Not So Black

Among the many by-products of the black revolution of the 1960s has been a growing interest in black artists. This is not to say that they were wholly ignored before: even prior to the Civil War, a few found wealthy patrons who enabled them to study and travel and who bought their work. But their number was pitifully small, and it was not until the so-called Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s that blacks began to emerge onto the larger art scene, and not until the last decade that blacks began tobeona par with whites in competing for fellowships, grants, and gallery exposure.

The turmoil of those years also had another positive result: the emergence of scholars, both black and white, who are ferreting out the achievements of forgotten black artists of the past, and enabling the compilation of a history of black art in America. Last year, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art put together “Two Centuries of Black American Art” as its contribution to the Bicentennial. The show, sponsored by Philip Morris, has been touring the country, and is now making its final appearance at the Brooklyn Museum. While it is not definitive, and while its importance is more cultural than artistic, it is well worth a subway ride.

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Ruth Berenson

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Among the many by-products of the black revolution of the 1960s has been a growing interest in black artists. This is not to say that they were wholly ignored before: even prior to the Civil War, a few found wealthy patrons who enabled them to study and travel and who bought their work. But their number was pitifully small, and it was not until the so-called Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s that blacks began to emerge onto the larger art scene, and not until the last decade that blacks began tobeona par with whites in competing for fellowships, grants, and gallery exposure.

The turmoil of those years also had another positive result: the emergence of scholars, both black and white, who are ferreting out the achievements of forgotten black artists of the past, and enabling the compilation of a history of black art in America. Last year, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art put together “Two Centuries of Black American Art” as its contribution to the Bicentennial. The show, sponsored by Philip Morris, has been touring the country, and is now making its final appearance at the Brooklyn Museum. While it is not definitive, and while its importance is more cultural than artistic, it is well worth a subway ride.