Foreword / Patricia Bickers -- The harmful consequences of Postblack -- Africa 05 : polemic -- Dead artists' society -- Black artists and the fetishisation of the 1980s -- Black British artists and problems of systemic invisibility and eradication : creating exhibition histories of that which is not there -- Framing Black art -- 'Handsworth songs' and the archival image 10 Black British and other African diaspora artists visualising slavery -- 2000's got to be Black -- Next we change Earth -- Keith Piper, Donald Rodney and the artists' response to the archive -- Black British photography -- Sokari Douglas Camp CBE -- William Kentridge : the main complaint -- Hurvin Anderson : double consciousness -- Jonathan Jones : untitled (the tyranny of distance) -- Vanley Burke : an Inglan story, an Inglan history -- Helen Wilson : painting for a brighter future -- Barbara Walker : private face -- Barbara Walker : it's a bit much -- Reviewpiece : Ajamu & Sunil Gupta -- Pat Ward Williams : isolated incidents -- Donald Rodney : three songs on pain light & time -- Ben Jones : in the spirit, in the flesh -- Frank Bowling and the enigma of Guyana -- Charles White's 10- and 12- inch vinyl messages -- Hew Locke's depictions of royalty -- Independence and cultural nationalism in Caribbean art -- Black artists and the Greater London Council -- Art and Society, Jonathan Greenland interview with Eddie Chambers -- Contemporary art or contemporary African art? : the inevitable death of the latter -- Richard Hylton, the nature of the beast : cultural diversity and the visual arts sector : a study of policies, initiatives and attitudes 1976-2006 : afterword -- Elvan Zabunyan, Black is a color (a history of African American art) : book review -- "Black my story, (Museum de Paviljoens, Netherlands, 2003) : book review -- Criticize : press responses to Black art an' done and the pan-Afrikan connection exhibitions -- Asiko goes outernational -- Jamaica goes outernational.
Summary:
"World is Africa: Writings on Diaspora Art brings together more than 30 important texts by Eddie Chambers, who for several decades has been an original and a critical voice within the field of African diaspora art history. The texts range from book chapters and catalogue essays, to shorter texts including an op-ed and an afterword. Chambers focuses on contemporary artists and their practices, from a range of international locations, who for the most part are identified with the African diaspora. The book will be a valuable and important contribution to the emerging discipline of black British art history in particular, as well as the broader field of African diaspora studies. None of the texts brought together are available online and none of them, until now, have been available outside of the original publication in which they first appeared. The volume contains several substantive new pieces of writing, one of which reflects on the patronage of the Greater London Council (GLC) extended to a number of Black artists in 1980s London. Another text considers the art world 'fetishisation' of the 1980s as the latest manifestation of a field reluctant to accept the majority of Black British artists as valid individual practitioners in their own right. Another new text introduces readers to the little-known record sleeve and book jacket illustrations of Charles White, the American artist who was the subject of a major retrospective in 2018 at major galleries across the US - Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The other new text re-examines the 'map paintings' of Frank Bowling, the Guyana-born artist who was the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain. Chambers provides a compelling commentary on work by a number of important artists, written at various stages of their careers. Together, the range of texts in World is Africa amount to a convincing and engaging overview of rarely-considered narratives relating to artists of the Africa diaspora. As such, the book will be a valuable and important contribution to the emerging discipline of black British art history in particular, as well as the broader field of African diaspora studies and African diaspora art history"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.