Dr. Earnestine Jenkins, Guest Curator, Professor, Department of Art, University of Memphis

This lecture will discuss how the Black Artists in America exhibition series enriched research about African American artists in Memphis, including painters Vertis Hayes, Reginald Morris, Floyd Newsum, and James Little, sculptor Luther Hampton, self-taught visionary artist Hawkins Bolden, and Hooks Brothers photographers. Memphis, an urban area in the South with a significant African American demographic, was a unique site for Black art. Jenkins will consider the experiences of artists within the broader context of segregation, during a period when the foundation was established for an enduring academic and professional Black visual arts practice in Memphis. The talk will highlight how this under-researched aspect of African American art history became a dominant theme in all three Black Artists in America exhibitions.

FREE