| Abstract |
"AFRICOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) was a multidisciplinary collective of black artists who created socially conscious art in Chicago during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960's and 1970's. Artists Wadsworth Jarrell, Nelson Stevens, Jae Jarrell, Gerald Williams, and Napoloen Jones-Henderson produced textiles, paintings, sculpture and public art that sought to develop an aesthetic language that resonated with the black community. AFRICOBRA's abstract works convey the rhythmic dynamism of black culture and social life, while the structure of the collective offered a model of artistic practice embedded in the political realities and histories of the community. In this volume, Wadsworth Jarrell, one of the founding members of the AFRICOBRA collective, offers an account of the history of the group and it's founding aesthetic and political principles. The bulk of the manuscript is selected from his archive of materials ranging from exhibition ephemera to photos that show the development of the group's art practice that collectively form a sourcebook history of the group. The sourcebook intersperses documentation of exhibitions, artworks, and the members of the collective in Chicago; documents that outline the aesthetic and political goals of the group written by its members; and writing from Jarrell that narrates the history of the collective from the point of view of its founder. The writing emphasizes the importance of the group's political principles to some of its largest projects, like the Wall of Respect, a public mural in Chicago's Black Belt neighborhood. While work by AFRICOBRA has been shown at the Brooklyn Museum, the Tate, and elsewhere, this will be the first book to present an extensive record of the group's history, practice, and principles. This book will be of interest to our readers in art, African American studies, and cultural studies"-- Provided by publisher |
