BRILLIANT AND BRILLIANT. BLACK ARTISTS ON ART
VOL: 1 AND 2. PUBLISHED
OUT OF LOS ANGELES IN
1971. AND OUT OF PRINT
EVER SINCE. THERE ARE
150+ ARTISTS PICTURED
AND PROFILED HERE. FIFTY YEARS LATER AND CAREERS HAVE BEEN MADE, LIVES
LIVED OR LOST (READY TO
BE REDISCOVERED). IT'S A GREAT ADVENTURE.
WOW! And... as if that's not good enough...
Volume 2 looks even better! There is a quality about some (not so) old books where they just look and feel perfectly packed with energy and promise. These two titles you could sense a mile away. They are magical.
Inside. It is an extraordinarily rich resource; the work of 150 or more Black American artists circa 1970. It is also a super exciting visual reference to what 150 artists circa 1970 looked like. Pictures of people looking cool is what we do and these books deliver again and again.
The lives of the artists. Ben Hazard is 83 now. You can read about his life and work and see his art here. These books are so much more than we could write about. There are 150 plus stories to follow.
The stories that aren't told are no less fascinating. Florestee Vance is not found easily in an internet search. She may have married and changed her name. She may have stopped painting. You see her and her work and you want to know.
Bernard Young too. Missing from the internet. On a need-to-know basis, we need to know!
Double page above of works by Dion Henderson. He was a mural artist whose work is both recorded on the internet and preserved in actuality. In 1968 he was commissioned by the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party to paint a wall, now known as The People's Wall. It is still there.
Evelyn Terry, now 77, you can read about here. She's working now.
Phillip Mason's 1969 painting Women As Body Spirit (right) made it onto the cover of the first volume of these books. In 1972 it became the album sleeve for Luis Gasca's hot LA trumpet jazz album For Those Who Chant. Subsequent to this book, the artist was known as Phillip Lindsay Mason and you can dive into his 1970's Black Power meets Pop Art work here on this link.
Yep. A picture of a person looking cool. This is Donald E. Coles. Sadly Donald is, at least for us, right now, one of the artists we can't easily find. But his inspiration is ours and yours now.
And so to the books! We have just one copy of each volume - sold as a pair. That's because they are RARE. Also (relatively) expensive. So for those with the monies to buy these books (please do) on the button below.