Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience. - Hardcover

Young, Kevin; Bryant, Aaron

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 084783669X ISBN 13: 9780847836697

Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications, 2024

Synopsis

Explores the powerful ways in which visual art has long provided its own rich outlet for protest, commentary, escape, and perspective for African Americans.

This important book showcases the potent role of visual art in African American history and culture. Featuring Black artists working in a range of media, from photography to sculpture to painting—including Amy Sherald, Benny Andrews, Sheila Pree Bright, Bisa Butler, Charles Alston, Elizabeth Catlett, Shaun Leonardo, and David Hammons, to name just a few—the book considers art that exemplifies resilience in times of conflict, as well as the ritual of creation, and the defiant pleasure of healing.

Reckoning, based on the exhibition of the same name at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), explores the ongoing struggles Black Americans have faced in their pursuit to enjoy the fundamental rights and freedoms promised in the Constitution to citizens of the United States. Drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, the featured works respond to the dual crises of Covid-19 and systemic racism that shaped 2020, a period that has been called one of reckoning, as the world witnessed the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other African Americans, leading to some of the largest protests in US history.

About this title

About the Author

Kevin Young is director of the NMAAHC. Aaron Bryant is curator of photography, visual culture, and contemporary history at the NMAAHC. Michelle D. Commander is deputy director at the NMAAHC. Tuliza Fleming is interim chief curator of visual arts at the NMAAHC. Bisa Butler is an artist. Amy Sherald is an artist. Deborah Willis is a renowned photography historian and critic.

From the Back Cover

Explores the powerful ways in which visual art has long provided its own rich outlet for protest, commentary, escape, and perspective for African Americans.

This important book showcases the potent role of visual art in African American history and culture. Featuring Black artists working in a range of media, from photography to sculpture to painting―including Amy Sherald, Benny Andrews, Sheila Pree Bright, Bisa Butler, Charles Alston, Elizabeth Catlett, Shaun Leonardo, and David Hammons, to name just a few―the book considers art that exemplifies resilience in times of conflict, as well as the ritual of creation, and the defiant pleasure of healing.

Reckoning, based on the exhibition of the same name at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), explores the ongoing struggles Black Americans have faced in their pursuit to enjoy the fundamental rights and freedoms promised in the Constitution to citizens of the United States. Drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, the featured works respond to the dual crises of Covid-19 and systemic racism that shaped 2020, a period that has been called one of reckoning, as the world witnessed the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other African Americans, leading to some of the largest protests in US history.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 084783669X
• ISBN 13: 9780847836697
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208