Through monographs, historical works, guidebooks and lookbooks, these 12 new and forthcoming titles paint a striking picture of Black art and design in America. Join us in adding them to your 2023 reading lists, as aspire design and home celebrates Black History Month this February and beyond.
The Art of Ruth E. Carter by Ruth E. Carter; Danai Gurira | Chronicle Books
Ruth E. Carter is a living legend of costume design. For three decades, she has shaped the story of the Black experience on screen—from the eighties streetwear of Do the Right Thing to the royal regalia of Coming 2 America. Her work on Marvel’s Black Panther not only brought Afrofuturism to the mainstream, but also made her the first Black winner of an Oscar in costume design. In this definitive book, Carter shares her origins and recounts anecdotes of dressing the Greats.
Publish date: May 23, 2023
Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook by Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall | The MIT Press
Decolonizing Design first asks how modernist design has encompassed and advanced the harmful project of colonization—then shows how design might address these harms by recentering its theory and practice in global Indigenous cultures and histories. A leading figure in the movement to decolonize design, Dori Tunstall uses hard-hitting real-life examples and case studies drawn from over fifteen years of working to transform institutions to better reflect the lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color communities.
Publish date: February 14, 2023
BLK ART: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art by Zaria Ware | Harper Collins
It’s clear that modern day museums can no longer exist without change—and without recognizing that Black people have been a part of the Western art world since its beginnings. Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place in the mainstream art canon. From the hushed corridors of royal palaces to the bustling streets of 1920s Paris—this is Black history like never seen before.
Publish Date: January 31, 2023
Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life by Renata Cherlise | Ten Speed Press
Renata Cherlise’s family loved capturing their lives in photographs and home movies, sparking her love of archival photography. Following in her family’s footsteps, Cherlise established Black Archives, which presents a nuanced representation of Black people across time living vibrant, ordinary lives. This monograph is a stunning collection of timeless images that tell powerful, joyful stories of everyday life and shed light on Black culture’s dynamic.
Publish date: February 14, 2023
Kehinde Wiley: The Archaeology of Silence edited by Claudia Schmuckli | Delmonico Books/Fine Arts Museums Of San Francisco
Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence features a new body of paintings and sculptures by American artist Kehinde Wiley confronting the legacies of colonialism through the visual language of the fallen figure. The resulting paintings of Black bodies struck down, wounded or dead, all referencing iconic historical paintings of slain heroes, martyrs or saints, offer a haunting meditation on the violence against Black and brown bodies through the lens of European art history.
Publish date: September 19, 2023
The New African Portraiture: Shariat Collections edited by Florian Steininger | Walther König, Köln
This catalog showcases over 20 figurative artists from the African continent and diaspora. While the artists assembled represent a diverse array of styles, they all explore complex questions of identity, aesthetics and art history.
Publish date: March 28, 2023
Object Lessons in American Art edited by Karl Kusserow | Princeton University Press
Object Lessons in American Art explores a diverse gathering of Euro-American, Native American, and African American art from a range of contemporary perspectives, illustrating how innovative analysis of historical art can inform, enhance, and afford new relevance to artifacts of the American past.
Publish date: May 23, 2023
AphroChic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family Home by Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason | Clarkson Potter
Jeanine Hays and Bryan Mason invite you into the intimate spaces of actors and musicians, the creative studios of artists and curators, the “boss” homes of entrepreneurs and executives, “off-the-beaten-path” homes that defy the stereotypes of urban living, and places filled with pieces handed down from generations past in this visually stunning celebration of Black homeownership.
Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces edited with text by Thomas J. Lax, Lilia Rocio Taboada | The Museum of Modern Art, New York/The Studio Museum in Harlem
Just Above Midtown, or JAM, was an art gallery and self-described laboratory for experimentation led by Linda Goode Bryant that foregrounded African American artists and artists of color. Open from 1974 to 1986, it was a place where an expansive idea of contemporary art flourished and debate was cultivated. Published in conjunction with the first museum exhibition to focus on this visionary gallery and its ongoing impact, Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces showcases rarely seen material from JAM’s history—artworks, ephemera and photographs—that collectively document the gallery’s communal and programmatic activities.
Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen by George McCalman | Harper Collins
A gorgeous collection of 145 original portraits that celebrates Black pioneers—famous and little-known–in politics, science, literature, music, and more—with biographical reflections, all created and curated by an award-winning graphic designer.
Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat by Bénédicte Savoy | Princeton University Press
For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history.
Carrie Mae Weems: A Great Turn in the Possible preface by Iris Dressler, Elvira Dyangani Ose. Text by LaCharles Ward, Fred Moten | DAP Publishing
One of the most influential American artists working today, Carrie Mae Weems has investigated narratives around family, race, gender, sexism, class and the consequences of power for more than 40 years. This volume is the most thorough survey yet published of her work. It includes Weems’ earliest series, such as Family Pictures and Stories, for which she photographed her relatives and close friends; the legendary Kitchen Table Series, and other critically acclaimed works and series.
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