ATA Blog

ATA ANNOUNCES NORMAN LEWIS FEATURED ARTIST for 2012 20th Anniversary Show

2011-08-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Norman Lewis, circa 1966 by photographer Geoffrey Clements

Art In The Atrium is happy to announce that we have selected Norman Lewis as our featured artist for the 2012 20th Anniversary exhibit. This exhibit marks a major milestone in ATA history as New Jersey's premier annual African-American Fine Arts Show showcasing the work of both established and emerging artists, with a mission to increase community understanding and awareness of African-American art and artists.

Lewis work is essential to that mission, because it highlights the diversity within the African-American art to often overlooked. Work that is less literal in translation of culture subject and theme. Lewis' work evolved out of the Abstract Expressionism school of thought in New York in the mid 1940's. The Abstract Expressionist movement itself derived it's name from the combination of the emotional intensity and self-denial of the German Expressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools such as Futurism, the Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism.

Norman Lewis, was born in 1909 in New York. He began his art career as figurative painter, focusing on life in Harlem, and was the first major African American abstract expressionist. Lewis, like fellow artist, Jacob Lawrence attended the art workshops in Harlem. At the art centers Lewis studied African art and was introduced to Howard University professor, Alain Locke's ideas about art, which Locke believed, should derive from African themes and aesthetics. However Lewis saw limitations in the New Negro ideals and questioned its effectiveness in expressing his own identity and interests of the African American community.

In 1946 he announced that he wanted to create art that broke away from what he called "its stagnation in too much tradition." Inspired by the writings and art of the Russian painter Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944), one of the first artists to create abstract paintings, he abandoned representation in favor of the "conceptual expression" of ideas. Like other Abstract Expressionists working in New York, Lewis was deeply interested in music, and especially jazz, which influenced the painting of Phantasy II (shown in the article above). In an automatic process he made a linear composition with boldly colored lines and forms akin to the improvisational structure of jazz.

Lewis moved from abstract figuration to modernism, as exemplified by artists Wassily Kandinsky and Pablo Picasso. From that point forward his works are devoid of realistic imagery and focused more on conceptual expression, still often referring to African American settings and culture.

Lewis, always active in the art community, in the 1960s was a founding member of the Spiral Group, a group of African American artists who sought to contribute through their art to the civil rights movement.

Composite of copy borrowed from PBS and Museum of Modern Art

ATA ANNOUNCES EXHIBITING ARTISTS FOR 2010

2009-12-28T15:23:00.000-08:00

ATA'S 18TH ANNUAL SHOW WILL FEATURE WORK BY:
Alonzo ADAMS; Peter AMBUSH; Romare BEARDEN; Tinnetta BELL; Terry BODDIE; Harlan BRANDON; Bisa BUTLER; Leroy CAMPBELL; Kimmy CANTRELL; Jacqueline COLLIER; Floyd COOPER; Yasmin DeJESUS; Steven ELLIS; Margaret EL; Jerry GANT; Sam GILLIAM; Curlee HOLTON; Janice JAMISON; Nadine LaFOND; Miah LESLIE; Bill MAY; Lynn McKEE; Russell MURRAY; NAJEE; Rosalind Nzinga NICHOL; Janet Taylor PICKETT; Wannetta PHILLIPS; Sandra SMITH; Gwen VERNOR; Leonard WALDON; Richard WATSON; and Deborah WILLIS

ADDITIONAL PROGRAM DETAILS:
There will be a special memorial program to honor the life and art of Russell Aldo Murray, and Deborah Willis will be on hand to sign books. Please note that this year the reception will begin at 5:30 pm and end promptly at 9:00 pm. Dr. Willis will sign books from 6 to 6:45 pm, concluding just prior to the memorial segment of the program. At approximately 7:10 pm Dr. Willis will give a talk, and the participating artists will be introduced to guest. Light refreshments will be served afterwords.

For additional information, please visit www.artintheatrium.org.

