A sweeping look at how artists of the time responded to ideas about black identity, political activism and social responsibility.
New York Times - Roslyn Sulcas
Groundbreaking.
Culture Type - Victoria L. Valentine
Learn about the artists who didn’t leave the same legendary mark as Jean-Michel Basquiat, but who made an impact on black feminism, AfriCOBRA, and other artist-run groups. Delve deep into the role of museums in the debates of the period, and visual art’s relation to the Black Arts Movement.
The new survey of work made in two tumultuous decades of black activism reveals a prodigious range of artistic expression.
Soul of a Nation surveys 1963–83, the crucial period in American art history, bringing to light previously neglected histories of 20th-century Black artists.
Essence - Marcellas Reynolds
This powerful work of documentary photography captures the momentum of the civil rights movement through one of its lesser known demonstrations.
New York Review of Books - Nell Irvin Painter
...an intense, transformative period in American art, activism, and culture, when black identity came into sharper focus and demanded to be reckoned with, while the spark of black liberation caught fire in the US, the Caribbean, and Africa.
The OG Soul of a Nation book, which chronicles work created by Black artists from 1963–1983...focuses on the art of the time, much of which wrestled with questions about racial identity and politics and what it means to be Black in America... and gives context to a unique moment in history.
New York Magazine - Tembe Denton-Hurst
The Aspirations of a Generation of Black Artists Visualized in Soul of a Nation.
Hyperallergic - Daniel Gerwin
[A] big, beautiful, passionate show of art.
New York Times - Holland Cotter
Each piece in the exhibit is not so much a representation of the movement as they are physical artifacts of the revolution itself.
It’s black and it’s beautiful.
Brooklyn Daily - Alexandra Simon
..impresssive feat of research, presenting and contextualizing many artists who never became household names.
Bookforum - Sara Christoph
At London’s flagship modern art gallery, Tate Modern, one of this summer’s most lauded exhibitions features work by African-American artists made in the age of Martin Luther King Jr. Yet, while “Soul of a Nation” is nominally a historical display, gallery goers spilling out of the show this week found an obvious contemporary resonance to the art they had just seen.
New York Times - Patrick Kingsley
This is a celebration of the work of Black American artists in the 1960s and 1970s. While the art on display is inspired by the mass Civil Rights Movement in the US during that time it is incredibly poignant that the issues raised remain so relevant today.
Socialist Review - Theresa Bennett
The Black Power movement was more than just a protest group; it was a watershed moment in American history and a coming-together of enormous importance and influence not just socially and politically, but culturally and artistically as well.
Soul of Nation captures a shift in how black people used art in the fight for liberation. Artists were no longer satisfied with pain being seen; they wanted it to be felt.
The Guardian - André Wheeler
...a deeply wonderful, playful, and moving collection of images and text that prove her achievement of something seemingly impossible: photographing the invisible.
Successfully layering a broader socio-historical narrative onto a period of radical non-conformity, this is an important show, now.
[the] story of the radical, brilliant and hugely varied art made by African American artists in the political and cultural landscape of Civil Rights, Black Panthers, Blaxploitation, and other manifestations of the fight for equality in education, jobs and representation.... a diversity of aesthetics, ideas and ambition.
A masterful catalogue published by the Tate/D.A.P., which features substantial essays that provide much-needed insights into this vastly underserved and broadly neglected period of art history.... a tour-de-force,
Soul of a Nation is a significant and transformative contribution to art history – and American history. Richly informative and deeply engaging, this volume documents the powerful role black artists had in shaping contemporary art and our society at a pivotal moment in history. It is sure to be a profoundly valuable resource … for decades to come.
The Studio Museum - Thelma Golden
Portrays the art of the civil rights era not simply as an index of revolutionary political projects or desires, but as a revolution in and of itself.
Soul of a Nation is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of American art and the importance of black artists in that history. The book is both a record and a revelation, making the presence of African-American artists acutely visible in tandem with the radical changes that occurred in art and politics from the 1960s to the 1980s.
New York Magazine - Andria Hickey
Civil rights meet aesthetics in this riveting survey of 20 crucial years of black American art and struggle ... uncovers an entire lost history of American art.
The Guardian - Jonathan Jones
In these works, and in countless others, is the power of art to uplift, showcase, describe and demonstrate the black experience – sometimes in uncomfortable but entirely necessary, vital ways.
Soul of Nation captures a shift in how black people used art in the fight for liberation. Artists were no longer satisfied with pain being seen; they wanted it to be felt.
The Guardian - André Wheeler
The range of materials used, the breadth of ideas adumbrated, the multiplicity of strategies and techniques, the geographical diversity of the artists involved, all of this makes it difficult to contain the art with any single description, except perhaps this: Revolution.
New York Review of Books - Phillip Kennicott
★ 12/01/2017 With increased attention being paid to racial tensions and conflicts, the focus of this title seems especially relevant. This accompaniment to a show at London's Tate Gallery details the extent and range of African American art from 1963 to 1983, when the struggle for civil rights became transformative for America. Like the earlier Harlem Renaissance, this era marked another emergence of artworks by and about black Americans. Artists featured include David Hammons, Howardina Pindell, Romare Bearden, Senga Nengudi, Noah Purifoy, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, and many others. The work ranges from the overtly political to more subtle comments on the black experience to abstract imagery, including a wide variety of media, primarily painting, prints, and photography. Co-curators Godfrey and Whitley organize the art around seminal events of the period, artist's groups, geographic variations, styles, etc. A number of commentators concisely offer an understanding of the trends revealed by the art. VERDICT Widely recommended. The very nature of the history of American art is greatly expanded by the recognition of the existence and importance of the works discussed and depicted here.—Eugene C. Burt, Seattle