Clark Atlanta University Art Museum

20/21 Interlude: The Evolution of Clark Atlanta University’s Permanent Art Collection will be opening alongside Wilay Méndez Páez: Portals to a New World (Partales a un Nuevo Mundo) this upcoming Monday, February 15th. This installation highlights some of the museum's recent acquisitions in relation to works from its permanent collection. We are particularly enthusiastic aboutadding works by Atlanta-based artists Jamaal Barber, Krista Clark, Alfred Conteh, William Downs, ...Jerushia Graham, Kojo Griffin, and Wilay Méndez Páez. By juxtaposing selections from the twentieth and twenty-first century, we demonstrate that artists residing in the American South, and presented at Black cultural institutions, continue to transform the visual landscape of the United States in profound ways. #2021Interlude #CAUAM #JamaalBarber #KristaClark #AlfredConteh #WilliamDowns #JerushiaGraham #KojoGriffin #WilayMendezPaez

Mark your calendars for February 15th! We’re reopening with Wilay Méndez Páez: Portals to a New World (Portales a un Nuevo Mundo). This exhibition provides insight into the artistic practice of Atlanta-based, Afro-Cuban artist @wilaymendezpaez. Wilay is the inaugural fellow for The Workshop, a multi-year Clark Atlanta University Art Museum initiative that seeks to close the distance between artist and audience by highlighting the steps fundamental to the creative process. ...The exhibition includes drawings, collages, and sculpture that show how Wilay moves from a vague, not fully formed idea to the realization of a material object. Damaged and cast-off things become a gateway, or portal, to a world of possibilities. Click the link in our bio to RSVP. #WilayMendezPaez #CAUAM #PortalsToANewWorld #Sculpture #Drawing #Collage

We are honored to be included in @nmaahc’s booklet about HBCU museums, galleries, and archives! Alley by Jacob Lawrence, a work from our permanent collection, is featured on the cover. As they share in the booklet, there are 101 HBCUs in the United States, and over 60% of those institutions formally house a cultural heritage site, museum, African American archive, and/or art gallery. We are only one of them. We encourage you to visit the cultural and arts institutions at your local HBCU!

CAUAM would like to thank @blackartfuturesfund and @howtallareyou for selecting us as a grant recipient! Your support makes our work all the more possible!

CAUAM wishes a Happy Veterans Day to all who have served in Armed Forces! Mark Hewitt Spirit of the 366th, n.d. Oil on canvas... 23 5/8 x 18 5/8 1943.003 #VeteransDay #MarkHewitt #MuseumFromHome

Today’s collection highlight is Frank W. Neal’s 1947 oil painting Oppression. Painted after World War II, it evokes the hardship that faced Americans during the war years when rationing was the norm and many struggled to get necessities. A woman, dressed in yellow, leans on a bed resting her head in her hands. Staring absently, she does not seem to notice the child standing behind her. She embodies the sadness that can accompany oppression. The work’s subject may resonate... with many dealing with challenges that are the result of the coronavirus. Forms of oppression also include voter suppression, discriminatory lending practices, or hiring practices of companies. The effect can take a toll, leaving people as weary and forlorn as the woman in Neal’s painting. How would you depict oppression? Would it be an intimate portrayal of an individual like Neal’s? Would it be an encounter that takes place in public? Frank W. Neal (1915-1955) Oppression, 1947 Oil on canvas 23 x 20 1947.002

With Americanness on our minds and a national election taking place, we are revisiting a Romare Bearden lithograph titled Untitled (Black in America). Created in 1974, this lithograph depicts an abstracted, inverted image that invokes the American flag as well as a modern building in an urban center. As a reimagined American flag, it is vertical with slanted stripes and a man's profile above 8 rectangles. The prominence of the man's head, who we presume to be Black, begs ...the question: how can late twentieth century America make more room, or space, for Black people? There is also the sense that Bearden seeks to make a definitive statement about the position of twentieth-century Black Americans: 1. You can be Black in America. 2. Black Americans are as American as the national flag. During this season, and the Trump era, we extend Bearden’s metaphor to voting by adding the idea that all Americans should use the power of vote to express their desires for the creation of our contemporary nation-state. Today is the last day for early voting in Georgia. The general election is next Tuesday, November 3rd. Romare Bearden(1911 - 1988) Untitled (Black in America),1974 Lithograph 35.75 x 25.5 in. 1978.001

Yesterday's Presidential debate has inspired us consider what it means to be American. How has Americanness been represented by Black artists?We’ll be sharing images from our collection through Election Day, November 3rd, that explore this theme. You can vote early in Georgia until October 30th. First, we present two photographs from Sheila Pree Bright’s "Young Americans" series, which she began working on in 2006. @shepreebright photographed Americans aged 18 to 25. Collab...orating with her subjects, she invited them to choose their own clothing, poses and interactions with the flag. In "Young Americans Series:Tarrynn Deavens, age 18, African American" andYoung Americans Series: Jordan Patton, age 24, Native American, Scottish, Spanish, Czechoslovakian Gypsy"we see two drastically different poses with the American flag. Which pose do you resonate with more? Image 1: Young Americans Series: Tarrynn Deavens, age 18, African American" (2007), Chromogenic print, 2009.005 Image 2: Young Americans Series: Jordan Patton, age 24, Native American, Scottish, Spanish, Czechoslovakian Gypsy" (2006), Chromogenic print, 2010.010 #CAUAMPermanentCollection #MuseumFromHome #SheilaPreeBright #YoungAmericansSeries #GetOutToVote

