Friday, June 21, 2019

An accounting for galleries who had their first show of paintings of black people in 2019,18, Art History majors alight, hopefully. I wonder if there was a catalyst we could point to? The Obama portrait, the skyrocketing prices of the all too great Kerry James Marshall or Njideka Akunyili Crosby, or the all too late Barkley Hendricks Artforum cover, or just people finally awoking to a refreshing air if it didn't come perfumed with so much nervous pumping to a fill a vacuum so obvious. "Young Black Artists Are More in Demand Than Ever—But the Art World Is Burning Them Out" read headlines, like, no shit. "Williams is not alone in feeling conflicted about the type of imagery collectors in particular are gobbling up. 'White collectors want to buy representations of a black body,' artist Kayode Ojo says, 'and there was a time when you could just buy a black person. It’s like, maybe they’re doing the same thing now.'" That paranoia in not just pain but success too.