I can’t help but smile
4’x3’
Acrylic on ply
2023-2025
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#jacksonpikellc #thebakery #abstractexpressionism #blackabstractartist #blackartist #abstractart #quantum
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Advertisement · 728 × 90
36”x36”
Acrylic
2023-2025
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#jacksonpikellc #thebakery #abstractexpressionism #blackabstractartist #blackart
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Vibrate
24” 24”
Acrylic
2023-2025
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#jacksonpikellc #thebakery #abstractexpressionism #blackabstractartist #blackart
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Excited to share that my painting "Steel Compassion" sold during the Grand Opening show at Hammond Harkins Galleries! Huge thanks to the amazing collector and to @hammond_harkins for believing in my work. Grateful beyond words! 🎉🎨 #abstractart #modernart #SoldArt #blackabstractartist #art
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Betty Blayton Reaching for Center 1970 acrylic and oil pastel on canvas.
A photograph of the artist Betty BLAYTON, smiling/laughing looking off to the side, gesturing with both hands, wearing a white blouse, necklace & glasses, in front of one of her paintings.
Intermittent #womenshistorymonth post … today in visual arts… #Blackabstractartist BETTY BLAYTON-TAYLOR (sometimes BETTY BLAYTON) 1937-2016 believed abstraction could speak to issues of Black liberation as well as speak of the deeply personal and the transcendent universal. No small effort then!
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Beauford Delaney, Abstraction, ca. 1958-1961, gouache on paper, 22 1⁄2 x 17 in. (57.2 x 43.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Margery and Maurice H. Katz, 1996.92.
BEAUFORD DELANEY never made much money from his art and he died suffering from mental health issues. Recently his art has garnered more attention, especially as his place in Black queer history is recognized. 4/n #blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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A great quote from #Blackabstractartist LEONARDO DREW…
“I’m an abstractionist. I’m also a walking political figure as a Black man. I am political because of who I am, what I am, and what I look like; and I have the audacity in these times to say that I’m an abstractionist.” 4/n
#Blackhistorymonth
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Leonardo Drew, Number 304, 2021, wood, paint, and black garnet stones on paper, 149.5 × 179 × 26 inches. © Leonardo Drew. Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
Yay! Another #Blackabstractartist who is a sculptor! LEONARDO DREW makes abstract sculptures that hold the tension of abundant chaos and piercing clarity. Monumental, often seem to defy gravity & physics in general. 1/n #Blackhistorymonth
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Julie Mehretu. Excerpt (molotov cocktail), 2003. Ink and acrylic on canvas; 32 × 54 inches. Collection of Nicolas Rohatyn and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn. Photo by Erma Estwick. © Julie Mehretu. Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery.
There’s a beautiful synchronicity between yesterday’s #Blackabstractartist BETHANY COLLINS & today’s JULIE MEHRETU. About language and communication, clarity and falling apart, cycles of history, breaking apart and coming together at once. 2/n
#Blackhistorymonth
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#blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
Missing hashtags!!
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Finally, some portraits of YVONNE WELLS herself, because there’s an artist behind the art! 5/5
#Blackabstractartist #Blackhistorymonth
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Kambui Olujimi, Untitled, 2013.
Kambui Olujimi, Fathom, 2017, from the exhibition, Zulu Time. Installation with 6 chandeliers, rubber inner tubes, wooden pallets. Variable dimensions.
KAMBUI OLUJIMI is often called a conceptual artist - which is somewhat different from abstract art, academically, as it flows from ideas vs color/form/emotion. But I’m covering them as #blackabstractartist anyway. Cos I make the rules here. 1/n #blackhistorymonth
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Tafa, Protest Song: Double Synthesis, oil on canvas and police shield, 38 x 96 in. Photo Courtesy: Oko Nyaku.
The combination of abstract and reality in this piece by #Blackabstractartist TAFA results in visceral emotions that cannot be denied. In a world where the NEA has been forced to limit the kind of art supported, we need art like this and artists like TAFA. 5/n
#blackhistorymonth
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TAFA FIADZIGBE ‘Harlem, May Rain’ 2002.
Painting by TAFA FIADZIGBE. Oddly enough I didn’t get a foto of the title and can’t find it online. Annoyed at myself! Bc it’s an astounding artwork. Really shook us all.
