Pour out a little liquor and reminisce
Quotes and Black Art | Thursdaysº
Quotes and Black Art
Your Curated Art Museum
“Come for the art, stay for the quotes.”
“I nodded. There were many suggestions. Everyone wanted to make me better, but we couldn’t even name the problem.”
— Victor LaValle, The Ecstatic
A Snippet:
Did you know that many of Victor LaValle’s fictional characters battle mental health challenges within his works?
As the author has stated, “Mental illness has absolutely been one of the fundamental concerns of my early work . . . but even more so because I’ve got a few generations of family members who’ve dealt with clinical issues of mental illness and so, inevitably, it’s become a part of my world view.”
Learn more . . .
13. “Woman in Yellow Dress” (1959)
“In the fine arts field, the mountain is not coming to Mohammed . . . Many a Black Daniel Boone is clearing rugged terrain and thick swamps and jagged cliff-sides with palette and brush.”
— Joseph Delaney
Did you know?
Did you know that Joseph Delaney (1904 – 1991), the younger brother of Beauford Delaney, was an African-American artist who became a part of the New York art scene at the time of the Harlem Renaissance, but unlike his brother [who moved to Paris], Joseph remained in America, studying art in Thomas Hart Benton’s class at the Art Students League?
Throughout Joseph Delaney’s life, he was deeply committed to opposing racial discrimination, and panoramic crowd scenes (like Penn Station at War Time) reveal Delaney’s concern for the lives of common folk.
14. “Brownstones” (1958)
“I would definitely say that I think any experience that evolves because of your ethnic background, and especially pertaining to the Negro it’s been such a special kind of experience, I think it definitely has added a different kind of dimension than, say, another artist would have.”
— Jacob Lawrence
Did you know?
Did you know that Jacob Lawrence (1917 – 2000), a painter and social realist documented the African American experience in several series devoted to Toussaint L’Ouverture, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, life in Harlem, and the civil rights movement of the 1960s?
Lawrence referred to his style as ‘dynamic cubism’, though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the, “Shapes and colors of Harlem.”
15. “How She Sent Him and How She Got Him Back” (2012)
“A libation is an African ritual that pours out a liquid offering in remembrance of those who have passed away, and is still practiced today by African American people who ‘pour out a little liquor and reminisce.’ I reminisce by painting narratives and scenes from my culture and history as an African American.”
— Dr. Lisa Whittington
Did you know?
Did you know that Dr. Lisa Whittington is an artist, educator, and speaker who, “Wanted to be like her teachers and help students push through life by observing and creating” rather than simply suffering?
As stated on the artist’s website, “Street art was Dr. Lisa Whittington’s first museum experience. She had a front row seat to the work of Keith Harings chalk drawings in the subway as she rode from Far Rockaway High School to her foster home accommodations in Bedford Stuyvessant Brooklyn. His work made her heart dance. She always scanned the subway walls while sitting on a moving train looking for his marks.”
“Dr. Whittington often spent time looking out of the window at the busy city streets. This was her escape when she wasn’t at school. [At school] Her teachers nourished her talent and fed her curiosities with field trips and added creative assignments to her work. They planted a seed for the artist she would become.”
Dr. Whittington received her Masters in Art education at the University of West Georgia, and her Doctorate in Art Education at the University of Georgia.
Let’s honor the ancestors, together
(Breathe In . . . Breathe Out)
Pour out a little liquor and reminisce
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