\n\t\t<\/aside>\nHow often do you think of music when you look at a work of visual art (a painting, a photograph, or a framed collage)? Scholar Nikki A. Greene\u2019s new book, Dirt, Glitter, and Glass: Bodies and Voices in Contemporary Black Art<\/em>explores this juxtaposition, bringing the visual into dialogue with the auditory and tactile.<\/p>\nThe structure of the book aptly follows the five main components of songwriting: “Intro,” “Verse 1,” “Verse 2,” “Verse 3,” and “Outro.” Green focuses each verse on an artist\u2014Renee Stout, Radcliffe Bailey, and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, respectively\u2014and draws inspiration from the music Specific works are dissected in terms of sexuality, sonic resonance, and visual aesthetics. <\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nAlthough the focus may seem narrow, each verse does not belong to just one artist. Rather, it ambitiously presents the artist’s specific regional context of black art, music, and people at large. For example, in order to study Stout in depth, Greene charts the reality of mid-Atlantic America throughout the 20th century. For Bailey, the American South; Campos-Pons, Cuba, and the Caribbean\u2019s diasporic relations with the United States. Each chapter thus blends mini-artist biographies with socio-political historical narratives to chart a rich and generative artist genealogy. When writing Stout, Greene mentioned Betye Saar. Most of Campos-Pons’ chapters are dedicated to Kelly Mae Weems. Bailey’s chapters are filled with connections to the likes of Romare Bearden, David Hammons, Todd Gray and director Barry Jenkins. <\/p>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\tRadcliffe Bailey, Transbluesency (1999), acrylic, photograph, Plexiglas, oil stick, collage, resin and glitter on wood, 80 x 80 x 7 inches (~203.2 x 203.2 x 17.8 cm) (\u00a9 The Estate of Radcliffe Bailey; Image courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nAnd of course, there’s music. Green maps sonic influences through accompanying playlists, connecting artistic intent to musical artists, identifying musical influences in visual works, and highlighting the actual music in work and performance. <\/p>\n
In “Section One,” Green compares Stout’s use of physical form in sculpture and provocation of black female sexuality to funk and rock pioneer Bette Davis. For both artists, she points out the ways in which resistance is often seen as shameful and society is slow to understand. \u201cSection Two\u201d sees a more abstract effort exploring Bailey\u2019s mixed-media work within the dual realities of black excellence and anti-black violence represented in the late artist\u2019s native South. Green begins by detailing the music video for hip-hop group Arrested Development’s “Tennessee” (1992), in which Bailey appears with jazz superstar Miles Davis (a reference to his aforementioned ex-wife Betty) and Sun Ra drew a clear line. \u201cSecond Section\u201d feels a little clunky and disjointed, perhaps due to Green\u2019s efforts to outline the weight of black masculinity and light that these artists struggled with.<\/p>\n
More successfully, Campos-Pons’s “Section Three” addresses the lack of Western recognition of black validity: contributions to the arts, the power and gifts of black women, Cuba’s struggle for autonomy, and more. Greene brought in saxophonist Neil Leonard’s well-researched compositions for Campos-Pons’s compositions, such as the performance piece Authenticated<\/em> (2016), connect these dots with the late Afro-Cuban singer Celia Cruz\u2019s unique use of sugar \u2013 sugar!<\/em> \u2014as assertions of female, black and Afro-Caribbean power.<\/p>\nDespite its many achievements, this book is ultimately an academic work that occasionally veers into academic language. The epilogue, in particular, is perhaps too densely presented with Greene’s social theories and observations.<\/p>\n
But while this style requires some extra effort on the part of the reader, it also means that the many black names in the book – both visual and musical artists – will now be permanently published and etched as records of an increasingly interdisciplinary approach to the creative field middle. Afrofuturistic Jazz by Sun Ra Do<\/em> Interact with Romare Bearden’s collage style and hit Bailey’s sparkling “Pullman” heart. Through this select group of artists, Greene adds a novel component to the critique of Black American culture by exploring sonic grime through funk, glitter through gloss, and glass through the colonial history of black contemporary art. <\/p>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tMaria Magdalena Campos-Pons speaks to participants of the Angels March of Radical Love and Solidarity in a Harlem park on September 7. (Photo by Argenis Apolinario, courtesy the artist and Madison Square Park Conservancy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tExhibition view of Mar\u00eda Magdalena Campos-Pons\u2019s Whispering with Mother (1998) Look<\/em> At the Brooklyn Museum in November 2023 (Photo Lakshmi Rivera Amin\/allergic<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tRadcliffe Bailey, Echo (2011), steel, glass, Georgia clay and shell photograph, 48 1\/2 x 49 x 9 in (~123.2 x 124.5 x 22.9 cm) (\u00a9 The Estate of Radcliffe Bailey; Image courtesy Jack Sherman Gallery, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n\t\t\t\tMaria Magdalena Campos-Pons\u2019 concept sketch for \u201cAngel Parade of Radical Love and Solidarity\u201d (image courtesy the artist and Madison Square Park Conservancy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nDirt, Glitter, and Glass: Bodies and Voices in Contemporary Black Art (2024) by Nikki A. Greene, published by Duke University Press and available online or through independent booksellers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\t<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How often do you think of music when you look at a work of visual art (a painting, a photograph, or a framed collage)? Scholar Nikki A. Greene\u2019s new book, Dirt, Glitter, and Glass: Bodies and Voices in Contemporary Black Artexplores this juxtaposition, bringing the visual into dialogue with the auditory and tactile. The structure<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist"},"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13801,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions\/13801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artoday.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}