Installation view of Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges/Soft Curves (Outside the Lines series) at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2014. Photo by Paul Hester.
Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges/Soft Curves (Outside the Lines series)
About
Conceived as the companion to Black in the Abstract, Part 1: Epistrophy, which explored the fragmentation of the figurative as well as the loose and expansive nature of abstraction, this section chronicles the history of black artists whose work relies on the drama of restraint. Drawing upon the historical framework of minimalist impulses in painting, this exhibition investigates the interwoven histories of black artists working within the monochromatic and geometric or “hard edge” impulses from the 1960s to the present.
Despite their virtual invisibility in the field of abstraction, black artists have engaged in this tradition for over six decades. Their adherence to the genre despite their lack of acknowledgment has empowered these artists to reach beyond the conventional and conceptually expand the discourse of their engagement with this genre. In bringing together three generations of artists in dialogue with one another, the exhibition highlights the trajectory of this practice as well as the conscious and unconscious lineages that emerge. From the deeply saturated 1968 monochromatic Yellow on Yellow by Felrath Hines to the pulsating binaries of Jennie C. Jones’ acoustic paintings, the very nature of these works are preoccupied with the infusion of movement within the two dimensional frame and the inherent dynamic interplay between materiality, texture, sound, movement, and cultural acuity. The exhibition also lays bare the tension surrounding painting then and now–the interrogation of its history and traditions as well as the willingness of artists to destroy, reinvent, and reframe the practice over time, all the while finding an uneasy reconciliation of their presence within the history of its tradition.
Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges/Soft Curves features seventeen artists: Derrick Adams, McArthur Binion, Nathaniel Donnett, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, Felrath Hines, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Simone Leigh, James Little, Rodney McMillian, Nadine Robinson, Leslie Smith III, Cullen Washington, Stanley Whitney, Jack Whitten, and Brenna Youngblood.
Organizers
Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges/Soft Curves is organized by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Support
Outside the Lines has been made possible by the patrons, benefactors and donors to the Museum’s Major Exhibition Fund: Major Patron -Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Fayez Sarofim, and Michael Zilkha. Patrons – Carol C. Ballard, Mr. and Mrs. I. H. Kempner III, Ms. LouisaStude Sarofim and Mr. Wallace Wilson. Benefactors – George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, Louise D. Jamail, Anne and David Kirkland, KPMG, LLP, Beverly and Howard Robinson, Andrew Schirrmeister III and Leigh and Reggie Smith. Donors – A Fare Extraordinaire, Anonymous, Bank of Texas, Bergner and Johnson Design, Jereann Chaney, Elizabeth Howard Crowell, Dillon Kyle Architecture, Sara Paschall Dodd, Ruth Dreessen and Thomas Van Laan, Marita and J.B. Fairbanks, Jo and Jim Furr, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Brenda and William Goldberg, King & Spalding L.L.P., Marley Lott, Belinda Phelps and Randy Howard, Phillips, Lauren Rottet, Susan Vaughan Foundation, Inc., and Karen and Harry Susman.