Research Catalog

AFRICOBRA : experimental art toward a school of thought

Title
AFRICOBRA : experimental art toward a school of thought / Wadsworth Jarrell ; with a foreword by Richard Allen May III.
Author
Jarrell, Wadsworth, 1929-
Publication
  • Durham : Duke University Press, 2020.
  • ©2020

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library Sc F 21-270Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Additional Authors
May, Richard Allen
Description
xxvi, 292 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 26 cm
Summary
"AFRICOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) was a multidisciplinary collective of black artists who created socially conscious art in Chicago during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960's and 1970's. Artists Wadsworth Jarrell, Nelson Stevens, Jae Jarrell, Gerald Williams, and Napoleon Jones-Henderson produced textiles, paintings, sculpture and public art that sought to develop an aesthetic language that resonated with the black community. AFRICOBRA's abstract works convey the rhythmic dynamism of black culture and social life, while the structure of the collective offered a model of artistic practice embedded in the political realities and histories of the community. In this volume, Wadsworth Jarrell, one of the founding members of the AFRICOBRA collective, offers an account of the history of the group and its founding aesthetic and political principles. The bulk of the manuscript is selected from his archive of materials ranging from exhibition ephemera to photos that show the development of the group's art practice that collectively form a sourcebook history of the group. The sourcebook intersperses documentation of exhibitions, artworks, and the members of the collective in Chicago; documents that outline the aesthetic and political goals of the group written by its members; and writing from Jarrell that narrates the history of the collective from the point of view of its founder. The writing emphasizes the importance of the group's political principles to some of its largest projects, like the Wall of Respect, a public mural in Chicago's Black Belt neighborhood. While work by AFRICOBRA has been shown at the Brooklyn Museum, the Tate, and elsewhere, this will be the first book to present an extensive record of the group's history, practice, and principles. This book will be of interest to our readers in art, African American studies, and cultural studies"--
Subject
  • AFRICOBRA (Group of artists)
  • 1900-1999
  • Black Arts movement > Illinois > Chicago
  • Ethnicity in art
  • Art > Political aspects > History > United States > 20th century
  • African American artists > 20th century
  • African American artists
  • Art > Political aspects
  • Black Arts movement
  • Illinois > Chicago
  • United States
Genre/Form
History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Illustrations -- Black art and the Black aesthetic -- Africobra principles and philosophy -- Foreword / Richard Allen May III -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Black in Chicago -- 2 Genesis -- 3 The Wall of Respect-- 4 The inception-- 5 A visual art proposal-- 6 First COBRA exhibition -- Recruitment -- 8 AFRICOBRA I -- 9 AFRICOBRA II -- 10 AFRICOBRA III -- Postscript / Edmund Barry Gaither -- Exhibitions -- Reviews and Media Interviews -- AFRICOBRA Art in Collections -- AFRICOBRA in Books -- Notes -- Artist Biographies.
Call Number
Sc F 21-270
ISBN
  • 9781478000563
  • 1478000562
LCCN
2019032731
OCLC
1101978062
Author
Jarrell, Wadsworth, 1929- author.
Title
AFRICOBRA : experimental art toward a school of thought / Wadsworth Jarrell ; with a foreword by Richard Allen May III.
Publisher
Durham : Duke University Press, 2020.
Copyright Date
©2020
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Chronological Term
1900-1999
Local Subject
Black author.
Added Author
May, Richard Allen, writer of foreword.
Research Call Number
Sc F 21-270
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