The one that faces the viewer entering through the main doors, “Processional” (1965), contains a ground that is black, and an abstract array of interwoven, almost-cubist off-white figures wend across the canvas like an undulant line of figures seen through a fun-house telescope. How meaningful this contrast can be is illustrated by two paintings by Norman Lewis. Except for Richard Mayhew’s “Pastoral” painting, which is itself a muted arrangement of heathery tones, this introductory room is monochrome, black made stentorian situated against shades of white, and white made vivid against ebony.

In the first gallery of the Soul of a Nation exhibition at Brooklyn Museum one is confronted with a Manichean visual scheme. At this turning point in the reassessment of African American art history, Soul of a Nation is a vital contribution to this timely subject.Norman Lewis, “America the Beautiful” (1960) oil on canvas, 50 x 64 inches (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Over 170 artworks by these and many other artists of the era are illustrated in full color.Ģ017 marks the 50th anniversary of the first use of the term “black power” by student activist Stokely Carmichael it will also be 50 years since the US Supreme Court overturned the prohibition of interracial marriage. It also explores the art-historical and social contexts with subjects ranging from black feminism, AfriCOBRA and other artist-run groups to the role of museums in the debates of the period and visual art’s relation to the Black Arts Movement. The book features substantial essays from Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley, writing on abstraction and figuration, respectively. Hendricks, Senga Nengudi, Noah Purifoy, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Charles White and Frank Bowling. Williams, Howardina Pindell, Romare Bearden, David Hammons, Barkley L. Soul of a Nation surveys this crucial period in American art history, bringing to light previously neglected histories of 20th-century black artists, including Sam Gilliam, Melvin Edwards, Jack Whitten, William T. How to make art that would stand as innovative, original, formally and materially complex, while also making work that reflected their concerns and experience as black Americans? In the period of radical change that was 1963–83, young black artists at the beginning of their careers confronted difficult questions about art, politics and racial identity.

Soul of a Nation by Mark Godfrey