Spiral was a collective of African-American artists initially formed by Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and Hale Woodruff on July 5, 1963. It has since become the name of an exhibition, Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective. [1]
Active from the summer of 1963 through 1965, the group of artists met weekly to discuss the role of African-American artists in politics and the civil rights movement, as well as in the larger art world, [1] and organized one group exhibition. The group also discussed topics such as the African American experience and the African American image in art. [2]
The group was initiated after artists Romare Bearden and Hale Woodruff invited other artists to discussions in Bearden's loft. Initially the group was concerned with logistical issues, such as obtaining buses to travel to the March on Washington in the summer of 1963. Soon afterward, their efforts turned toward aesthetic concerns, including what author Ralph Ellison called a "new visual order." [3] The members of the group were at varying stages in their careers when they first started meeting. While they did agree that their place, as artists, in the civil rights movement was important, they had differing views on what that place would be. The artists in the group were moved to come together and discuss their own engagement in the struggle for civil rights, even though each found engagement in a different way. The collective allowed for a shared response to the courage that defined the struggle for civil rights. [4]
In the years leading up to the formation of Spiral, most of the artists were doing figurative work. Several started to experiment with abstraction as they grew as artists and began working more closely together. Bearden expressed the want of collaborating on a collage. But because the group used different techniques and mediums in their works, they decided that there would be other ways to impact the movement. [1] Although the group was active for only a short time, Spiral proved to be important as an historical initiative, and was one of the first artist groups to call for the cultural community's involvement in social change. [1]
The group's only exhibition was May 14 through June 5, 1965, titled First Group Showing: Works in Black and White. The exhibition was in part a response to the trend of major art institutions to overlook the work of African-American artists. Bearden had suggested the exhibition's black-and-white theme because it comprised both socio-political and formal concerns.
The Spiral group was relatively ignored in much traditional art history since its demise. [5] But interest in the group was rekindled by a group exhibition of the collective in Birmingham and New York in 2010-2011, and the associated catalogs. The exhibition looks at the way the Spiral collective came into its own during a period of American history full of unrest, and the varied visual responses of African-American artists. [4]
Woodruff suggested the name "spiral" in reference to the Archimedean spiral that "moves outward embracing all directions, yet continually upward". [1] The name also represented the diversity of styles and interests represented by the work of the members as they "sought to move toward common goals as individual artists and as African-American people". [1]
Spiral: Perspectives on an African-American Art Collective was on view at the Birmingham Museum of Art from December 5, 2010 through April 17, 2011. It was organized by Emily G. Hanna and Amalia Amaki. [4] The exhibition was on view at the Studio Museum in Harlem, July 14 through October 23, 2011. Spiral: American Masters was on view at Evolve the Gallery (accompanied by a full catalog) from April 12 through May 24, 2014. [6]
Charles Henry Alston was an American painter, sculptor, illustrator, muralist and teacher who lived and worked in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Alston was active in the Harlem Renaissance; Alston was the first African-American supervisor for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Alston designed and painted murals at the Harlem Hospital and the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building. In 1990, Alston's bust of Martin Luther King Jr. became the first image of an African American displayed at the White House.
Romare Bearden was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from New York University in 1935.
African-American art is a broad term describing visual art created by African Americans. The range of art they have created, and are continuing to create, over more than two centuries is as varied as the artists themselves. Some have drawn on cultural traditions in Africa, and other parts of the world, for inspiration. Others have found inspiration in traditional African-American plastic art forms, including basket weaving, pottery, quilting, woodcarving and painting, all of which are sometimes classified as "handicrafts" or "folk art".
The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, with a new one on the same site. Founded in 1968, the museum collects, preserves and interprets art created by African Americans, members of the African diaspora, and artists from the African continent. Its scope includes exhibitions, artists-in-residence programs, educational and public programming, and a permanent collection.
Ernest Crichlow was an American social realist artist known for his narrative paintings and illustrations from the Depression-era, which focused on social injustice and the realities faced by African Americans.
Hale Aspacio Woodruff was an American artist known for his murals, paintings, and prints.
Richard Mayhew is an Afro-Native American landscape painter, illustrator, and arts educator. His abstract, brightly colored landscapes are informed by his experiences as an African American/Native American and his interest in Jazz and the performing arts. He lives and works in Soquel and Santa Cruz, California.
Norman Wilfred Lewis was an American painter, scholar, and teacher. Lewis, who was African-American and of Bermudian descent, was associated with abstract expressionism, and used representational strategies to focus on black urban life and his community's struggles.
The Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA) is an art museum located in Greenville, South Carolina. Its collections focus mainly on American art, and its holdings include works by Andrew Wyeth, Josef Albers, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Ronnie Landfield, Helen Turner, Mary Tannahill, Eric Fischl, Marylyn Dintenfass, and Leon Golub. Southern American and South Carolina-based artists, such as Henrietta Johnston, are also represented.
Emma Amos was a postmodern African-American painter and printmaker.
Merton Daniel Simpson was an American abstract expressionist painter and African and tribal art collector and dealer.
Neuberger Museum of Art is located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is affiliated with Purchase College, part of the State University of New York system. It is the nation's tenth-largest university museum. The museum is one of 14 sites on the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County.
William Etienne "Bill" Pajaud was an African-American artist, primarily working in watercolor, known for his paintings exploring themes of jazz. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and died in Los Angeles, California, on June 16, 2015, at the age of 89. He was the curator of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Fine Art Collection.
Joe Wesley Overstreet was an African-American painter from Mississippi who lived and worked in New York City for most of his career. In the 1950s and early 1960s he was associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement.
The 306 Group were a collective of African American artists who worked and socialized together in Harlem, New York City in the 1930s. The name of the group was derived from the address of a studio space, 306 W. 141st Street, used by two of the artists, Charles Alston and Henry Bannarn. Many of these artists also worked with the Federal Art Project.
Tom Lloyd (1929–1996) was an American sculptor, activist and community organizer.
We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 was an exhibition held at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from April 21, 2017, through September 17, 2017 surveying the last twenty years of black female art. The exhibition was organized thematically, presenting forty artists and activists whose work was dedicated to the fight against racism, sexism, homophobia, and class injustice.
Esther Rolick (1922–2008) was an American painter born in Rochester, New York, on October 9, 1922. She studied at the Art Students League and was represented by Jacques Seligmann Galleries in New York in the early 1950's. She was a fellow at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and her exhibition credits range from the Whitney Museum of American Art to Le Centre D'Art in Haiti. Rolick traveled and painted extensively, especially in Bogota, Colombia, Rome, and Tahiti. She is listed in Who Was Who in American Art, and her papers are in the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Cinque Gallery (1969–2004) was co-founded by artists Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, and Norman Lewis as an outgrowth of the Black power movement to "provide a place where the works of unknown, and neglected artists of talent …" — primarily Black artists — "would not only be shown but nurtured and developed". "Relying on a series of volunteers, Cinque hosted solo, group, and touring exhibitions," and sponsored an artist-in-residence program, which was inaugurated with collagist Nanette Carter.
Reginald Gammon (1921-2005) was an American artist and member of the African American artist's collective, Spiral.
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