"Driskell started collecting in 1955 after taking a position as an art professor at Talladega College. As he explained in a 2017 lecture at the Whitney Museum of American Art, he put aside a small budget for art each year from his beginning salary of $3,000."
"Driskell began to focus on African-American artists in the 1960s, and in 1976, he curated the exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art, establishing him as an authority on the subject. The landmark show, which originated at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and traveled across the country, is just one part of his lifelong mission to establish Black artists' rightful place in American art history."
"The works on view in Collector convey the stylistic range of Driskell's collection. Canadian-born artist Edward Mitchell Bannister's painting depicts a figure traversing a dark forest, reflecting the turn toward Romanticism in 19th-century American art. Conversely, Loïs Mailou Jones's "Paris" summons the legacy of Impressionism."
David C. Driskell was an artist and scholar who dedicated his career to advancing African-American art in the United States. Beginning in 1955 as an art professor at Talladega College, he systematically built one of the nation's premier collections of Black artists' work by allocating funds from his modest salary. In the 1960s, Driskell focused specifically on African-American artists, and in 1976 curated the landmark exhibition "Two Centuries of Black American Art" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which traveled nationally. This exhibition established him as a leading authority on Black art history. His collection encompasses diverse artistic styles and periods, including 19th-century Romanticism and 20th-century Modernism, demonstrating the breadth and sophistication of African-American artistic achievement.
#african-american-art-history #art-collecting-and-curation #black-artists-advocacy #museum-exhibitions
Read at Hyperallergic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]