Detail of previous work. The light. My god the light .
A bit ago I ran across three works by Ghanaian #blackabstractartist TAFA FIADZIGBE in a small gallery in Texas. Instantly blown away! Here’s two snaps I took. Black liberation, sports, music are common themes but the emotion he evokes is always profound. 1/n
#Blackhistorymonth
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GERALD JACKSON, Untitled, 1980s.
GERALD JACKSON, Untitled, 1981.
GERALD JACKSON, Untitled (Skid Painting), 1980s.
GERALD JACKSON - as a #blackabstractartist - has had to reconstruct himself, escaping the constraints imposed by a dominant white society founded on slavery. “I’m not a Black person. I’m only what I make myself up to be.” These are works from an exhibit: Psychic Rebuilding. #blackhistorymonth
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Richard Hunt, 2002. Hunt created Flight Forms (2002) in welded stainless steel for Midway International Airport in Chicago. It is thirty-five feet tall, the maximum height allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The artist, urged by the FAA, modifies the patina to reduce the potential for glare that could distract pilots. Source: Jon Ott, “Illustrated Chronology,” Richard Hunt, 2022.
Richard Hunt Symbiosis 1978 From publicartarchives.com: "Symbiosis, is a public artwork by American artist Richard Hunt, located at the Carnegie Hall on the Howard University campus in Washington, D.C., United States. Symbiosis was originally surveyed as part of the Smithsonian's Save Outdoor Sculpture! survey in 1993. This corten steel abstract sculpture is described as "resembling a head, either human or animal, with appendages." It has no base—the entire piece rests on the ground. This sculpture, sometimes called Bison, was a gift to Howard University by Hobart Taylor, Jr., a former member of the Board of Trustees. Taylor died in 1981 and the sculpture was dedicated to the university on December 2, 1981." Source: Wikipedia.
Modern abstract sculpture! Today’s #blackabstractartist is RICHARD HUNT. He had a six-decade career which resulted in over 160 public sculptures, more than any other sculptor in the US.
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Frank Bowling, Ashton'sfish (Spencer'scatch), 1997.
Frank Bowling, Great Thames III, 1989.
Frank Bowling, Hafenlicht, 2007.
Frank Bowling, Biter, 2021.
So far a 6 decade career means there’s so much of FRANK BOWLING’s art to admire, trace the changes in perspective, technique, the evolution of an artist. For me, it’s his unabashed use of color. And the titles. He’s got great titles. Great art, all. 5/n #blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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Frank Bowling, Two Blues, the Terminal Illness, 1973.
Frank Bowling, Looking West Again, 2020
Moving canvas from easel to the floor was part of FRANK BOWLING’s transition to total abstraction. He engages with paint & water in expansive ways even drowning the canvas with media. His work resists any singular purpose, values fluidity over all. 3/n #blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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Frank Bowling - Who’s Afraid of Barney Newman (1968).
Sir FRANK BOWLING resists interpretations of autobiography in his art, there’s undeniable references to being a #Blackabstractartist among predominantly white abstract expressionists. At same time, he was frustrated by being pigeonholed as a Black artist by curators & critics. #blackhistirymonth
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Ming Smith, Untitled (Self Portrait with Camera, New York), ca. 1975–89, printed 2019. Black and white photograph, 19 13/16 x 16 in.
Ming Smith, Sun Ra Space II, 1978. Courtesy the artist.
For some MING SMITH’s work might defy categorization. Figurative? Documentary, sometimes portraiture, often not? But she has put it, “I paint with light” - photos about emotions - ideas intimately familiar to those of us who are abstract fotógrafx. 2/n #blackhistorymonth #blackabstractartist
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Ming Smith Invisible Man, Somewhere, Everywhere 1991 Oil paint on silver gelatin print.
Text from Ming Smith at MOMA exhibit about her Invisible Man (1990-1991) series, and how it was about a feeling, the expression of being visible but invisible, living in a Black environment.
1st fotógrafx in the series! MING SMITH is perhaps not immediately known for her abstract work. But I saw the below work at MOMA exhibit and immediately recognized a fellow abstract artist. #blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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SHINIQUE SMITH, Grace stands beside, 2020.
