The International Review of African American Art, Vol. 13 No. 2 (1996)

Description

Editor
Samella Lewis, Ph.D.

Managing Editor
Juliette Bowles

Associate Editor
M. J. Hewitt, Ph.D.

Executive Publisher
William R. Harvey, Ed.D.

The visual arts of African Americans evolved from a dual agenda—personal and social. Initially challenging the notion that Black people had “lower” aesthetic sensibilities, the social purpose expanded to confront every injustice and hardship of our experience and to reveal all of its power. The social agenda also demonstrated that Black artists need not conform to any such agenda (which in its demonstration was still a social statement).

And on to this moment. A collection of somewhat cohesive facets replaces the monolithic “Black community” and the dual agenda multiplies into a mass of singular and overlapping aims—one of which is the development of a conception that suggests the enfoldment of race, gender and other identity states within the beyond–identity state of all that is: all different, all the same, all at once. This vision continues the traditions of our West African and Native American forbearers and other seekers who gave precedence to all–pervasive spirit over material experience. Perhaps art can best reveal the complexity and the simplicity of identity–being on one level and its absence on another. It can remind us of the flow connecting everything and oneself and nothing in an endless loop and suggest the undulating uni–multi–uni–multi–dimensionality that is the ultimate groove.

So, it is from this perspective that we celebrate the 20^th anniversary of The International Review of African American Art. To get here from that moment of insemination in Samella Lewis’s living room has been a struggle—much of it a selfless, ingenious, resourceful effort on Samella’s part. During this period, she was also curating exhibits, teaching and lecturing, writing books and catalogues, publishing posters and art cards and squeezing in a little time for her own painting and printmaking. Her output has been, and continues to be, amazing! We salute Samella Lewis’s imagination, fecundity and dedication; our own “genius in the house.” On this occasion we also applaud the exceptional work of the invisible force behind our manifestation: Jan Miller Graphics, a state–of–the–art design firm in Newport News, VA.

—Juliette Bowles

 Feature Articles and Contributors:

“The View from Now”, Juliette Bowles

“Reflections On 20 Years of IRAAA: A Conversation With Samella Lewis”, Jeanne Zeidler

“Images of an Era”, Diane Weathers

“Postmodernism Made Easy”, Sharon F. Patton, Ph.D.

“Two Decades of Momentous Change: 1976–1996”

“The Spirit of 1996”

Bibliographic Details

Title:                                      The International Review of African American Art

Publisher:                            The Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia

Publication Date:              1996

Binding:                                Pictorial Softcover

Book Condition:                Excellent

Book Type:                          Quarterly Magazine

Shipping Terms:

All books are padded and wrapped carefully.  Most are shipped in a box, unless very small, in which case they will be shipped in a padded envelope.