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AfriCOBRA (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) is an African-American artists' collective formed in Chicago in 1968. [1] The group was founded by Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Nelson Stevens, and Gerald Williams. [1]
AfriCOBRA's founding members were first associated with the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), established in 1967. [2] This group, formed in Chicago to encourage education and performance amongst the city's African American population, was responsible for the famous Wall of Respect. [3] The wall consisted of a series of portraits dedicated to individuals considered heroes and heroines of African American history. [2] The Wall of Respect was ultimately destroyed in a fire in 1971. However, it served as an inspiration for further artistic representation of the African American experience. [3]
Jeff Donaldson and Wadsworth Jarrell, two OBAC artists who had contributed to the Wall of Respect, began exploring whether or not a Black art movement could be started on the basis of a common aesthetic creed. [4] After a series of meetings, Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barabara Jones-Hogu, and Gerald Williams would come together to form the group known as COBRA, the Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. It was not until a few years later that the group changed their name to AfriCOBRA. [5]
AfriCOBRA was founded on the South Side of Chicago by a group of artists intent on defining a "black aesthetic." AfriCOBRA artists were associated with the Black Arts Movement in America, a movement that began in the mid-1960s and that celebrated culturally-specific expressions of the contemporary Black community in the realms of literature, theater, dance and the visual arts. [6] The group operated on the principles of social responsibility, artistic excellence, local artistic involvement and lastly, the promotion of pride in Black self-identity. [7]
Beginning in 1968, AfriCOBRA members met regularly on the South Side of Chicago at the home and studio of Wadsworth and Jae Jarrell where they discussed ways that their art could embody a "Black aesthetic," based on an agreed upon aesthetic creed. [2] [8] The group initially started out as COBRA, The Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. [9] The group's sole purpose was emphasizing self determination and universal Black liberation. Cobra used current events and the political climate as subject for their art, for the purpose of bringing awareness.
After the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, the group responded with a series of paintings meant to represent the Black Family. [10] The paintings functioned as a call to awareness of racial violence in America, which had been demonstrated on national television on August 28, 1968, where demonstrators at the convention were beaten and brutalized by police. Every member of Cobra contributed an image to the theme. [10]
In 1969, the group changed their name to AfriCOBRA (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists). [5] Choosing to focus more on the Diaspora of people of African descent, the group embraced rising Afrocentric ideology. The name change was followed by the addition of new artists, including Napoleon Henderson, Nelson Stevens, Sherman Beck, and Carolyn Lawrence. [11]
In 1970, the group participated in an exhibition titled Ten in Search of a Nation at the Studio Museum of Harlem. [8] This exhibition helped to introduce AfriCOBRA to an audience outside of Chicago. [8] The work was not for sale, as its sole function was that of education. The group maintained that they did not want to promote individual gain from the images. The group returned to the Studio Museum in Harlem for the AfriCOBRA II show in the fall of 1971. [12] The group continued to participate in exhibitions at historically African American colleges throughout the 1970s.
During the 1970s, many artists associated with AfriCOBRA traveled back to Africa to study African art, considering African art to be essential to their work as AfriCOBRA artists. They traveled back to Africa during a time when many African countries were gaining independence from colonial rule. Additionally, many of these countries were gaining stature at American universities, many of which were beginning to create their African Studies programs. These traveling individuals became known as "returnee" artists, and many pursued degrees in African art. Many of them are still important scholars of African and African American art today.
In 1977, AfriCOBRA was invited to FESTAC'77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria. The festival saw over 15,000 artists from around the world in attendance. The event was held from January 15 through February 12, 1977, and all people of African descent were invited. They were organized by geographical zones. Jeff Donaldson was placed in charge of the North American artists delegation, while Jae Jarrell was a chair on the FESTAC Committee of Creative Modern Black and African Dress.
After FESTAC'77, AfriCOBRA once again changed its name, AfriCOBRA to Africobra/Farafindugu. Farafindugu, a Malinke word, was interpreted to mean the "complex concept of blackness, brother-hood, and black land," as said by Farafindugu artist Frank Smith.
