Upcoming Issue of the International Review of African American Art
Print Journal
Spring 2014, vol. 25, no. 1
The Black Market
The market for works by African American artists continues to grow. Yet, as elsewhere in the art world, the gains are uneven, the majority of benefits accruing to a minority of artists, dealers and institutions. This, at time when economic disparity in black communities is increasing more quickly than economic disparity within the population as a whole. In addition, the market is undergoing scrutiny as curators and critics seem to act ever more blatantly as handmaidens to the functioning of the market. what is the market really about? What is it telling us? How does it operate? Who is it for? Various art experts will respond to these questions in this issue covering contemporary, modern and traditional work.
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Orders for the International Review of African American Art (IRAAA) can be placed here: http://iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu/store/. Digital subscription and single issues are available through iTunes.
For more information, contact the IRAAA office at (757) 727-5142.
The Dianne Whitfield-Locke and Carnell Locke Collection - Building on Tradition, IRAAA vol. 24, no. 4*
From knowing very little about visual art to amassing an art collection of more than 1,100 pieces took just over 10 years for Dianne Whitfield-Locke, a dentist who lives and works in the Washington, DC area. Her boundless passion for art is the focus of the Fall 2013 IRAAA. This issue tells the remarkable story of how Whitfield-Locke was able to build a collection containing works by most of the master African American visual artists of the 19th and 20th centuries and rising talents of the 21st. These artists span from the pioneering African American painters Robert Duncanson (1821-1872) and Edward Bannister (1928-1901) through Harlem Renaissance-era figures such as Augusta Savage and Aaron Douglas, successive generations of masters such as Woodruff, Bearden, Lawrence and Catlett to Eric Mack (b. 1976) and other young and mid-career artists working today. Dianne Whitfield-Locke has been supported in this quest by her husband, Carnell, also a dentist. The issue contains essays on the collection by art historians David Driskell, Ruth Fine and Samella Lewis, arts journalist Jacqueline Trescott, and fine arts consultant Shirley Woodson and is illustrated with numerous, color reproductions of works in the collection. It is published in conjunction with the Dianne Whitfield-Locke and Carnell Locke Collection: Building on Tradition exhibition at the Hampton University Museum, Oct. 12, 2013-May 9, 2014.
*This issue was initially identified as vol. 24, no. 3B to address a sequencing issue which has now been resolved. The issue now officially functions as vol. 24., no. 4.
Triple Consciousness, IRAAA vol. 24, no. 3
This year marks the 50th year since the death of WEB Du Bois whose application of the notion of "double consciousness" continues to inform discussions of African American identity. In 2013, the notion is arguably further complicated by virtue of living in a globally connected world in which national identities take on more complex hues. How might Du Bois's idea be updated and remixed for the 21st century to include artists whose work addresses the curious place of working or living in the US, but from elsewhere in the Diaspora? How is work addressing the thorny idea of "triple consciousness"?
Articles cover artists from the Caribbean, Africa, and elsewhere producing work in or about the US: Massa Lemu, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Awol Arizku, and others. The cover art is from Ebony Patterson's series on the practice of face bleaching by young black men in Jamaican dancehall culture. A article on the series is featured in the isuse. Also: Essays on double/triple consciousness in performance, Venice Bienale's first ever Nigerian and Côte d'Ivorian pavilions, and being a writer in an age beyond nationalities.
Visual Art, Digital Media & Popular Culture, IRAAA vol. 24, no. 2.
Understanding the New Pop Art surveys connections between visual art, mass media, popular culture and digital technologies. The contemporary pop art genre is heavily influenced by hip hop culture; sci fi and other forms of mass media, and 
digital technologies, and encompasses the work of numerous African American artists working in many mediums.
Since it's coalesence in the early 1960s, there have been two major evolutions in the pop art genre. The second evolution, occurring today, is heavily influenced by hip hop culture; sci fi and other forms of mass media, and digital technologies, and encompasses the work of numerous African American artists working in many mediums.
"Artists are just as much products of contemporary popular culture, in all its mass technological-media frenzy, as we are -- we average, non-artistic folk. As these artists push the boundaries of 'fine art' even further out and incorporate or address other media in their work, they increasingly connect with the realities of our every day lives." – Samantha Ragland, from the "Is It Art" article in the issue.
I am interested in intergalactic space travel and extra-terrestrials, superheroes, psychic vampires, werewolves, time travel, alternate histories, matter transporters and alternate dimensions – real hardcore sci-fi geek stuff. I want to see how African American artists make use of these ideas…And it’s cool now to let your sci-fi freak flag fly. I’m happy to see that. –Jeff Bruce from the "Gallery Universe" article in the issue.
Also in this issue: SCENE news on major exhibitions of African American art and image of the black figure in Western art, on view Fall 2012 - Spring 2013.
Collectible Back Issue Sets
A set of back and current issues of the International Review of African American Art is a valuable, collectible edition because many of these original issues will not be available for collection much longer. The 85-issue set includes the rare premier issue and three additional issues from the first year of publication, 1976-1977. The 37-issue set contains issues highlighting the journal’s 37-year history including rare issues from the 1970s.
Both sets comprise a valuable, limited edition collection because journal was never mass circulated and few back issues remain. They also comprise a veritable library on African American visual art with many full-page, color reproductions of artwork. Set prices will increase as issues go out of print. Click here for more information about back issue sets.