If you haven’t made it over to the Arkansas Arts Center to check out its latest exhibit, “30 Americans,” join the converation.
Displaying the works of 30 top contemporary African American artists, the exhibit explores and addresses cultural identity, artistic expression and the issues that come with them through an array of media including sculptures, photographs, paintings, videos and more.
Accompanying the powerful exhibit are all sorts of conversation-starting events. Guests can choose from series of lectures, films, poetry presentations and special tours, as well as other activities. You’ll also be able to hear from local artists and their reflections on the exhibit during the Free Your Mind Friday sessions. Click here to see the full schedule.
We reached out to Arkansas Arts Center Chief Curator Brian Lang to discuss why this exhibit is described as “provactive” and as a conversation-starter.
Soirée: This exhibit has been described as “provocative” and “challenging.” Could you explain to our readers why “30 Americans” is considered a conversation-starting exhibit?
Brian Lang: Museums should be a safe space for our communities to connect to, confront and discuss issues. Whether addressing issues of race, gender, sexuality, politics, or history—or the seeming lack thereof—the works in the “30 Americans” exhibition offer powerful interpretations of cultural identity and artistic legacy, exploring what it means to be a contemporary artist and an African American today.
S: What made AAC decide to host the exhibit?
Lang: The Arkansas Arts Center has a lengthy history of collecting and exhibiting African American art, including such recent exhibitions as: “Documenting a Not So Distant Past” (2007), featuring civil rights-era photographs by Will Counts, Ernest Withers and Marion Palfi; “Drawings from Life: AJ Smith” (2006), containing exquisite silverpoint drawings by the UALR art professor; “Kickin’ It with Joyce J. Scott” (2005), featuring beadwork by Scott; “Whispers from the Walls: The Art of Whitfield Lovell”(2005); and “Revelation and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists” (2002).
“30 Americans” is the first comprehensive survey of contemporary African American art ever presented by the Arkansas Arts Center, and the connection was made by Darrell Walker when he reached out to executive director Todd Herman regarding the exhibition coming on view in Little Rock. Previous institutions that have hosted variations of the exhibition include: the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina (March 19, 2011 – September 4, 2011); the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (October 1, 2011 – February 12, 2012); the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia (March 16, 2012 – July 15, 2012); the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (June 14, 2013 – September 8, 2013); Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee (October 11, 2013 – January 12, 2014); and the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana (February 8, 2014 – June 15, 2014).
S: Give our readers a snapshot of what they will find and experience while exploring “30 Americans.”
Lang: “30 Americans” contains forty works in a variety of media—paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, digital videos, and photographs—by thirty of the leading contemporary African American artists, and by such early and influential artists as Barkley L. Hendricks, Robert Colescott and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and those of younger and emerging artists, like Kehinde Wiley, Wangechi Mutu, and Shinique Smith.
S: This collection is from Don and Mera Rubell. Could you tell us a little bit about them and how they came to own these pieces?
Lang: The Rubells actually visited the Arkansas Arts Center on Thursday, May 7 for a public lecture for members and guests and discussed the building of their collection. Don and Mera Rubell began acquiring contemporary art in the late 1960s, often forging close friendships with living artists, particularly young artists. The couple collected both backwards and forward, out of which emerged a pattern of intergenerational influence. Consequently, the works that comprise the exhibition afford viewers the opportunity to observe a stylistic dialogue among artists working throughout the past four decades. Now in collaboration with their two grown children, the Rubells continue to assemble one of the largest private collections of contemporary art in the world, which they currently house in a 45,000 square foot former DEA warehouse-turned-museum in Miami, Florida.
The exhibit runs through June 21. Find out more about “30 Americans” on the Arkansas Arts Center’s website, and keep up with the AAC on Facebook for future exhibits.