Old School, New School
Much is often made of the lack of discourse between the old guard and the "young bucks" coming up. This battle is constantly happening in barber/beauty shops, places of worship, and on various political fronts; however, there is one spot on the map that the old and the (relatively) new are joining forces. The Zacheta National Gallery of Art is currently presenting 84 works by a veritable who's who of contemporary American art (Laylah Ali, Kalup Linzy, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker, to name a few).
The show, black alphabet - conTEXTS of contemporary african-american art, is on view until 19 November. Did we fail to mention that Zacheta is in Poland? Oh yeah, it's like that. As the title suggests, black alphabet not only acknowledges the various media and modes in which artists work, but how the artwork speaks across disciplines; whether negotiating the term "black" as it relates to a people, a culture, or an artist's work.
Says curator Maria Brewinska, "Black alphabet is the first presentation in Europe of a group exhibition from the USA focused on the most powerful elements in contemporary American art created by African American artists. It will thus enable a deep and engaged exploration of this highly significant element within American culture, that at best is known only selectively, and at worst is absolutely unknown, on the 'old continent'..."
Perhaps the world is as flat as The New York Times' Thomas Friedman suggests. If so, there's no time like the present for art to build bridges, and initiate conversations, with people we would only have imagined talking to in our obtuse 20th Century.