Color does more than capture a viewer鈥檚 attention. It assaults one鈥檚 equilibrium physically and psychologically. In this stunning book, Richard Powell draws on the concept of 鈥渃olorstruck,鈥� a twentieth-century slang term describing prejudice toward people with darker skin complexions, to provide a new history of Black American art.
Powell charts the dynamics of paint and pigment in the works of artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Raymond Saunders, Sam Gilliam, Herv茅 T茅l茅maque, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Nina Chanel Abney, and Henry Taylor. Using blue, green, yellow, orange, black, red, brown, and their combinations, he considers the historical and cultural contexts in which these colors unleash their visual magic and shows how the artists鈥� vibrant palettes collide with undercurrents of race in unanticipated and thought-provoking ways. Powell shares compelling insights into the powerful chromatic forces manifested through artists鈥� actions and viewers鈥� reactions.
A landmark work by an acclaimed art historian, this richly illustrated book offers a dazzling look at the transformative use of color by some of today鈥檚 most exciting painters, revealing how hue and pigmentation strike a chord for freedom and reclamation in life as well as art.
Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University. His many books include Going There: Black Visual Satire, Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, and Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson.
"Richly illustrated with archival photographs and numerous artworks, the volume captures the relationship between the unique experience of an artist and her viewer and the broader powers that inform those dynamics."鈥擥race Ebert, Colossal
鈥淚n the tradition of Goethe, Itten, and Albers, Richard Powell brilliantly demonstrates how artists engage the multiple uses and meanings of color, both as a practice and a concept. Powell shows us how the different hues on a painted canvas intersect with the experiences of race in everyday life. A stunning analysis of aesthetics, politics, and history, this book鈥攖he masterwork of a major scholar at the top of his game鈥攚ill permanently change the way we see.鈥�鈥擧enry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
鈥淭his marvelous, stunningly illustrated book greatly enriches American and Black diasporic art history, threading canonical non-Black thinkers throughout its deep exploration of the various meanings of color and pigment in Black American art. The text is accessible, graceful, and insightful, freeing the work of Black artists from the sociological imperative.鈥�鈥擭ell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of American History Emerita, 快色直播 University
鈥淲ith a sharp painter鈥檚 eye and in scintillating prose, Richard Powell charts a path through the work of a wonderful range of artists via an ever-surprising palette of viridian, bronze, red, yellow-orange, and blue, shedding light on color, meaning, and the Black experience. Colorstruck! is an uplifting book.鈥�鈥擭eil Cox, Head of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
