African American women artist, were extremely unrecognized although the work they produced spoke volumes and they not only lived in the shadows of Men artist but also in the shadows of white women’s as well. Although the feminist moment appeared to be an era where all women are exhorted because this meant change for women unless you were an African American woman. African American woman artist were treated as if they did not even exist due to the fact that during this feminist movement era those that were European Americans did not support African American women Artist or African American women in general. This topic is interesting because although women and art has always been a huge dilemma, women of African American decent were truly oppressed and had to fight harder than the average European American. The work of African American women artist held a true significance that often reflected upon their struggles, and went unnoticed for a great amount of time and even now I am sure half the class cannot name more three African American Artist.
Study has also shown that art was more than just a recreational hobby for African American women especially after the emancipation where freed slaves relied on all forms of art from sculptures to spirituals. The not only relied on art for there self motivation but for their message to be heard by those that have once enslaved them. Artist such as Harriet Powell or Edmonia Lewis told stories in their art that not only told the stories of African American but told stories about history and mile stones we as Americans have reached. Even with such important art the issue of African American female art is still underrepresented at museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art where the work of 103 artist is presented yet only nine of them are African American and one of the eight is was fictional and made up by a white man, which is ridiculous. So in all reality there was only 8 artist and this has inspired me to take the opportunity to create a poem or spoken word that indicates the struggles of African American women artist.
Hi Herman. I think this is a great topic because African American women have been struggling for decades and I think we can agree on that some of them might still be struggling today. The society that we live in are so complicated that laws do not change the way individuals feel. From some of the African American artists that were shown in class their art had such powerful messages because they were telling their stories through their art. To me that is something that is so important because it was something that meant a lot to them. Their struggles helped them to create great work that became admired by others for their strength to keep trying. You are on the right track as far as your research goes and you final product sounds very interesting.
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