For immediate use October 31, 2006
AFRICAN AMERICAN SELF-TAUGHT ART AND THE POLITICS OF REPRESENTATION--A TALK WITH BILL ARNETT AND LONNIE HOLLEY
ON NOV. 8 AT UNC
Social historian and art curator Bill Arnett, and celebrated African American self-taught artist Lonnie Holley, will discuss African American vernacular artistry and its place in the broader world of American art on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of UNC's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
The free forum, "Secret Language, Hidden Treasure: Art in the African American South," is sponsored by the Curriculum in Folklore, in collaboration with the Dept. of Art, the Center for the Study of the American South, and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
The evening's conversation will focus on African American vernacular art, a world of creative expression whose critical contributions to American culture have long been ignored by the mainstream Art establishment. Arnett argues that this "ignoring" is actually better described as purposeful suppression, with the creativity of working-class African Americans either dismissed or marginalized. Challenging the practice of diminishing this art with such labels as "folk" or "outsider," he contends that African American vernacular art may well be the most significant and creatively compelling arts movement in the last century of American history. That this is not more widely recognized--he contends--is more a function of the politics of race and class than of aesthetics.
Always provocative, Bill Arnett has long championed the cultural and aesthetic significance of African American self-taught art. A tireless promoter of this largely hidden world, he has spent decades collecting, exhibiting, and writing about the works of grassroots Southern artists. In so doing, Arnett has almost single-handedly forced a public re-evaluation of the material worlds of African American creativity.
An early product of this work was Arnett's groundbreaking exhibit for the Atlanta Olympics, "Souls Grown Deep," which was widely heralded as the most comprehensive showing of African American vernacular art ever assembled. This was followed by Arnett's equally pioneering exhibit of the quilts of Gee's Bend, which gathered a set of remarkable quilts crafted by generations of African American women from a small Alabama community. These strikingly sophisticated quilts speak to both tradition and modernity, combining stylistic features rooted in West Africa with distinctly contemporary aesthetics. Boasting a geometric complexity that challenges the familiar symmetry of white Southern quilting, they testify to the presence and power of a distinctive African American style. (This singularity was even celebrated by the U.S. Postal Service, who recently issued a set of commemorative stamps depicting quilts from Gee's Bend--all drawn from Arnett's exhibit.)
Joining Arnett in this conversation is Lonnie Holley, one of the nation's most respected (and most exhibited) self-taught artists. Holley hails from Birmingham, Ala., where he has been creating art for more than twenty-five years, crafting pieces that range from sandstone carvings to paintings to complex sculptures fashioned from found objects. Holley began making art as a response to hard trials in his personal life, and discovered in sandstone carving a place where his spirit found ease. As he began experimenting with other media, he found that his artistry allowed him a pulpit from which he could both teach and tell stories. "Holley is as much a storyteller as a material artist," notes Dr. Glenn Hinson, chair of UNC's Curriculum in Folklore. "His work offers itself as powerful and political testimony about the experience of working-class African Americans."
Holley's commitment to social commentary, and his awareness of the ways that vernacular creativity has historically been marginalized, have prompted him to search out other African American self-taught artists. This search, in turn, has led to a longstanding friendship with Bill Arnett, and with Arnett's son Paul, an art historian and curator in his own right. Paul Arnett, who works alongside his father in championing African American vernacular artists and presenting their works to the public, will be joining Bill Arnett and Lonnie Holley in the public forum on November 8.
"Secret Language, Hidden Treasure" offers a rare opportunity to meet a set of thinkers and actors who are increasingly shaping public understandings about African American vernacular artistry and its role in American culture. For more information on this public forum, call the Curriculum in Folklore at (919) 962-4062, or visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/folklore/ .
The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History is located at 150 South Road, near the Bell Tower on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.