The North Carolina Museum of Art Displays Contemporary African American Art

Written by Ernest Montrose Wednesday, 23 November 2011 21:09

Raleigh, NC.— The North Carolina Museum of Art is proud to present "30 Americans", an exhibition of work by many significant contemporary African American artists, in its Meymandi Exhibition Gallery in East Building until September 4th. Organized by the internationally known Rubell Family Collection, the exhibition features 75 works of art from the last three decades and includes painting,drawing, photography, video, sculpture, and mixed-media installations. 30 Americans brings together both established and emerging artists whose work explores issues of race, gender, identity, history, and popular culture.

By featuring seminal figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Hammons alongside rising stars like Hank Willis Thomas and Kehinde Wiley, 30 Americans also highlights artistic legacy and influence, and illustrates how a previous generation of African American artists influenced those working today. “The works in the exhibition invite, provoke, and encourage the viewer to reexamine assumptions and viewpoints,” said Linda Dougherty, curator of contemporary art. “They also offer visitors the opportunity to see the world from alternative perspectives and to see that beneath highly individual and personal stories, experiences, and identities, there is much we all hold in common, regardless of race, gender, and history.”


Covering more than 15,000 square feet of gallery space, 30 Americans is a sweeping display across a variety of media by some of the nation’s best contemporary artists. The works of art on view are provocative and dramatic, and many have never been shown in this region.  Highlights of the exhibition include several of Nick Cave’s sculptural Soundsuits constructed from found materials, Kehinde Wiley’s portraits of contemporary African American men that reference Old Master paintings, three graffiti-inspired paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and conceptual artist Glenn Ligon’s text paintings and installations that borrow words from historical and contemporary figures. "30 Americans" also features work by Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Barkley Hendricks, Gary Simmons, Mark Bradford, Rashid Johnson, Mickalene Thomas, Iona rozeal brown, and Kara Walker, among others.

The North Carolina Museum of Art's history began in 1924, when the North Carolina State Art Society was formed. In 1928, the society acquired funds and approximately 75 paintings by bequest from Robert F. Phifer, a North Carolina native and businessman. In 1929 the first in a series of temporary art exhibition spaces opened in the Agriculture Building in Raleigh. In 1947 the state legislature appropriated $1 million to purchase a collection of art for the people of North Carolina. The appropriation, which was unheard of at the time and drew national attention, was in response to a then-anonymous challenge grant from noted philanthropist Samuel H. Kress of New York through the persuasive efforts of Robert Lee Humber. The initial $1 million legislative appropriation was used to purchase 139 European and American paintings and sculptures. The Kress Foundation matched the $1 million appropriation with a gift of 70 works of art, primarily Italian Renaissance, adding the Museum to its program of endowing regional museums throughout the United States with works from the Kress Collection. The Kress gift to the Museum became the largest and most important of any except that given to the National Gallery of Art. The Museum’s original collection, along with the Kress gift, established the North Carolina Museum of Art as one of the premier art museums.


By the 1960s the Museum had outgrown its Morgan Street location. Designed by Edward Durrell Stone and Associates of New York and Holloway-Reeves Architects of North Carolina, the new building in Blue Ridge Road opened in 1983. At 181,000 square feet it was four times the square footage of the Morgan Street location and had twice the exhibition space. In 2000 the Museum began to lay plans fo the construction of a new building specifically for the purpose of housing the permanent collection. Over the course of the next two years, the Museum began working with architects Thomas Phifer and Partners on the design of a new gallery building. A unique glass-walled architectural structure with striking roof lines, a dramatic exterior, and state-of-the-art environmental elements, West Building has arisen adjacent to the original building on the Museum site. With the exterior 50 percent glass, the 127,000-square-foot gallery space allows for filtered natural light and viewing of the collection in a whole new way. Landscaped sculpture gardens and reflecting pools complement the existing Museum Park and strengthen the connection of art and nature. Visit the museum's website at ... http://ncartmuseum.org

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