,Winston-Salem,N.C. Cover:YorubabeadworkfromNigeria.CourtesyofJamesLankton.Art&ArtifactofWestEndGallery, Winston-Salem, NorthCarolina. Photocredits:cover,pp. 12,40,41,54, 58, 59,60,61,62,69, 73,91,92,94,96,98,99, 100, 106,Jackson Smith;pp.63,64,65,66,67,68,87,88,89,90,LindaSmith;pp.95,97, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116,JarvisGrant; pp. 101, 102, 103, 104,KanjiTakeno;pp 105, 107,JohnDean. SOUTHERN BLACK AESTHETIC TERRYADKINS TARLETON BLACKWELL HAWKINS BOLDEN BEVERLY BUCHANAN ARLENE BURKE-MORGAN ALLEN CARTER D. GREGORY HENRY A. LONNIE HOLLEY MARTHA JACKSON-JARVIS MICHAEL JONES RON LEE JESSE LOTT ED LOVE TOM MILLER CLARENCE MORGAN WINNER. OWENS-HART JOHN T SCOTT JOYCE SCOTT J. ONAJIDE SHABAKA DENISE WARD-BROWN PAT WARD WILLIAMS EXHIBITION ITINERARY Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art Winston-Salem, North Carolina May5 -July 15, 1990 Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art UniversityofFlorida Gainesville, Florida February24 -April21, 1991 Hunter Museum of Art Chattanooga, Tennessee July 14 - September22, 1991 Contemporary Arts Center NewOrleans, Louisiana November, 1991 -January, 1992 Orlando Museum of Art Orlando, Florida March 22 - May 1992 3, CONTENTS Foreword 6 Essays 7 On Notions oftheDecade, African-AmericansandttieArt World byLoweryS. Sims 8 The Triple Negation ofColored WomenArtists byAdrian Piper 15 Panels 23 Shades ofGreyin the BlackAesthetic 24 In OurOwn Voices 31 Exhibition 37 TerryAdkins 38 Tarleton Blackwell 42 Hawkins Bolden 47 BeverlyBuchanan 51 ArleneBurke-Morgan 58 Allen D. Carter 61 GregoryA. Henry 63 Lonnie Holley 69 MarthaJackson-Jarvis 73 MichaelJones 74 Ron Lee 76 JesseLott 83 EdLove 86 Tom Miller 87 Clarence Morgan 91 Winnie R. Owens-Hart 95 John T Scott 98 JoyceJ Scott 101 OnajideShabaka 108 Denise Ward-Brown 112 Pat Ward Williams 117 Exhibition Checklist 121 Artist Biographies 127 Artist Interviews 151 Acknowledgements 163 FOREWORD As this catalogue goes to press, our nation's artists and the National Endowmentforthe Arts are under siege. For over a year now, powerful divisive elements havefocusedtheir considerable resourcestoward destroyingthe NEA and censoringthevoice ofAmerican art. Theirwell-funded attacks have been especially nasty, notto mention consciously misleading. Hardlythe spiritofthe Sermon on the Mount. I don'tthinkit'scoincidentalthatsuchattacksarecomingatatimeinAmerican historywhen our"minority" populationsare becomingthe demographic majority in many urban areas. To some, nothing could be more threatening; toothers, nothingcould be more beneficial toAmerican culture. This isthe real battle line. Asa people, our vitality and freshness is a direct resultofourabilityto embrace cultural differences. Exploiting differencesand repressing diversity ofthought cripples our national consciousness and extinguishesthe uniquely American spark. The African-American artists in this exhibition are by no means strangersto such issues. They have all experienced the numbness of exclusion, and the "artistic apartheid" they've mentioned in conversations and interviews isshamefullyreal. Intheirexhibitions, collections, andsales, American museums, artcenters, commercial galleries, and corporations have continually failed to adequately representthe contributions these artists make to our culture. And yet, things seemed to be improving until the currentwave of bigotry hitfifteen second sound-bites and photo-ops. Theartists in thisexhibition, and many more likethem, standtosufferthe mostin such a climate. TheconceptofNextGenerationwasdevelopedfouryearsago. Wewenttothe"field," askingartists, curators, teachers, and critics from throughoutthe South to recommend artistsforthe exhibition. Over 200 names were submitted. SECCA then invited Dr Lowery Stokes Sims, associate curatorof 20th century artatthe Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York, to curate NextGeneration. From the beginning, the projectwas intended to address serious concerns. Thiswas notto bejustanother group show, which became clearly apparent as Dr Sims began to fine tune her curatorial selections. In conjunction, SECCA's Director of Education developed a three month long series of interlocking lectures, panels, performances, and concerts designed to advance the awareness ofAfrican-American culture. As we enter a new decade and look toward the coming millennium, there's no doubtthatthe voice ofthis generation of black artists should play a major role in defining howwe see the world and howthe world sees America. Taken together, the