A major reassessment, setting art in the context of black experience

African-American art has made an increasingly vital contribution to the art of the United States from the time of its origins in early-eighteenth-century slave communities. Folk and decorative arts such as ceramics, furniture, and quilts are discussed alongside fine art -- sculpture, painting, and photography -- produced by African Americans, both enslaved and free, throughout the nineteenth century. Twentieth-century developments are given full coverage, particularly the New Negro Movement of the 1920s, the Era of Civil Rights and Black Nationalism through the 1960s and 1970s, and the emergence of new black artists and theorists in the 1980s and 1990s.

New evidence has provided an exciting myriad of perspectives about African-American art, confirming that it represents the culture and society from which it emerges. Professor Patton explores significant issues such as the relationship of art and politics, the influence of galleries and museums, the growth of black universities, critical theory, the impact of artists` collectives, and the assortment of art practices since the 1960s. African-American Art shows that in its cultural diversity and synthesis of cultures it mirrors those in American society as a whole.

Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Colonial America and the Young Republic 1700-1820:

Introduction: The fight for independence 1775-83; Africa, North America, and African American Culture
Plantations: Architecture and the plantation layout; Slave houses
The revival of African culture on the plantations: Life on the plantations; New European-American influences
A Planter`s house in Louisiana - Plantation slave artists and craftsmen: Textiles and patchwork quilts; Folk art; Pottery
Urban Slave Artists and Craftsmen: Furniture; Silversmiths; Fine artists
Chapter 2: Nineteenth-Century America, The Civil War and Reconstruction:

Introduction: The anti-slavery movement; Free black and slave artisans; Fine artists
Architecture, the decorative arts, and folk art: Urban and rural Architecture; Furniture; Metalwork and woodcarving; Pottery; Quilts
Fine arts: Painting, sculpture, and graphic arts: Exhibitions and the viewing public; Abolitionist patronage; Graphic arts; Landscape painting; Neoclassical sculpture; Genre and biblical painting
Chapter 3: Twentieth-Century America and Modern Art 1900-60:

Introduction: Civil rights and double-consciousness; The development of a modern American art
African-American culture, the New Negro and art in the 1920s: The Great Migration; The Jazz Age; Expatriates and Paris, the Negro colony; The New Negro movement; Photography; The New Negro artist; Graphic art; Painting
The patronage of the New Negro Artist
State Funding and the Rise of African-American Art: The Federal Arts Project; The legacy of the New Negro movement: Negritude and figurative sculpture; Folk art; American Scene painting; African-American murals; WPA Workshops and community art centres; Social realism; Abstract art and modernism in New York; Abstract figurative painting; Patronage and critical debate
American culture post World War II: Folk art; Painting: Expressionism and Surrealism
Abstract Expressionism and African-American Art: Primitivism; Early Abstract Expressionism: Bearden, Woodruff, and Alston; Abstract Expressionism; Second generation of Abstract Expressionists 1955-61
Chapter 4: Twentieth-Century America: The Evolution of a Black Aesthetic:

Introduction: Civil rights and black nationalism
Cultural crisis: Black artist or American artist: Spiral artist`s group 1964-66; Painting
The evolution of a modern black aesthetic: Defining black art; Painting; Sculpture
Art institutions and the artists` groups: Mainstream art institutions; Black art aesthetics; Black art and black power; Black artists` groups
Towards a New Abstraction: Are you black enough?; Painting; Sculpture
The Postmodern condition 1980-93: Painting; Video art; Sculpture; Photography
Conclusion, Notes, List of Illustrations, Bibliographic Essay, Timeline, Index