Work
Ausby worked in a variety of mediums, including canvas, sculpture, stained glass, and performance art. He often worked with traditional African forms and palettes. Many of his paintings, such as Meditation in Blue, employ the style of Hard-edge painting. Some of his later art, such as his work in stained glass, reflect the sensibilities of the Pattern and Decoration movement. [5]
He was heavily inspired by the music of Sun Ra, and in the late 1970s began his series of geometric experimentation paintings titled Space Odyssey, named as such to reflect this connection to Sun Ra’s afrofuturist philosophies. He would continue to work on the series for several years. As time went on, Ausby began to incorporate more three-dimensional elements into his work, mixing substances such as sawdust into his paint in order to create more textured works and incorporating relief elements which extended off the surface of the canvas. He often used unstretched canvas in his work, which would be attached directly to gallery walls and other structural supports to create dynamic three-dimensional shapes for exhibition.
In 1978 and 1979, Ausby received artist grants through the Cultural Council Foundation Artists’ Project, which was funded under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. Through these grants, Ausby was able to direct the multimedia performance piece InnerSpace/OuterSpace, which was performed at the Museum of Natural History, New York and incorporated projections of his paintings and sculptures. [6] In 2005, Ausby was commissioned by the MTA to design the stained glass piece Space Odyssey, which is now installed at the Marcy Avenue station in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
His Meditation in Blue (1998), a geometric abstraction in acrylic, is housed in the Saint Louis Art Museum permanent collection. [7]
Ausby's work has been shown in both solo and collective exhibitions.
| Year | Exhibition Title | Institution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | New Black Artists [8] | Brooklyn Museum | |
| 1970 | Unknown [6] | Cinque Gallery | First solo exhibition. Gallery now closed. |
| 1970 | Afro-American Artists, New York and Boston [9] | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | |
| 1971 | Some American History [10] | Rice University Institute for the Arts, Houston | Commissioned by the Menil Foundation. |
| 1971 | Contemporary Black Artists in America [6] | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York | |
| 1972 | Ellsworth Ausby and James Phillips: Paintings [11] | Peale House Galleries, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1980 | Afro-American Abstraction [12] | MoMA PS1 | First “Space Odyssey” polyptych displayed. |
| 2021 | Ellsworth Ausby: Somewhere in Space, Paintings from the 1960s and 1970s [6] | Eric Firestone Gallery |
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References
- ↑ "Gerald Jackson by Stanley Whitney - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ Boyd, Herb (2016-09-29). "Griot and culinary anthropologist Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor passes at 79". New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "Jamillah Jennings - Artists - Eric Firestone Gallery". www.ericfirestonegallery.com. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "Exhibitions". New Museum Digital Archive. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "Ellsworth Ausby". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- 1 2 3 4 "Ellsworth Ausby: Somewhere in Space, Paintings from the 1960s and 1970s - 40 Great Jones Street | New York, NY - Exhibitions - Eric Firestone Gallery". www.ericfirestonegallery.com. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "Meditation in Blue". Saint Louis Art Museum. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ Times, Hilton Kramer Special to The New York (1970-05-22). "Black Artists' Show On View in Boston". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "Diaspora-artists: View details". new.diaspora-artists.net. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "History of the Peale House Gallery Exhibitions (1964-1978) · PAFA's Digital Archives". pafaarchives.org. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ↑ "Afro-American Abstraction | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2021-10-23.