Stokes Sims Lowery

A master furniture maker, designer, sculptor, and educator, Wendell Castle is in his sixth decade of a fruitful and creative career that began in 1958 and that parallels the emergence and growth of the American studio craft movement. The solo exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design that this book accompanies runs from October 20 2015 to February 28 2016.

The story of African Americans in the visual arts has closely paralleled their social, political and economic aspirations over the last four hundred years. From enslaved craftspersons to contemporary painters, printmakers and sculptors, they have created a wealth of artistic expression that addresses common experiences, such as exclusion from dominant cultural institutions, and confronts questions of identity and community. This generously illustrated volume gathers works by leading figures from the nineteenth century to the present – Henry Ossawa Tanner, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Lois Mailou Jones, Gordon Parks, Wifredo Lam, Kara Walker, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall – alongside many others who deserve to be better known, including artists from the African diaspora in South America and the Caribbean. Arranged thematically and accompanied by authoritative texts that provide historical and interpretive context, this book invites readers to share in a rich outpouring of art that meets shared challenges with individual creative responses.