Black History Month: Black Art Matters Exhibit

Black Art Matters uplifts the diverse contributions of Black visual artists working a variety of mediums. Art as a creative expression examines history, contemporary life, and the future by documenting lived experiences; engaging social commentary, protest and social justice; surfacing uncomfortable histories; exploring emotion; creating parodies; and embracing new ways of representing ideas. The Black artists’ work in this exhibit of library books display the range of topics noted above and additional topics such as slavery, Black humanity, and Black pride expressed in a variety of styles and methods.

Background about why we celebrate Black History Month.

The online exhibit Black@PLU traces the stories of Black students, staff, faculty, and organizations that have shaped the history of Pacific Lutheran University. Black@PLU is a PLU Archives and Special Collections digital exhibit.

Print books on display:
The new black vanguard : photography between art and fashion
The block : poems (Romare Bearden)
The art of John Biggers : view from the upper room
Aaron Douglas : African American modernist
Jacob Lawrence : paintings, drawings, and murals (1935-1999) : a catalogue raisonné
Symphonic poem : the art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson
Family legacies : the art of Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar
Betye Saar : extending the frozen moment
Beholding Christ and Christianity in African American art
The art of history : African American women artists engage the past
Creating their own image : the history of African-American women artists
Now dig this! : art & Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat
Black visual culture : modernity and postmodernity
Child of the fire : Mary Edmonia Lewis and the problem of art history’s Black and Indian subject
Elizabeth Catlett : an American artist in Mexico
Seeing the unspeakable : the art of Kara Walker
Kara Walker : pictures from another time
Consuming stories : Kara Walker and the imagining of American race
Beauford Delaney : from New York to Paris
Painting Harlem modern : the art of Jacob Lawrence
Storm watch : the art of Barbara Earl Thomas
The Wall of Respect : public art and Black liberation in 1960s Chicago
Dancing at the Louvre : Faith Ringgold’s French collection and other story quilts
Black comix : African American independent comics, art and culture
Half past autumn : a retrospective (Gordon Parks)
Reflections in Black : a history of Black photographers, 1840 to the present
Kehinde Wiley : a new republic
Black light (Kehinde Wiley)
Michael Ray Charles : a retrospective

e-book:
The Obama Portraits