THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART TO HOST DISCUSSION ABOUT THE STATE OF WRITING ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART
Situation Critical? African-American Writers on African-American Artists
Tuesday, March 16, 6:30 p.m.
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
The current state of writing about African-African art and artists will be discussed by a distinguished panel of African-American art historians and critics on March 16, 1999, at The Museum of Modern Art. Titled Situation Critical? African-American Writers on African-American Artists, the discussion will explore the critical treatment of contemporary African-American artists in art magazines and the popular press; developments in academic scholarship, historical research, and theoretical constructs for African-American art; and the pressing issue of how African-American writers speak to and reach their desired audiences.
Participants include David Driskell, Professor Emeritus, Distinguished University Professor of Art, University of Maryland at College Park; Richard J. Powell, Professor and Chair, Department of Art and Art History, Duke University; Calvin Reid, freelance art critic for Art in America, and Contributing Editor, Bomb magazine; and Judith Wilson, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Art History, University of California at Irvine.
The panel will be moderated by Robert Storr, Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art.
This program is sponsored by The Friends of Education of The Museum of Modern Art. Founded in 1993 by Akosua Barthwell Evans, the Friends are a 50-member, Museum-affiliated group whose mission is to encourage greater appreciation of African-American artists and the participation and membership of African-Americans in the Museum.
Over the past four years, the Friends have helped the Museum develop effective outreach programs for exhibitions such as Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series (1995) and Roy DeCarava (1996), and have sponsored seven public lectures and panels at MoMA, featuring artists such as Roy DeCarava, Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, Mel Edwards, Elizabeth Catlett, Carrie Mae Weems, Martin Puryear, Howardena Pindell, William T. Williams, Maren Hassinger, and Jack Whitten. These programs have attracted hundreds of African-Americans to MoMA and have also helped focus the Museum's attention on the work of these important artists.
In 1995, the Friends established the Friends of Education Fund to raise money annually to finance acquisitions of art created by African-Americans for MoMA's permanent collection and programs to attract African-American audiences. To date, drawings by Martin Puryear and David Hammons, prints by Elizabeth Catlett, and paintings by Norman Lewis have been purchased. In 1996 and 1997 the Fund, with financial support from AT&T, paid for Museum educators to visit schools in Harlem, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, and enabled 5,000 children, parents, and teachers to visit the Museum.
The most recent Friends of Education event at the Museum was Jazz Interlude: An Evening with Wynton Marsalis, held April 8, 1998. The event raised more than $365,000, the largest sum ever raised by a musical performance benefit at the Museum.
A reception will follow the March 16 panel discussion.
Tickets for the event are $8 general admission; Museum members $7; students and seniors $5. Tickets are available at the Museum's Lobby Information Desk.
Members of the public: For more information, please call the Department of Education at
212.708.9781.