Portrait of The First Lady

2009-08-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

A stunning, visual biography of Michelle Obama that finally puts her phenomenal fame into a cultural and historical context we can now all understand…

There has never been a First Lady like her before. While there have been a slew of Obama celebrity books, none contain the message of Deborah Willis and Emily Bernard’s eye-opening book. With nearly 200 compelling photographs, these two noted scholars capture Michelle Obama’s dramatic transformation from working mother to First Lady, from her first tentative steps on the campaign trail, to her spontaneous hug of the Queen, to her fairytale-like “Date Night” on Broadway. Not since Jacqueline Kennedy has there been a First Lady who has so enchanted America, but in her down-to-earth dealings with all Americans – schoolchildren, military families, and home gardeners alike – and in her diverse fashion taste, from J. Crew to Jason Wu, Michelle Obama is inexplicably all pearls, all business, all mother.
The authors show how Obama represents the culmination of America’s evolving views on women, race, motherhood, and beauty. Much more than a mere catalogue of style, Michelle Obama, is a remarkable pictorial story of one woman’s hold on our imagination.

Deborah Willis, a MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Fletcher fellow, is the author of Reflections in Black, Posing Beauty and the New York Times-bestselling The Historic Campaign. Emily Bernard is the author of Remember Me To Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She teaches at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

Submitted by: Winfrida Mbewe, Publicity Manager - W. W. Norton & Company 500 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10110 ph:212/790-4325, fax:212/869-0856 http://www.wwnorton.com

DEBORAH WILLIS, PhD
Art in the Atrium is proud to feature the art and photography of Deborah Willis in our 2010 Exhibit: “Wonderfully Made.” Willis is a celebrated contemporary African American artist, photographer, curator of photography, photographic historian, author, and educator. Most recently noted as the author of the best-selling Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs and the award-winning Reflections in Black. A recipient of MacArthur "genius" Award, Guggenheim, and Fletcher Fellowships, Willis has curated numerous exhibitions while continuing to work as the chair of the Photography and Imaging Department at the Tisch School of the Arts, and as a professor at New York University.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Willis is also the mother of one son, Hank Willis Thomas, a contemporary African American visual artist and photographer in his own right, whose primary interests are race, advertising and popular culture. Thomas work will be on display along side his mother's in the 2010 exhibit . Despite personal challenges, Willis survived a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2001, she continues to be a prolific ardent historian of the black experience in America. Our twentieth anniversary just two years away, and considering her recent work with both President and First Lady Obama, we are please at this point in our history to highlight the work of this important artist.

Exhibitions curated include:
"Posing Beauty in African American Culture," showing Fall 2009 at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and touring in the U.S. through December 2012.
"Reflections in Black," Arts and Industries Building, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 2000, on African American photography. The exhibition in whole or in part traveled widely in the U.S. between 2000 and 2003.
"Constructed Images: New Photography," which traveled between 1989 and 1992

Books written or co-authored include:
(2009) Progeny: Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas.

(2009). Posing Beauty: African American images from the 1890s to the present.
(2008). Obama: the historic campaign in photographs.
(2007). Let your motto be resistance: African American portraits.

(2005). African American vernacular photography: selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection.
(2005). Family history memory: recording African American life.
(2004). Black: a celebration of a culture.
(2003). A small nation of people: W.E.B. Du Bois and African-American portraits of progress.
(2002). The black female body: a photographic history.
(2002). One shot Harris: the photographs of Charles "Teenie" Harris.
(2000). Reflections in Black: a history of Black photographers, 1840 to the present.
(1996). The family of black America.
(1996). Visual journal: Harlem and D.C. in the thirties and forties.
(1995). Million man march.
(1994). Imagining families: images and voices.

(1994). Picturing us: African American identity in photography.
(1994). Harlem Renaissance: art of Black America.
(1993). J.P. Ball, daguerrean and studio photographer.
(1993). VanDerZee, photographer, 1886-1983.
(1992). Early Black photographers, 1840-1940: 23 postcards.
(1992). Lorna Simpson. San Francisco: Friends of Photography.
(1989). Black photographers bear witness: 100 years of social protest.
(1989). An illustrated bio-bibliography of Black photographers, 1940-1988.
(1987). Harlem Renaissance: art of Black America.
(1985). Black photographers, 1840-1940: an illustrated bio-bibliography

