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THE JAMES A. PORTER COLLOQUIA ON AFRICAN AMERICAN ART

HOWARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ART AND THE ANACOSTIA MUSEUM AND CENTER FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

CONFERENCE STATEMENT

Since 1943, the date of publication of James A. Porter's MODERN NEGRO ART, the number of African American artists working in the United States has increased greatly. Porter's book placed African American artists in the context of modern art history, which was both novel and profound. Except for W. E. B. DuBois, Benjamin Brawley, and Alain Locke, few scholars devoted more than a brief descriptive note to the work of African American artists. For some MODERN NEGRO ART was considered presumptuous and certainly premature. But Porter's bold and perceptive scholarship helped those who subsequently focused their attention on African American expression in the visual arts to see the wealth of work that had been produced in the United States for over two centuries.

For the most part, African American artists have worked in obscurity. Often they have worked without emphatically subscribing to the most recent developments in Late-Modernist and Post-Modernist art. This does not mean that they did not participate in such paradigmatic shifts, only that they did so in their own way.

James A. Porter's publications and teaching have dealt with those artists who have been invisible to the American mainstream establishment. The Colloquium seeks to further Porter's efforts to present African American artists and art in high relief by defining and assessing the artistic values that are meaningful for African Americans.

The first Colloquium was initiated in the spring of 1990. Since that time it has been held each year on the Howard University campus. In 1998, the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture joined the Howard University Art Department in sponsoring the Ninth Annual Porter Colloquium and has subsequently agreed to serve as co-sponsor, giving the Colloquium a national profile. The Colloquium is named after noted art historian and artist James A. Porter (1905-1970), former professor and chair of the Howard University Art Department and Director of the Gallery of art. Porter was one of the finest American art historians of this century producing the first in-depth scholarship in African American art history. The Colloquium has brought together art historians, cultural critics and artists to focus on important issues pertaining to the visual arts and culture of African Americans. The Colloquium seeks (a) to provide a forum for scholars and advanced students to present their research findings and to discuss current issues, problems, and concepts in African American art and culture; (b) to introduce the visual arts community to current issues in African American art by bringing together art historians and scholars who are engaged in pioneer research in the field; and (c) to compile a series of papers for publication that would serve to expand, update and encourage more in depth research and scholarly writing on African American art and culture.

NUMBER TITLE DATE
1ST INAUGURAL COLLOQUIUM MARCH 31, 1990
2ND CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND ISSUES APRIL 7, 1991
3RD CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND ISSUES II APRIL 10-11, 1992
4TH OUT OF INVISIBILITY: INTERPRETING AND REDEFINING AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL EXPRESS IN THE CRAFTS APRIL 1993
5TH POSTMODERNISM, DECONSTRUCTIONISM, MULTICULTURALISM AND AFRICAN AMERICAN ART APRIL 22-23, 1994
6TH READING BETWEEN THE LINES: ISSUES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN ART AND ART HISTORIOGRAPHY APRIL 21-22, 1995
7TH MEMORY, REMEMBERING, AND VISUAL NARRATIVE; SEVEN DECADES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ART APRIL 5-6, 1996
8TH RECENT RESEARCH IN AFRICAN AMERICAN ART APRIL 18-19, 1997
9TH RE-EXAMINING AFRICAN AMERICAN ART & CULTURE OF THE 1960'S APRIL 16-18, 1998
10th AFRICAN AMERICAN ART AND SPIRITUALITY APRIL 15-17, 1999
11th "CONVERGING IMAGES: PRINTMAKING AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN AFRICAN AMERICAN ART" APRIL 7-8, 2000
12th "MIGRATIONS AND THE DIASPORA: CARIBBEAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN CONNECTIONS" APRIL 6-7, 2001
13th "COLLECTING, COLLECTORS, AND COLLECTIONS" APRIL 5-6, 2002

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