Saturday, September 12, 2009

We Don't Have to Wait Until February

For years art exhibitions focusing on African-American found a home on the gallery schedule in February, African-American History Month. Appropriately, programing recognizing the culture fills the month's calendar of events. While happy to welcome such recognition, I'm probably not the only one who has looked forward to a time when exhibitions of works by Romare Beardon could be viewed anytime throughout the year. Well, the Taft Museum of Art has challenged the exhibition schedule with The Chemistry of Color currently on view.

This really is such a beautiful show including some of my favorite artists. Along with Beardon you can see Faith Ringgold, Jacob Lawrence, and Betye Saar. The show also presents objects from the late 20th century. All of the works not only present well-known elements of African-American history, but also a wide spectrum of artistic influences from Latin-America, Asia, Africa, Europe and those of fellow Americans. Equally vibrant are the various artistic genres and media. You will find, references to music, dance, and architecture in oils, collage, textiles, and sculpture.

The Chemistry of Color is on view now through November 1, 2009. Be sure to visit as you may not get another chance to see such works until February 2010.

1 comments:

VisuaLingual said...

This is the best, most inspiring group of works I've seen in a long time!