As we searched our inventory for something special for Black History Month, the catalogue for Richard Powell’s 1989 exhibition The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism provided the necessary inspiration.  For Powell, now a leading scholar of African American art and a professor at Duke University, the exhibition marked an auspicious curatorial debut. His goal was not only to distill what he thought was unique about African American art, but also to show the broad influence it was already having on global modernism.

The term “Blues Aesthetic” was key. To refer to art produced by black artists as “Afro-American art” (the prevalent term at the time) was inherently isolating since it was entirely defined by race.  In contrast, the phrase “Blues Aesthetic” refers to a black cultural tradition that was not only dominant in black communities, but was also already widely embraced by non-African-Americans. Powell’s exhibition was multi-racial with black artists taking the lead.

To quote Powell: “The term “blues” is an appropriate designation for this idea because of its associations with one of the most identifiable black American traditions that we know. Perhaps more than any other designation, the idea of a blues aesthetic situates the discourse squarely on: 1) art produced in our time; 2) creative expressions that emulate artists who are empathetic with Afro-American issues and ideals; 3) work that identifies with grassroots, popular, and/or mass black American culture; 4) art that has an affinity with Afro-U.S. as music and/or rhythms; and 5) artists and/or artistic statements whose raison d’être is humanistic.”

Taking our lead from Powell’s catalogue, Gallery 98 has assembled from our inventory a collection of ephemera connected to artists that were part of The Blues Aesthetic exhibition as well as others whose work is related.

James Van Der Zee (1886 – 1983)

Carrie Mae Weems

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Bob Thompson (1937 – 1966)

See other items by Bob Thompson

Robert Colescott (1925 – 2009)

See more items by Robert Colescott

Dawoud Bey

See more items by Dawoud Bey

Marilyn Nance

See more items by Marilyn Nance

Alison Saar

See more items by Alison Saar

Miles Davis (1926 – 1991)

See more items by Miles Davis

Herman Leonard (1923 – 2010)

Chuck Stewart (1927 – 2017)

Emma Amos (1937 – 2020)

See more items by Emma Amos

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988)

See more items by Jean-Michel Basquiat

The Blues Aesthetic at The Studio Museum in Harlem

See more items from The Studio Museum in Harlem

Visit our African American / African Diaspora page