Congratulations to @tksmith106, former Tina Dunkley Fellow, who will be curating Virtual Remains in the 2021 Atlanta Biennial at @atlantacontemporary. We are excitedly anticipating the February opening! #AtlantaBiennial #VirtualRemains #TKSmith #TinaDunkleyFellow

We loved this New York Times profile of artist Mark Bradford who is known for his large-scale abstract paintings created out of paper. Bradford spent the last 6 months of quarantine creating 3 new works for Hauser & Wirth's online exhibition "Quarantine Paintings," which is now available to view. https://www.nytimes.com//mark-bradford-new-paintings-quara

CAUAM Artist Spotlight features artists of African descent creating meaningful work in the contemporary moment. This week’s pick is William Downs. @wdowns.studio is a 2019/2020 Working Artist Project Fellow at @themocaga. He works across a range of media, but focuses primarily on drawing. The line, according to Downs, is one of the most elemental forms of mark making. He layers and manipulates lines to create figures and landscapes that are in motion even in their stillness.... Drawing while traveling, from everyday life, and from dreams, keeping a visual record of the interactions I observe between others and within my own psychology. His exhibition Drawings of Wilderness and Silence opens at @mocaga next Saturday, September 5th. Look at Ada, 2019, Ink wash and spray paint on paper, 39 x 27 #CAUAMfromHome #MuseumfromHome #BlackArtists #WilliamDowns #Drawing #ArtistSpotlight

Amy Sherald’s portrait of the late Breonna Taylor graces September’s cover of Vanity Fair. In an accompanying interview Sherald, an alumna of CAU, said, She sees you seeing her. The hand on the hip is not passive, her gaze is not passive. She looks strong! I wanted this image to stand as a piece of inspiration to keep fighting for justice for her. When I look at the dress, it kind of reminds me of Lady Justice. The fight for justice is not linear, nor is it won overnight. This portrait reminds us of the role art can play in increasing awareness of incidents like Breonna Taylor’s, and encouraging us to remain steadfast in our pursuit of justice. #AmySherald #BreonnaTaylor #CAUAM #CAUAlum #BlackArtists #BlackPortraiture #VanityFair

CAUAM remembers Bill Arnett (1939-2020) who passed away earlier this month. Arnett was an art collector who purchased work by Black artists based in the American South including the Gee’s Bend quilters and Thornton Dial Jr. In 2019, CAUAM acquired six new works from Arnett’s Souls Grown Deep Foundation for the University’s permanent collection. Image 1: Bill Arnett at an Atlanta warehouse containing works of art in his collection. This photo was taken by Derek Blanks for the ...Washington Post. Image 2: Nellie Pettaway Pig in a Pen center medallion, 1955, Souls Grown Deep Foundation Image 3: Thornton Dial Jr, I’ll Be Back, 1988, Souls Grown Deep Foundation #CAUAM #BillArnett #Nellie Pettaway #ThorntonDialJr

We have one more staff pick for you! Today’s selection is Benjamin F. Britt’s, Yield Not (1957), Oil on Canvas. 1957.002. This selection was made by Curatorial Assistant Diamond Mason. Mason curated Leisure without Luxury (2017-18), which examined and reflected on the nuanced relationship African Americans have with the notion of leisure. Mason has worked on more than 15 exhibitions at CAUAM since 2016.... While Yield Not is absolutely stunning with its vibrant color contrast, deep shadows, and looming subject, these aspects are not what I find most intriguing. Yield Not is the first time I’ve come across a work that expresses what it is like to for me to live with and manage my General Anxiety Disorder. Britt gives form to the inner distress I experience regularly when performing seemly simple tasks. To the outside, whatever I’m facing appears small and insignificant; but to me, I’m visibly overwhelmed and shaken to my core. #CAUAMfromHome #BlackArtists #MuseumfromHome #staffpicks #cauartmuseum #BenjaminFBritt

Every Wednesday for the month of July we will be highlighting the collection at Clark Atlanta University Art Museum with selections chosen by the museum staff. Today’s selection is Elizabeth Catlett’s, Negro Woman (n.d), Wood, 1956.008. This selection was made by former Tina Dunkley Fellow, Nzinga Simmons. @nzingasimone is a writer and curator who served as a 2018-2020 Tina Dunkley Fellow. This fall she will matriculate into the Art History and Visual Culture PhD progra...m at Duke University. I selected this work because it reminds me of the deep historical significance of CAU’s collection. There’s an interesting photo of Catlett sculpting it in the archive at CAU. #CAUAMfromHome #BlackArtists #ElizabethCatlett #MuseumfromHome #staffpicks #cauartmuseum #sculpture