An engaging introduction to contemporary Black American collage brings together art by fifty artists that reflects the breadth and complexity of Black identity   Building on a technique that has roots in European and American traditions, Black artists have turned to collage as a way to convey how the intersecting facets of their lives combine to make whole individuals. Artists have assembled pieces of paper, fabrics, and other, often salvaged, materials to create unified compositions that express the endless possibilities of Black-constructed narratives despite the fragmentation of our times.   As artist Deborah Roberts asserts, “With collage, I can create a more expansive and inclusive view of the Black cultural experience.�   More than 50 artists are represented in the book’s 140 color images, with some creating original artworks for this project. Featured artists include such well-known figures as Mark Bradford, Lauren Halsey, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Howardena Pindell, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, and Kara Walker. In addition to scholarly essays, the publication contains short biographies of each artist written by Fisk University students.   Distributed for the Frist Art Museum   Exhibition Schedule   Frist Art Museum, Nashville (September 15–December 31, 2023)   Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (February 18–May 12, 2024)   The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (July 6–September 22, 2024)  

Cinema Remixed and Reloaded is a daring, bold, innovative look at black women artists and video art. This historical survey examines an intriguing and unbounded scope of work, including experimental film, projections, and installations. Creative projects by established artists who became interested in time-based media several decades ago, such as Camille Billops, Barbara McCullough, Howardena Pindell, and Adrian Piper, are presented alongside such midcareer artists as Berni Searle, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems, who continually garner international acclaim. Works by emerging artists, including Elizabeth Axtman, Debra Edgerton, Lauren Kelley, Jessica Ann Peavy, Pamela Sunstrum, and Lauren Woods, are also featured. While exploring personal experiences and dissecting popular visual culture, the artists in Cinema Remixed and Reloaded provide relevant views on several important topics--memory, loss, alienation, racial politics, gender inequities, empowerment, and the pursuit of power. Andrea Barnwell Brownlee is director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta. Valerie Cassel Oliver is curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Other contributors include Isolde Brielmaier, Rhea Combs, Romi Crawford, Makeba Dixon-Hill, Merrill Falkenberg, Leslie King-Hammond, Lowery Stokes Sims, and Anne Collins Smith.

Performing and visual artist Ben Patterson (born 1934) was a founding member of Fluxus' participatory, do-it-yourself, anticommercialist avant-garde network. While many Fluxus artists, influenced by John Cage's precedent, employed conceptual techniques borrowed from music (e.g., the event score), Patterson's fusion of art and music was informed by his background as a classically trained double-bassist. His "Variations for Double Bass" (1960), for example, was played with the titular instrument balanced upside down on its scroll. Published for a retrospective at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, this volume includes an anthology of Patterson's scores, edited by Fluxus scholar Jon Hendricks; a chronology of the artist's life and work; a CD compilation of his musical performances from 1961 to 2009, produced by Alga Marghen; and essays by a variety of scholars, assessing the career of one of Fluxus' foremost and wittiest artists.