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Souls grown deep like the rivers : Black artists from the American South.

Contributor(s): Publisher: London : Royal Academy of Arts, [2023]Copyright date: ©2023Description: 141 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 27 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781912520954
Subject(s):
Contents:
President's foreword / Rebecca Salter PRA
Preface / Maxwell L. Anderson
Stories of reclamation / Raina Lampkins-Fielder
Catalogue plates
Biographies of the artists / Rebecca Bray, Emma Yau
Endnotes
Summary: Discover the Black artists from America's South who created some of the most spectacular and ingenious works of the last century. For generations, Black artists from the American South have forged a unique art tradition. Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces in clay, driftwood, roots, soil, recycled and cast-off objects that articulate America's painful past - the inhuman practice of enslavement, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and institutionalised racism. Their works date from the early 20th century to today and respond to issues ranging from economic inequality, oppression and social marginalisation, to sexuality, the influence of place and ancestral memory. Among the sculptures, paintings, reliefs and drawings included here are works by Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Hawkins Bolden, Bessie Harvey, Charles Williams, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, Mose Tolliver, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary Lee Bendolph, Marlene Bennett Jones, Martha Jane Pettway, Loretta Pettway, and Henry and Georgia Speller. Also featured are the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, Alabama, and the neighbouring communities of Rehoboth and Alberta.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition held at Royal Academy of Arts, London, 17 March-18 June 2023.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

President's foreword / Rebecca Salter PRA

Preface / Maxwell L. Anderson

Stories of reclamation / Raina Lampkins-Fielder

Catalogue plates

Biographies of the artists / Rebecca Bray, Emma Yau

Endnotes

Discover the Black artists from America's South who created some of the most spectacular and ingenious works of the last century. For generations, Black artists from the American South have forged a unique art tradition. Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces in clay, driftwood, roots, soil, recycled and cast-off objects that articulate America's painful past - the inhuman practice of enslavement, the cruel segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era, and institutionalised racism. Their works date from the early 20th century to today and respond to issues ranging from economic inequality, oppression and social marginalisation, to sexuality, the influence of place and ancestral memory. Among the sculptures, paintings, reliefs and drawings included here are works by Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Hawkins Bolden, Bessie Harvey, Charles Williams, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, Mose Tolliver, Nellie Mae Rowe, Mary Lee Bendolph, Marlene Bennett Jones, Martha Jane Pettway, Loretta Pettway, and Henry and Georgia Speller. Also featured are the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, Alabama, and the neighbouring communities of Rehoboth and Alberta.