In 1998, Jack Whitten wrote thirty-two practice goals in his personal journal, including “6. This painting is not an illustration of anything.” and “8. Let paint take care of the black stuff as a material.” These meditations, while initially intended to tell Whitten only what he did, have become a touchstone for countless others. They also accurately describe the exhibition “Neuros” at the Atlanta University Museum of Art.
Whitten, although not included in the exhibition, is a suitable starting point in the exhibition that considers the exhibition display, which shows the black abstract painters who began with the rise of abstract expressionism in the 1950s. The movement represents an art history milestone: the first art movement that originated only in the United States. It is no surprise that, like most normative art history movements, abstract expressionism is largely practiced by means-based white people who are continuing the work of other modernist movements, such as surrealism and supremacy, and explore the “pure” aesthetic qualities of art and its ability to record unconscious thoughts. Whitten and other black artists like him, such as Howarden Pindell and Sam Gilliam, are responding to different things.
See also: Shana Hoehn
Social realism was part of the workforce-related movement in the 1930s and 1940s, trying to record and elevate the working class, in response to the horrors of the First World War. Many of the working class and many who died in the war are people of color, as are practitioners of the art movement. Although social realism has nurtured art stars like Elizabeth Catlett and Faith Ringgold, its limitations on identity suffocated artists like Whitten, prompting them to abandon recognizable images altogether and explore non-target abstractions. From this moment on, it appears in the “inner”.
Felrath Hines Representative Aerial landscape (1957), a cluster of brown black men, ochres, red and emerald green green and blue green green green, green and blue brushed texture bands induce a landscape with a blurred, bodiless entity. Joe Overstreet is here Untitled (1957), irregularly sewn canvas artwork. Two triangles and a trapezoidal shape blend and coated with thin orange, warm purple and emerald powder – free-flowing paint wash and juxtaposition of rigid geometric shapes. David Hammons in Borrowed (1999), a picture hanging rack inside a light dusty rectangle was painted directly on the museum wall. Where did this work of art go and that would cause it to leave the shabby place? The most grandest thing is that Sam Gilliam represents Untitled (1971), a freely hanging cotton painting. Hanging in two ropes in the gallery, causing the cotton to swing between the two, with spots and washes of superamine, carmine, honey and turquoise.
These abstract explorations persist, as seen in Whitten's Journal's work, and until the 1990s and 2000s, many artists who worked in this way remained powerful players in the contemporary art world – that is, the black abstraction in America far surpassed its eclipse, abstract expressionism. The power of this exhibition is in rejection – both focus on the limitations of black abstractists rejecting social realism and the limitations of Jackson Pollock and his Jackson Pollock and his Jackson Pollock. “Inner” shows that black artists show as much scope as their more acclaimed white counterparts and that their practices have more lasting power.
Additionally, the Clark Atlanta Art Museum has a broad understanding of art history: If these artists have worked in this way for 70 years, why are they not adopted into the art history canon? It is obviously time to reevaluate, a space that can clear away the dual movement of adopting black abstraction as abstract expressionism. After all, what better to be a nationwide person than self-determination?
“heartUntil May 2, it will be held at the University of Atlanta Art Museum.