Grace: “a complex state of being that Black people and others who have endured tragic prejudice have embodied to survive and to rise beyond” - SHINIQUE SMITH a #Blackabstractartist who created this remarkable work, bridging past and the present. #Blackhistorymonth
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Mark Bradford ‘150 Portrait Tone’ 2017
This work by MARK BRADFORD (todays #blackabstractartist) is personal to me. It’s based the murder of Philando Castile by the cops, features quotes from Philando’s gf Diamond. The title comes from the name of the acrylic paint pink hue. Who is pink fleshed? Who is not? 4/n
#blackhistorymonth
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Finally, portraits of #blackabstractartist ED CLARK himself because there’s an artist behind the art! 6/6 #blackhistorymonth
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Ed Clark, White Birch, 1959. White background with black, red blues, pinks reaching through towards the middle.
Ed Clark, Blacklash, 1964, oil on canvas. Red and black first in vertical stripes then spattering, dripping out.
ED CLARK did not get the recognition he deserved until much later in his career. Perhaps because he was 2nd wave expressionist, or because with conceptual art painting was meant to die. But he was a master of color, experimentation, materiality.
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#blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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Ed Clark, Pink, Black & Blue (2006) Oil painting with Swaths of paint across a large canvas. Pink wide across the bottom, black in middle with some red brown peaking from behind, a sky blue across the top.
ED CLARK … I was in a small gallery yesterday and came across this piece that I just love! During a 7 decade-long career…lived in France for bit along with fellow artists like James Baldwin & Beaufort Delaney because it wasn’t quite as racist as the US.
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#blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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A really interesting article about HOWARDENA PINDELL from an academic art perspective. #blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
pindell.mcachicago.org/essays/howar...
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Richard Mayhew, Pamela’s Aura, 2004. Vivid colors in this abstract painting- intense cerulean blue sky, a line of trees with purple shadows, deep orange, magenta and greens spread out below.
Richard Mayhew, Crescendo, 2008 Incredibly intense yellows, orange, magenta, reds mark this painting and suggest a coastline with islands and an inland body of water, perhaps.
A couple more of RICHARD MAYHEW’s works from his later years. Asked about his use of color in these later years he talked about the earth dies, regenerates itself, and comes back in a different form & how that related to his art. #blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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ROMARE BEARDEN. FOUR STANDING MUSICIANS, 1965 Watercolor painting abstract with dominant reds pinks and yellows. Vague suggestion of human figures. One squared off area in bottom right grates some forest green colors and peaked circle shapes. Drips and lung like bleeds of paint.
Romare Bearden ‘Strange Land’ (1959) Abstract painting with deep blue swaths of color on the sides and a vaguely (inverted) triangular lighter blue color in the middle with Orange- red across the top and a semicircle of the same near bottom of light blue.Gritty with drips and droplets of paint.
In between his figurative & collage periods, ROMARE BEARDEN produced some gorgeous abstract works. Some in watercolor, a favorite medium. Some used a kind of stain painting approach he developed while studying with a Chinese calligrapher. #blackabstractartist #blackhistorymonth
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Painted portrait of ALMA THOMAS. She is seated with her arms crossed a bit, wearing a red Nehru/style jacket with gold accessories. Her hair in an updo, her gaze is soft x green draped background an a white silky armchair. Laura Wheeler Waring, Portrait of a Lady (1947, SAAM)
B/w photo of Alma Thomas at the opening for the Whitney solo show. She is looking off to the side angled slightly away from the photographer. She wears a brightly patterned, geometric dress and is int ftombof one of her works hung in the gallery. There is an unknown man to the left, wearing a suit and tie.
B/w photo of Alma Thomas seated in her home with the painted portrait of her behind. She holds an open book - perhaps a book on American art? Her gaze is direct at the viewer.
A b/w photo of Alma Thomas in her studio. Her hair is up and has bangs. She gazes down at a painting she seems to be working on, she hold a brush. There are tubes and pots of paints jars of paint brushes around the art work.
Finally, portraits of #blackabstractartist ALMA THOMAS - because there’s an artist behind the art!
#blackhistorymonth
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