VISUAL
CREATIVITY
continued from page 4
(cover), Floyd Coleman, LeRoy Clarke, lames
Phillips, Faith Ringgold, Malcolm Bailey, Charles
Searles, Ellsworth Ausby, Kwasi Seitu Asantey
(Robin Harper), Vincent Smith, to name only a
few.
Conversely, there are many black artists who
are equally concerned with organizing their per
sonal statements, regardless of subnet moller or
stylistic preference in accord with the best-known
and agreed-upon esthetic criteria. This writer is
convinced that for a black artist to be basically
concerned with making his work esthetically in
teresting whether his style is abstract, figura
tive or minimal he is no less "black" for doing
so. He is, in fact, saying that blacks are very
much a divergent group, one that is contempla
tive, innovative and possessed of the same esthe
tic concerns as artists everywhere. Artists of this
persuasion include Sam Gilliam, Alvin Smith,
Wendell Robinson, Howardena Pindell, Ruth
Tunstall, Minnie Evans, Wilbur Haynie, Adrienne
Hoard, Lloyd Toone, Marvin Brown, William T.
Williams, Thomas Sills, Raymond Saunders, Wil
liam Majors, ohn Rhoden, Sue Irons, Ralph
Arnold, Alma Thomas, Robert Gordon, Manuel
Hughes, Marion Sampler, Ronald Burns, Walter
Williams, Jack Whitten, Richard Hunt, Emilio
Cruz, Russ Thompson, John Dowell, Juan Logan,
the late Bob Thompson among many others.
Finally, the primary efforts of the young black
American artist should be directed toward the
development of those positive, inherited and so
cially acquired skills and attitudes that he has
access to by virtue of his African heritage and
black experience in America, for this unique
combination of backgrounds and influences has
positive features. In addition, it makes for an
effective and intellectual organism that offers the
black artist the basis for evolving a potent art of
concrete orientation. If this organism is nurtured
with sincerity and dedication, there is no doubt
in my mind that black artists will continue to
achieve a high level of creativity, further enhanc
ing America's leading rolerin the world of art.
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Alvin Smith, New York painter-constructionist, once again proves his formidable versatility
and artistry in this untitled minimal mixed-media sculpture from his recent Amherst
College Series (1975).
I v
HENRI GHENT, Doctor of Humanities (Hon.),
Allen University, Columbia, S.C.; U.S. Armed
Force Institute, Honolulu, Hawaii; New England
Conservatory, Boston, Mass.; Georges Longy
School, Cambridge, Mass.; University of Paris
(France); private study in West Germany and
England. Mr. Ghent's experience bridges both
the performing and visual arts categories in which
he earned international commendation, first as a
concert artist for fifteen yars, and later as a fine
arts exhibition director and critic. His reputation
as an arts administrator was gained during his
tenure (1968-1972) as Director of The Brooklyn
Museum's innovative Community Gallery the
first black American to assume a decision-making
post with a major cultural institution in the
United States. As a writer-critic, he has fre
quently contributed significant articles to virtually
all the leading art journals, including Art in
America, Art International, Artforum, The Art
Gallery Magazine and School Arts, as well as
The New York Times (Arts and Leisure Section),
the World Encyclopedia of Biography (McGraw
Hill, 1973) and The Crisis magazine. In addition,
he has lectured extensively at museums, universi
ties and colleges in this country and abroad, and
has organized and directed 55 exhibitions in
cluding the widely acclaimed show, "EIGHT
AFRO-AMERICAN ARTISTS", held in 1971 at
the Rath Musueum in Geneva, Switzerland the
first American so honored. Among the recent
scholastic awards he has received are the Samuel
H. Kress Foundation Research-Travel Fellowship,
the Art Critics' Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Arts, and a travel-study grant
from the Ford Foundation (1974-75), as well as
a commission from The Art Gallery Magazine to
survey the contemporary art scene in Spain, as
reported in a ten-page illustrated essay entitled
"The Second Generation", featured in the June
1974 issue of the publication.
"Greetings to a Soul Brother" by Floyd Coleman. He combines figurative and abstract styles
to make a relevant statement about his heritage and experiences as a black American.
"Carousel Form II (1969) by Sam Gilliam. This Washington, D.C. artist is the first American to
liberate abstract painting from the conventional stretcher by dramatically suspending his can
vases from the ceiling or informally draping them as "fabric paintings". This work projects
Gilliam as one of the most innovative painters on the American art scene today.
7