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| Photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taken by Photographer Stephen Somerstein during a speech in Montgomery, Alabama. |
By Arvolyn Hill
Over the course of five days Piers 92 and 94 are divided
into hundreds of galleries housing one of the world’s top art shows. Galleries
come from around the world to show their favorite holdings or showcase their
favorite artists.
On Thursday, March 6th I trekked through the
thickly falling snow to the piers where art has replaced the great ships of
Cunard. Upon entering Pier 92 I realized
that this was going to take time. I saw
sculptures by Stella, sketches by Picasso and a Sol LeWitt in almost every
other booth. I decided to focus on the art that interested me the most. I would be drawn to the art dealing with the
African Diaspora. Suddenly the
never-ending grid of galleries became less daunting and more of an
adventure. I searched for the most
prominent pieces of art depicting the black experience or by the most prominent
black artists. I was pleased by what I found.
New York’s David Greenberg gallery had a wall of photos of
the Civil Rights Era. A color photograph
by Gordon Parks entitled I’m not used to
seeing was a devastatingly beautiful picture of African American children
looking through a park fence at white children on a playground. He was a regular photographer for Life, then
the most read magazine in America, published by Time, Inc.
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| Im not used to seeing by Photographer Gordon Parks |
“Gordon was on staff at Life magazine and took a job
photographing segregation in the south during the 60’s down in Alabama,” said
Karen Marks, David Greenburg’s gallerist. “When he passed away his material was
moved. It was recently discovered.”
The picture is filled with vibrant colors, the park is lush
and green, the African American children are wearing pastel colors but when you
realize the photo is a perfect depiction of segregation in America I felt a
tinge in my heart. What might make the photograph almost unique is that it’s in
color. So many photos of the segregation in America are black and white, but
thanks to Parks we get an even more realistic depiction of the vibrancy of this
dark time in American history.
The David Greenberg gallery had several photographs of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. They showed a Charles Moore of photograph of King being
arrested, two cops with a tight hold. It
was a startling image of the civil rights leader. The gallery has an iconic photo of the back
of King’s head as he looks out over a sea of people during a speech in
Montgomery, Alabama by photographer Stephen Somerstein. Marks said that Somerstein was a student when
he took the photo. He went down to
Alabama to participate and had amazing access. Somerstein’s work about Selma is
currently at the New York Historical
Society.
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| Dr. King being arrested captured by Photographer Charles Moore. |
Marks said “A large part of who we are and what we do is
social documentary. The Civil Rights
work is very important to us. We figured
this would be a good fair to work that material in.”
March 7th marks the 50th anniversary of Dr.
King’s historic march in Selma, Alabama.
I was pleased to see several works by Romare Bearden shown
at the Moore Gallery from Washington, DC. A 1964 collage, Train Whistle Blue No.1, 1/6, a black and white collage uses
enlarged photographs depicting black culture through jazz. Debra Force Fine Art b had a Bearden’s
patchwork quilt showing three black women using a variety of fabrics with two
birds on top. The quilt, Junction
Piquette made in 1972 sells for $850,000.
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| Junction Piquette a quilt by Romare Bearden |
I headed to Pier 94 and the contemporary art booths. As I walked down the stairs I saw the second pier was bigger than 92. There was no sign saying contemporary Black
Art this way. Once again I had to search
for it. I was thrilled to find work by Artist Kehinde Wiley.
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| Virgin of the Adoption (The World Stage: Haiti) by Painter Kehinde Wiley |
Kehinde Wiley is a photo based portrait artist, painter who
currently has a popular exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, A New Republic. Although I have yet to see the show, friends said it’s a must, called Wiley a God. Several booths had pieces by Wiley and those
pieces received a lot of attention.
Wiley is a Los Angeles native with a Nigerian background. He paints portraits of urban black men and
women wearing street clothes - pants sagging, backwards caps, tattoos, fur
coats and athletic wear. The backgrounds of the paintings are vibrant patterns
similar to Victorian wallpaper. Urban black people are depicted as thugs or
poor; through Wiley’s brush he turns them into the kings and queens that they
are. Sean Kelly, a prominent gallery,
had Wiley’s Portrait of Jae White
made in 2011. French gallery Galerie
Daniel Templon displayed Wiley’s Portrait
of Marc Donkeng. California Gallery, Roberts & Tilton had Wiley's Virgin of the Adoption.
I had never heard of African American feminist painter Mickalene
Thomas. Her collage-like pieces use acrylics, rhinestones and enamels to create
portraits. Los Angeles gallery Susanne Vielmetter had a portrait of Sidra made 2011 of black actress Sidra Smith.
Thomas’s subjects for her portraits are usually black women in pop culture.
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| A Portrait of Sidra by Mickalene Thomas |
After three hours of none stop art I left the piers with my
head buzzing. The work I saw was strong
and powerful. There were some of the most influential black artists like
Bearden and Parks and today’s leading artists like Wiley. I was pleased to see black life being
documented in photo, paint, fabric and collage. These artists aren’t just black
artists; they are American artists who afford us their view of black life in
America.
