AUC Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective
Atlanta Art Week Events:
Mapping Art History at the Atlanta University Center | Westside
Wednesday, October 4 | 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
350 Spelman Ln SW, Atlanta, GA 30314
Paid parking on is available Spelman's campus.
Crisscrosses: Benny Andrews and the Poetry of Langston Hughes at The Michael C. Carlos Museum, curated by Nadia Scott | Decatur
Saturday, October 7 | 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
571 South Kilgo Cir NE, Atlanta, GA 30322
Paid parking is available on Emory's campus, parking deck, Fishburne Deck.
About:
Mapping Art History @ the Atlanta University Center: A walking tour of the historic campus buildings, artworks, and artists of Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College and Spelman College in Atlanta’s West End led by the next generation of curators, artists, and innovators.
Crisscrosses: Benny Andrews and the Poetry of Langston Hughes features a selection of illustrations that Andrews (1930-2006) created a year before his passing for the publication Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes. Andrews is perhaps best known for two things: his built-up oil and collage canvases and his activism in the late 1960s and 70s, demanding that New York City museums exhibit and hire more women and people of color. However, from his work on the 1968 poetry collection I Am the Darker Brother, to his brother Raymond’s novels, and a series of children’s picture books published in the early 2000s, illustration was always part of Andrews’s artistic practice.
Benny Andrews (1930–2006) Dream Variations (Langston Hughes Series), 2005 oil on joined paper with painted fabric and paper collage © Benny Andrews Estate; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NYThe illustrations highlight Andrews’s lifelong dedication to bringing fine art to spaces beyond galleries and museums, connections he referred to as the "crisscrosses" of his practice. For example, he led art classes in New York prisons and detention centers through his work with the Black Emergency Cultural Collation, taught art in the "Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge" program at Queens College, and created a series specifically for the Plainview Baptist Church in his native Morgan County, Georgia. By creating work for children’s books, Andrews was able to reach kids and their families in their own homes, schools, and libraries. Andrews used his art as a tool of political activism and community building. His approach illuminates the importance of including the arts when creating interdisciplinary solutions to the interdisciplinary problems of our society.
Crisscrosses explores the “collaboration” between the self-described “people’s painter” and Langston Hughes, “the people’s poet.” The pairing of the two artists, who never met, represents the continued use of social realism by Black American artists to shine a light on the socio-political concerns facing their people. Both artists used their respective mediums to reach new audiences and encourage them to engage intimately with their work. In these deceptively simple illustrations, Andrews creates dynamic worlds for Hughes’s words to live in. At times, these works are literal representations of the poetry, but the majority reflect Andrews’s own interpretations. His creative liberty in translating Hughes’s poems gives audiences young and old the space to find their own ways of connecting with, and exploring the joys, tragedies, and sorrows of the Black American experience found in the poet’s verse.
The Crisscrosses exhibition was developed as the culmination of Nadia Scott’s Summer 2023 internship with the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective and partner organization, the Andrews-Humphrey Family Foundation.
About the Curator: Nadia Scott is a senior history major and curatorial studies minor attending Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. From a young age, she has been captivated by the power of the historical record. With keen interests in public history, education, and cultural heritage, Nadia's aspirations as an emerging historian are centered around breaking down barriers. She aims to make history more inclusive and approachable to a wide range of people. She believes that history shouldn't be confined to academic circles; rather, it should be an engaging and accessible narrative for everyone. Her research focuses on how visual culture impacts identity formation, nation-building, and ideas of citizenship. Following her matriculation at Spelman, Nadia hopes to pursue a PhD in history.
About AUC: Future curators, art historians, museum professionals and artists all come together at the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective. Housed within the Department of Art & Visual Culture at Spelman College, this innovative program aims to shape the art world's future and position the Atlanta University Center as the leading incubator of African-American professionals in these fields. We are cultivating students who will seek knowledge, discover purpose and make change.
Made possible by generous support from the Alice L. Walton Foundation, undergraduate students enrolled in this program are also eligible for scholarships and paid summer internship opportunities.
www.aucartcollective.org | @auc_artcollective
Hours of Operation:
Michael C. Carlos Museum
Monday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed
ON VIEW UNTIL DECEMBER 10, 2023
Image Credits:
(1996 Spelman Museum) : Courtesy Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Ed.D., viewing Elizabeth Catlett Lovey Twice (1976) and Two Generations (1979) Rediscovery: Works from the Spelman College Collection, 1996
The Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective is launched. The first and only undergraduate program in the nation designed to educate the next generation of African American arts professionals. Photo courtesy of Gediyon Kifle.
(1900 Web Dubois) Atlanta University Professor W.E.B. DuBois employed demographic research and photography to disrupt racist thoughts about African Americans at the 1900 Paris Exposition, where he organized the exhibition, A Small Nation of People with commissioned portraits by Thomas A. Askew of Georgia.
Four African-American women seated on steps of Atlanta University, late 1890’s. Image taken from A Small Nation of People: W.E.B Du Bois & African-American Portraits of Progress. Published by The Library of Congress with essays by David Levering Lewis and Deborah Willis (2003). ©The Library of Congress
Donald Stewart, the sixth president of Spelman College, raised funds to purchase several contemporary works by Black women artists and positioned the College as an institution where objects by and about women of the African Diaspora were at the center. Courtesy Line: College Board Review, Winter 1986–87 issue
Hale Woodruff instituted the Exhibitions of Paintings, Sculpture, and Prints by Negro Artists in America, an annual juried competition and natural forum for black artists.
Group Photo compliments of Clark Atlanta University Art Museum website. Photo source unknown.