An essential primer on collecting Black art that expertly blends the passion of an art student with the expertise of an...
A connoisseur offers advice for collecting African American works of art.
With an MBA in finance and a master’s degree in museum studies from Harvard (and a forthcoming doctorate in art education from Columbia), Moore has both a keen artistic eye and practical know-how on the ins and outs of the business of art collection. He acknowledges the structural barriers that have long confronted African American artists, but he believes that they’ve become “pillars” of today’s art scene. Museums from Los Angeles to Atlanta have seen an inclusive “curatorial shift,” he says, as “exhibitions rooted in the Black American identity” have become commonplace. The book’s first section offers guidance to novices interested in African American art, including a brief history lesson regarding important Black creators, from the early 20th century’s Norman Lewis and Jacob Lawrence to contemporary sensations, such as Tschabalala Self. The book is full of practical tips, with chapter topics that include general information on art museums and fairs, art schools, and auctions. The book’s second half profiles a cross-section of modern collectors of African American art, including actor Hill Harper, former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Keith Rivers, and tech entrepreneur Everette Taylor. The collectors discuss their love of varied aesthetics found in Black art, but many also emphasize their “socially conscious” approach to collecting. This book deals in a cultural realm that many people associate with elitism, but Moore’s writing style is always accessible and geared toward neophytes, and his advice effectively emphasizes “economical…methods on which we can educate ourselves in the art world.” However, many readers will be disappointed by the lack of images of actual artworks in a work devoted to art. Still, the book provides ample, useful reference materials, including a detailed glossary of art terms and an annotated bibliography of introductory texts on art criticism and theory as well as on African American history and culture.
An essential primer on collecting Black art that expertly blends the passion of an art student with the expertise of an insider.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73517-080-0
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Petite Ivy Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A cheeky, gossipy dual biography.
A study of two writers uncomfortably entwined.
After Eve Babitz (1943-2021) died, her biographer Anolik came upon a letter from Babitz to Joan Didion (1934-2021) that startled her. Filled with “rage, despair, impatience, contempt,” it read like a “lovers’ quarrel.” “Eve was talking to Joan the way you talk to someone who’s burrowed deep under your skin, whose skin you’re trying to burrow deep under.” That surprise discovery suggested a “complicated alliance” between the two. In sometimes breathless prose, with sly asides to the “Reader,” Anolik draws on more than 100 interviews with Babitz and many other sources to follow both women’s lives, tumultuous loves, and aspirations before and after they met in Los Angeles in 1967, sometimes straining to prove their significance to one another. “Joan and Eve weren’t each other’s opposite selves so much as each other’s shadow selves,” she asserts. “Eve was what Joan both feared becoming and longed to become: an inspired amateur.” At the same time, “Joan was what Eve feared becoming and desired to become: a fierce professional.” Didion had just won acclaim for Slouching Towards Bethlehem when Babitz, newly arrived from New York, began socializing with her and her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The reticent Didion and the sensual, energetic Babitz could not have been more different, and Anolik clearly prefers Babitz. “I’m crazy for Eve,” she admits, “love her with a fan’s unreasoning abandon. Besides, Joan is somebody I naturally root against: I respect her work rather than like it; find her persona—part princess, part wet blanket—tough going.” Their relationship—hardly a friendship—fell apart in 1974 when Didion and Dunne were assigned to edit Babitz’s autobiographical novel, Eve’s Hollywood. Babitz, resentful of Didion’s attitude and intrusion, “fired” her, pursuing her writing career on her own. Didion soared to literary fame; not, alas, Babitz.
A cheeky, gossipy dual biography.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781668065488
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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