strength, dedication, and confidence demonstrated bythese exceptional artists generates an energythat cannot be denied. The work has POWER. Ted Potter SECCA Director 0 Digitized by the Internet Archive 2015 in https://archive.org/details/nextgenerationsoOOsout 7 ON NOTIONS OF THE DECADE, AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THEART WORLD Decade-itis is a fatal diseasethat afflicts self-appointed seers and soothsayers, particularly in ourcon- temporaryworld. The audacity with which we presumeto dismissthe past in one clean sweep and predictthe future is amusing, particularly given the legendaryfate of prophets. We approached the 1980s anticipating the end as predicted by Nostradamusoratleasttheadventofa totalitarian future described byAldous Huxley The end, however, did not come, and totalitarianism is being overthrown virtually everywhere. Butdespite a promisingendtothe decade, the realities ofthe 1980s eclipsedthe horrors our literary sources programmed us to expect. AIDS, environmental malaise, political disequilibrium, moral and ethical challenges, and the prospectofa truly global existence in lieu of petty tribal rivalryarefar greaterchallengesthan those foreseen by early 20th century seers. This decade is positioned asthe interim between the 1980s andthe new millennium. It may proveto be a useful transition period in the long run, butforthe moment it is quite simply a largely unaccountedforspan oftimeduringwhichanythingispossible. Curiouslythere havebeen nosweepingpredictions intheartworld. Itisasifpeopleareafraidtoask. Whatiscertain isthatthefinancial componentoftheartbusiness hasetched an aura ofunprecedented self-consciousness intothe psyche ofthe artworld. Whetherwe pretendto remain alooforseekto become a high roller, the high stakesofthe market have irrevocably changed thewaywe do any kind of transaction, be it exhibition, sa—le, studio visit, auction, or pu—blication. In this light, presenting a group ofAfrican-American artistswhowe the initial nominatorsand I feel will cometo prominence inthis decade is no trivial task. Whether itwill result in substantial changes in fortunes forthese individuals, who have as a groupfoughtan uphill battle duringthe last200years, (and particularlythe lasttwo decadesforfull participation in the artworld) remainsto be seen. I'vespentalotoftimethroughoutthepreviousdecadeattemptingtomakesomesenseofthings,particularly how and where women and so-called "minority" artists fit in. Atthe outsetofthe 1980sthe artworld caught upwiththe idea ofaccommodatingcontentand a more pluralistic attitude. Given thefactthatthese had been the concerns ofartists ofcolor, ittherefore seemed thatthe 1980s would betheirdecade. However, there is still resistanceto affordingthese individualsfull recognition within the definition ofAmerican culture. It has been hard to ignorethem totally however, since they had persevered through the political skirmishes ofthe 1960s and 1970s. Some tokenistic gestureswere madeto includethese artistswhen itseemed politically expedient. AnothertacticwastoadmittheseforcesintotheartworldasagentsofadeconstructionofAmerican bourgeois society They wereto be utilized to define "difference," "the other" in this society, relegatedto a marginal positionwithintheAmericancultural current. Butthis intellectualapproach,whilefashionable, denied theintegral rolethatpeoplesofcolorhaveplayed inthedefinitionofAmericancultureandsociety. Theaesthetics — ofAfrican, Asian, Native and Latin Americanswere still seen asoutsidethe mainstream's interest a posture that also denied their central involvement with postmodernist ideas. This occurred at the same time that "appropriation"accommodatedthe"borrowing"of"ethnic"contentfromthesecommunitiestofeedthelatest spiritualandcreativemalaiseoftheartestablishment. Theend resultisa debateabouttheultimatedefinition ofAmerican culture and societythatwill continue into the 1990s. The presence ofAfrican-American artists will be an integral partofthis determination. In the meanwhile artistic careers continue to mature regardless ofcriticism, the market, public relations, exhibitions, and collecting. TheAfrican-American artistsassembledatthe starting line in 1990will runthe race quitedifferentlythan theircolleaguesdid in 1960, 1970, oreven 1980. Iffullacceptance intheartworld remainstobeattained,their presence has at least become habitual. It is difficult for people to claim they do not know any black artists working in America today This generation also entersthe arena with an awareness ofthe nuancesand impli-