AfriCOBRA wanted to communicate the Black aesthetic as a new sense of purpose; the Black aesthetic was not simply art, but a powerful image. [13] The image was a representation of Black pride, Black self-determination, and a support of all Black people of the Diaspora. The group had a main purpose of celebrating African identity and calling awareness to the political struggles through the representation of Black Visual Culture. AfriCOBRA's work incorporated elements of free jazz, vibrant, "kool-aid" colors, and images representing spiritual identity. [2] Their images were to perform a function that Black people could directly relate to, emphasizing education and awareness of the conditions of Black people. [6]
In an interview celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Teresa A. Carbone (the Curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum) stated, "It's difficult to draw a one-to-one correspondence between a work and an immediate social effect, but graphics from the Chicago artist collective AfriCOBRA, [African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists] really did help reshape the mindset of black communities." [14]
AfriCOBRA works to make African-American art a community effort. Much of the visual aesthetic of these works are focused on social, political, and economical conditions related to Black Americans. They created a manifesto entitled "Ten in Search of a Nation" in 1969. [5]
One of the most notable works was the commemoration of black revolutionaries in the Wall of Respect that was painted by the members of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Gerald Williams, and Barbara Jones-Hogu were members originally who later on formed AfriCOBRA, as well as Sylvia Abernathy, Myrna Weaver and others. [15] This wall also became what Barbara Jones-Hogu described as "a visual symbol of Black nationalism and liberation."
AfriCOBRA was more than a collection of artists; it was a passionate call for freedom founded on a set of philosophical and aesthetic principles. In the struggle for liberation and equality within the African-American community, AfriCOBRA represented these principles through the medium of art.
Barbara Jones-Hogu characterized the artistic expression of the AfriCOBRA movement by saying: "[Our art] must communicate to its viewer a statement of truth, of action, of education, of conditions and a state of being to our people. We wanted to speak to them and for them, by having our common thoughts, feelings, trials and tribulations express our total existence as a people.[ citation needed ]
Later wrote in Afri-COBRA III Exhibition catalog, 1973 "The History, Philosophy, and Aesthetics of Afri-COBRA" which contained several lists of directives, philosophical concepts, aesthetic principles, all of which is Jones-Hogu's interpretation of the statues that the group followed. [16] The visual statements are described as humanistic in order to stress "strength, straight forwardness, profoundness, and proudness," as well as providing a direct statement about issues of that time. [16] The philosophical concepts described with bolded words stating images, "identification", "programmatic", "modes of expression", and "expressive awesomeness". [16] Aesthetic principles also are described the same with "free symmetry", "mimesis at mid-point", "visibility", "luminosity", and "color", more specifically "Cool-ade color" which is deeply associated with AfriCOBRA's art and era. [16]
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from the incredible accomplishments of artists of the Harlem Renaissance.
Afri may refer to:
William Walker was a notable muralist from Chicago. He was one of the founders of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) and one of the leaders in the project involving the Wall of Respect. He was also one of the critical founders of the mural movements in Chicago during the 1960s. He has cited Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, and Chicago painter William McBride, as well as the work of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco as important influences.
Jeff Donaldson was a visual artist whose work helped define the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Donaldson, co-founder of AfriCOBRA and contributor to the momentous Wall of Respect, was a pioneer in African-American personal and academic achievement. His art work is known for creating alternative black iconography connected to Africa and rooted in struggle, in order to replace the history of demeaning stereotypes found in mainstream white culture.
Wadsworth Aikens Jarrell is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born in Albany, Georgia, and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation, he became heavily involved in the local art scene and through his early work he explored the working life of African-Americans in Chicago and found influence in the sights and sounds of jazz music. In the late 1960s he opened WJ Studio and Gallery, where he, along with his wife, Jae, hosted regional artists and musicians.
The Organization of Black American Culture (OBA-C) was conceived during the era of the Civil Rights Movement by Hoyt W. Fuller as a collective of African-American writers, artists, historians, educators, intellectuals, community activists, and others. The group was originally known as Committee for the Arts (CFA), which formed in February 1967 in Southside Chicago, Illinois. By May 1967, the group became OBAC and included Black intellectuals Hoyt W. Fuller, the poet Conrad Kent Rivers, and Gerald McWorter. OBAC aimed to coordinate artistic support in the struggle for freedom, justice and equality of opportunity for African Americans. The organization had workshops for visual arts, drama, and writing, and produced two publications: a newsletter, Cumbaya, and the magazine Nommo.
"Where We At" Black Women Artists, Inc. (WWA) was a collective of Black women artists affiliated with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It included artists such as Dindga McCannon, Kay Brown, Faith Ringgold, Carol Blank, Jerri Crooks, Charlotte Kâ (Richardson), and Gylbert Coker. Where We At was formed in the spring of 1971, in the wake of an exhibition of the same name organized by 14 Black women artists at the Acts of Art Gallery in Greenwich Village. Themes such as the unity of the Black family, Black female independence and embodiment, Black male-female relationships, contemporary social conditions, and African traditions were central to the work of the WWA artists. The group was intended to serve as a source of empowerment for African-American women, providing a means for them to control their self-representation and to explore issues of Black women's sensibility and aesthetics. Like AfriCobra, a Chicago-based Black Arts group, the WWA was active in fostering art within the African-American community and used it as a tool of awareness and liberation. The group organized workshops in schools, jails and prisons, hospitals, and cultural centers, as well as art classes for youth in their communities.
