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Outterbridge
Afro-American Art History 254

Reference Notes

Historically the Black artist and craftsman has an extremely rich heritage founded in West African tradition such as that found in Benin, Nigeria. In this country the grillwork of New Orleans, cabinets, furniture, fine metalware, and colonial construction in Charleston, South Carolina, Richmond, Virginia and many other southern townships, bears witness to the excellence of early Black american Arts and Crafts.

Today, the Black artist, who for intervening centuries has been the forgotten man, is making a strenuous effort to define a new and definite Black Aesthetic in art which will give reference to cultural beginnings, and to secure the fact that Black Art was, is and always will be as long as racial stresses in America are in existence.

Black Art and some definitions that might be considered. At its simplest, a "Black Show" is an exhibition of work produced by artists whose skins are Black. The "Black Show" is a yoking together of a variety of works which are, for social and political reasons, presented under the labels "Black" or Afro-American. The "Black Show" as a serious exhibit is a 20th century invention.  It began in the dual