Joel Elgin. Athraigh Print Studio: 2020-06-14

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Juneteenth, prints created by African American printmakers in honor of Harriet Tubman.

In recognition of the importance of Juneteenth, Athraigh Print Studio presents a small exhibit of prints created by African American printmakers in honor of Harriet Tubman:

Harriet Tubman, American, 1822 - 1913

albumen and silver on photographic paper on card mount

Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture shared with the Library of Congress

Margaret Taylor Burroughs

Harriet Tubman, 2001

Lithograph

Margaret Taylor Burroughs

Harriet Tubman, 1953
Lithograph

Charles White

Exodus I: Black Moses (Harriet Tubman), 1951

Linocut on paper

Elizabeth Catlett

In Harriet Tubman I Helped Hundreds to Freedom

1946, printed 1989

Linocut

Elizabeth Catlett

Harriet, 1975

linocut

Elizabeth Catlett

Untitled (Harriet Tubman), 1953

Linocut

Please check out the YouTube version:

For more on the printmakers, please go to:

http://www.margaretburroughs.com/biography/

https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/1/charles-white-at-moma

https://www.elizabethcatlettart.com/bio

If you wish to view higher res images of this or any of the past posts please visit the Athraigh Print Studio

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

Monday, June 15, 2020

African American Protest Art of the Sixties SPIRAL: Emma Amos Joel Elgin, Athraigh Studio.

Printmaking in the time of COVID-19.

Small Exhibitions: SPIRAL: Emma Amos

In August of 1963, The March on Washington was held to advocate for the civil rights of African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, calling for an end to racism.

The art collective, The Spiral Group formed as a result of the march.

“…Spiral was a New York–based collective of African-American artists that came together in the 1960s to discuss their relationship to the civil rights movement and the shifting landscape of American art, culture and politics…”

https://studiomuseum.org/exhibition/spiral-perspectives-african-american-art-collective

An artist in the group who I particularly admire is Emma Amos.

Emma Amos (1937 – 2020) was invited in 1963, by her professor, “…Hale Woodruff to become a member of Spiral, a group of black artists that included Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, and Charles Alston. She was the group’s youngest and only female member…”

http://emmaamos.com/about/bio/

Prints and paintings by Emma Amos are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum. Emma Amos died on May 21 at her home in Bedford, N.H. She was 83. In 2021, a retrospective of the artist’s work will open in her home state, at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens.

Stars and Stripes,

monotype with George Shivery photo transfer, 1995

About Whiteness (Red)

oil and laser transfer on paper. 1995

Measuring, Measuring

Acrylic on linen canvas, Kente fragment, batiked hand swatches, African strip woven borders, and laser-transfer photographs, 1995.

Mississippi Wagon, 1937,

print, 1992

My Mothers, My Sisters,

lithograph, handmade paper collage, African fabric border, 1992

Contemporary African American artists continue the work of Spiral:

Black Art In America

SPIRAL NOW 55 Years Later: New Artists, Familiar Struggle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pasz9lP888

SPIRAL NOW 55 Years Later: New Artists, Familiar Struggle

https://www.marchonwashingtonfilmfestival.org/2018-festival-guide/2018/7/12/festival-art-exhibit-spiral-now-55-years-in-the-making-new-artists-familiar-struggle

More on Spiral and Emma Amos:

https://studiomuseum.org/exhibition/spiral-perspectives-african-american-art-collective

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/emma-amos-dead-1202688259/

Please check out the Youtube version:

If you wish to view higher res images of this or any of the past videos please visit the Athraigh Print Studio main page or it’s related blogs:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Barbara Jones-Hogu African American Protest Art of the Sixties, Seventies. AfriCOBRA

Joel Elgin, Athraigh Studio.

Printmaking in the time of COVID-19. Small Exhibitions:

Barbara Jones-Hogu

(1938 – 2017)

African American Protest Art of the Sixties, Seventies

African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA).

In 1968, printmaker Barbara Jones-Hogu was a founding member of the Chicago group, African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA). The artists of AfriCOBRA made visual, the central ideas of the Black Power movement—self-determination, unity, and black pride. They agreed to embrace a style that emphasized strong bold colors, flat shape, rhythm, and text to highlight the heroic and beautiful qualities of black lives in America.

https://americanart.si.edu/education/oh-freedom/barbara-jones-hogu

The prints created by Barbara Jones-Hogu, stand as brilliant works of art and at the same time reveal a glimpse into America’s history of embedded racism and the importance of protest.

Land Where My Father Died

Color screenprint on gold-colored Japanese-style laid paper. 1968

“…I feel that racism and fascism played a great deal in my father being successful or not successful in his life, so some of these prints’ ideas and content deal with the fact that we and he were not really free to do whatever we and he really wanted to do and could do due to radical oppression and suppression…”

https://never-the-same.org/interviews/barbara-jones-hogu/

Nation Time

Color screenprint on gold-colored paper, 1970,

“…In Nation Time, a dominant figure leads a black ensemble to rise up against the American flag background. Closer looking reveals that the American flag’s stars are Ku Klux Klan members. In this way, the composition acknowledges how racism is deeply embedded in America, while also inspiring hope of overcoming that truth…”

https://blantonmuseum.org/2020/03/womens-history-month-2020-5womenartists-from-the-blanton-collection/

Be Your Brother's Keeper

Color screenprint, 1971

“…The guns and the lights on them and various actions against and between the military and the protesters caused me to think that we should be our brothers’ keeper…”

https://never-the-same.org/interviews/barbara-jones-hogu/