POSING BEAUTY: Deborah Willis ATA's 2010 Featured Artist's Recent Work

2009-08-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present

by Deborah Willis

is the first photographic history of black beauty. It tells a story overlooked by most of America, and promises to transform the way we think about the history of African American visual culture. Deborah Willis, whose much-celebrated Reflections in Black provided the first definitive history of black photographers, has now collected over two hundred photographs in duotone and full color that provide a lasting statement on beauty in the African American community. From posed studio portraits to dandies on parade to elegant debutantes, Willis has constructed a bold narrative of the ever-changing idea of beauty, both female and male, and shows how history books, newspapers, and mainstream magazines deliberately excluded black models until the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Each photograph opens a window into an entire world of African American life. Edward Curtis and Thomas Askew capture African American society women at the turn of the century, while Russell Lee’s photographs of the early 1940s show a prosperous Chicagoan in his smoking jacket and a crowd of young boys on Easter. Willis has also discovered other images, some of them taken by lesser-known but equally gifted photographers, which document the world of the barbershop, the beauty salon, and the beauty pageant. More recently, there are Anthony Barboza’s series of photos from the streets of Harlem in the early 1970s and Carl De Keyzer’s images of natty preachers and families in their Sunday best, which echo Henri Cartier-Bresson’s earlier photos of Harlem residents dressed for Easter Sunday parades.

While celebrating ordinary people, Posing Beauty is also filled with photographs of the famous, from Josephine Baker to Lil’ Kim. Classic photos of Muhammad Ali, James Brown, and Ray Charles, among others, bear witness to the rise of African American celebrities in the 1960s, while images of Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks show just how politically powerful beauty can be. More contemporary photos of Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Denzel Washington, and the Obamas demonstrate how African American beauty has actually often come to dominate popular American culture. Posing Beauty’s democratic vision, one that incorporates the dapper man on the street with the pop star of the movie screen, opens up a new vista for understanding what exactly beauty meant for people in the past and what it means for all of us today.

Posing Beauty will be available for purchase at our 2010 Exhibit, along with comments by the author.

EXHIBIT PREVIEW

2009-01-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a sneek peak at some of the other artists who will be showing work in this year's show.

DAVID C. DRISKELL 2009 Featured Artist

2008-12-15T03:38:00.000-08:00

Art in the Atrium is proud to present the works of Dr. David C. Driskell as the featured artist of or our 2009 show: "Artistic Vistas." Dr. Driskell will be on hand the night of the opening reception to talk about his work and to make a presentation to the Morris Museum of his “Woman in the Interior” (shown above). Other artist exhibiting in the show will also be present the night of the reception. Catering services provided by Martin Little Catering.

DAVID C. DRISKELL
Artist and Scholar

Born in 1931 into a family of Georgia sharecroppers, David C. Driskell is today a renowned painter and collector of art, as well as one of the leading authorities on the subject of African American art and the black artist in American society. His paintings can be found in major museums and private collections worldwide. His contributions to scholarship in the history of art include many books and more than 40 catalogues for exhibitions he has curated. His essays on the subject of African American art have appeared in major publications throughout the world. In establishing the Driskell Center, the University of Maryland has proudly taken up Driskell’s challenge to “grow the field.”

Prof. Driskell studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and received his undergraduate degree in art at Howard University (1955) and a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Catholic University (1962). He joined the faculty of the Department of Art at the University of Maryland in 1977 and served as its Chair from 1978-1983. He has been a practicing artist since the 1950s and his works are in major museums throughout the world, including the National Gallery of Art, the High Museum of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery.

In 1976, Driskell curated the groundbreaking exhibit “Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950” which laid the foundation for the field of African American Art History. Since 1977, Prof. Driskell has served as cultural advisor to Camille O. and William H. Cosby and as the curator of the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts. In 2000, in a White House Ceremony, Prof. Driskell received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton. In 2007, he was elected as a National Academician by the National Academy. © David C. Driskell Center

For more information about the show or to arrange for guided tours please call 973.540.0615. For more information about Art In The Atrium please refer to this blog or visit our web pages at: http://www.teaandwings.com/ATA%20WEBSITE%20PAGES/ATA_BETA.htm .