Elaine "Jae" Jarrell is an American artist best known for her fashion designs and her involvement with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s.
The Wall of Respect was an outdoor mural first painted in 1967 by the Visual Arts Workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC). It is considered the first large-scale, outdoor community mural, which spawned a movement across the U.S. and internationally. The mural represented the contributions of fourteen designers, photographers, painters, and others, notably Chicago muralist William Walker, in a design layout proposed by Laini (Sylvia) Abernathy. Some of the artists would go on to found the influential AfriCOBRA artists collective. The work comprised a montage of portraits of heroes and heroines of African American history painted on the sides of two story, closed tavern building at the corner of Chicago's East 43rd Street and South Langley Avenue, in Bronzeville, Chicago, sometimes called the Black Belt. Images included Nat Turner, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Gwendolyn Brooks, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Aretha Franklin, and Harriet Tubman, among others. While it only lasted a few years, until the building was torn down in 1972, it inspired community mural projects across the United States and internationally.
Gerald Williams is an American visual artist whose work has been influential within the Black Arts Movement, a transnational aesthetic phenomenon that first manifested in the 1960s and continues to evolve today. Williams was a founding member of AfriCOBRA. His work has been featured in exhibitions at some of the most important museums in the world, including the Tate Modern, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. In addition to his influence as a contemporary artist, he has served in the Peace Corps, taught in the public schools systems of Chicago and Washington, D.C., and served as an Arts and Crafts Center Director for the United States Air Force. In 2015, he moved back to his childhood neighborhood of Woodlawn, Chicago, where he currently lives and works. In 2019, Mr. Williams was awarded The Honorary Doctors of Philosophy in Art by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, along with his co-founders of the AFRICOBRA, Jae Jarrell, and Wadsworth A. Jarrell.
Barbara Jones-Hogu was an African-American artist best known for her work with the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) and for co-founding the artists' collective AfriCOBRA.
Norman Parish was an American artist and art dealer. He was the founder and director of the Parish Gallery in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. The gallery was described by The Washington Post as an art gallery "that spotlighted African American artists at a time when few other galleries concentrated on showing their work."
Carolyn Mims Lawrence is a visual artist and teacher known for her role in the Chicago Black Arts Movement. She earned a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in 1968 from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a thesis entitled “Teaching Afro-American Culture through the Visual Arts.” In 1967 Lawrence joined OBAC to create the Wall of Respect, a mural composed of portraits of African American heroes located on the South Side of Chicago. Lawrence collaborated with muralist William Walker to paint the section of the wall honoring Black Muslims.
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.
Napoleon Jones-Henderson is a Black American weaver and multimedia artist most known for his role in AfriCOBRA, an artist collective established in Chicago, Illinois, in 1968. Jones-Henderson joined AfriCOBRA in 1969, a year after its founding.
Kevin Cole is an African-American artist and educator. He has created more than 45 public art works including a 55-foot long installation for the Atlanta International Airport, and the Coca-Cola Centennial Olympic Mural for the 1996 Olympic games.
Billy Abernathy (1939–2016) was an American photographer. He was married to Laini (Sylvia) Abernathy, an artist and activist.
Robert Paige is a multi-disciplinary artist and arts educator working across textile design, painting, collage, and sculpture based in Woodlawn, Chicago. As an artist and textile designer allied with the Black Arts Movement, Robert E. Paige trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and worked at the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Sears Roebuck & Company and Fiorio Milano design house in Italy. Paige was raised in Chicago's South Side where he continues to live and work, further developing his longstanding career in the decorative arts. His work visually and conceptually interrogates political and cultural themes that reflect both historical and contemporary African American art references, as well as traditional textile practices of West Africa.
Nelson Stevens was an artist known for his involvement with Chicago-based Black art collective AfriCOBRA. Stevens' works are held by institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Tate.
Sherman Beck is an artist born, raised, and based in Chicago, Illinois, known for his brightly-colored kaleidoscopic paintings as one of the members of the Black arts collective AFRICOBRA in the 1970s, his freelance design-work throughout the 1970s and 1980s, his continued exhibition career, and his lifelong work as an arts educator in Chicago.
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