AFRICOBRA 50 : Kavi Gupta | 219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL, 60607

The year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of AFRICOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists)—the black artist collective that defined the visual aesthetic of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s. In commemoration, Kavi Gupta is pleased to present AFRICOBRA 50, a landmark exhibition of original works by the five founding members of AFRICOBRA—Gerald Williams, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Jeff Donaldson, and Barbara Jones-Hogu—as well as a select group of peers who influenced or were influenced by AFRICOBRA, including Basil Kincaid, Carolyn Lawrence, Bernard Williams, Sherman Beck, Shahar Caren Weaver, Robert Paige, and James Phillips.

Founded in 1968, the five founding artists sought to gain an understanding of modern, transnational black aesthetics, so they could develop an artistic style that could be immediately identified as “Black Art.” The group had its genesis in the dissolution of a prior collective called the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), which was itself formed as a tool for using art to address social and cultural challenges affecting the African American community. OBAC gained national prominence in 1967 when it organized a group of nine artists and nine photographers to collaborate on the creation of The Wall of Respect, a monumental mural painted on the side of a business in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. According to its creators, the mural “depicted ‘Black Heroes’ as positive role models for identity, community formation, and revolutionary action.”

Following the completion of the Wall of Respect, some of the artists involved with the project began having casual get-togethers to discuss aesthetics and contemporary black culture. Those early meetings included Jeff Donaldson, Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu and Gerald Williams. Also sometimes present was Robert Paige, in whose home some of the gatherings took place. Over time, five other artists—Nelson Stevens, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Carolyn Lawrence, Frank Smith, and James Phillips—joined the group.

The aesthetic position that grew out of these meetings is defined by the use of text, positive figurative images of black people, abstract patterns evoking African artistic traditions, and bright, luminescent “Kool-Aid colors.”

To help disseminate their ideas, the group published a manifesto in 1969, titled “Ten in Search of a Nation,” which outlined three goals they hoped their work would achieve:

1.    definition—images that deal with the past
2.    identification—images that relate to the present
3.    direction—images that look into the future

Each AFRICOBRA artist then translated these ideas into physical form, and the group exhibited the work in a series of exhibitions that traveled the United States. The work spanned multiple mediums, including drawing, painting, sculpture, and fashion; the exhibitions attracted nationwide attention. By the time AFRICOBRA I reached the Studio Museum in Harlem in the early 1970s, the group’s aesthetic language had caught on like wildfire. During these early exhibitions, AFRICOBRA members noted that many viewers were unable to afford the art. In response, they made posters of their most popular paintings, reiterating their belief that art has to relate to everyday people if it is going to be effective as an impetus for social transformation.

Although AFRICOBRA ceased exhibiting together in the 1970s, most members continued in their art careers. Some have since passed away, but many are still active in their studios today. It is at this vital moment in history that we present AFRICOBRA 50 with the hope that it will spark continued interest in this extraordinary group of artists, and expand the larger, international conversation about the Black Arts Movement. The work is critical to our understanding of the contemporary aesthetic of the African diaspora and the examination of how transnational black aesthetics relate to culture, politics, and identity.

Concurrent Programming:

AFRICOBRA: Chicago in the Age of Black Power panel discussion at EXPO Chicago 

Panelists | Jae Jarrell (Artist, Member of AFRICOBRA, SAIC 1959-61), Wadsworth Jarrell (Artist, Member of AFRICOBRA, SAIC DIP 1958), and Gerald Williams (Artist, Founding Member of AFRICOBRA, SAIC BFA 1951). Moderated by Franklin Sirmans (Director | Pérez Art Museum Miami). This panel is presented in alignment with Art Design Chicago exhibitions at the Smart Museum of Art and the DuSable Museum of African American History, South Side Stories: Rethinking Chicago Art, 1960–1980 and South Side Stories: Holdings, which focus on the Black Arts Movement—from the Civil Rights Movement to AFRICOBRA. A solo exhibition of the late member Barbara Jones Hogu entitled Resist, Relate, Unite 1968–1975 took place at the DePaul Art Museum earlier this year.

Friday, September 28 at the /Dialogues Stage at EXPO Chicago (Navy Pier), 2:00-3:00pm.

Book Signing | Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power
In the period of radical change that was 1963–83, young black artists at the beginning of their careers confronted difficult questions about art, politics and racial identity. How to make art that would stand as innovative, original, formally and materially complex, while also making work that reflected their concerns and experience as black Americans? Soul of a Nation surveys this crucial period in American art history, bringing to light previously neglected histories of 20th-century black artists—including Sam Gilliam, Melvin Edwards, Jack Whitten, William T. Williams, Howardina Pindell, Barkley L. Hendricks, Senga Nengudi, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Charles White (SAIC 1937 – 38) and Frank Bowling, among others. This book explores both the art historical and social contexts, with subjects ranging from black feminism to AFRICOBRA and other artist-run groups, to the role of museums in the debates of the period and visual art’s relation to the Black Arts Movement. Over 170 artworks by these and many other artists of the era are illustrated in full color.