DAVID DRISKELL
Black Art Matters, His Work + The Doc from HBO
“I’m often asked what do I want my legacy to be, what will my legacy be? I don’t know what it will be. I want it simply to be, I saw the need to try and strengthen that we omitted so much the works by minority artists. I have devoted my time, my life, to bring about the awareness,” said David Driskell in the new HBO Max documentary Black Art: In the Absence of Light.
David Driskell, 88, passed away on April 1, 2020, from complications of the coronavirus. He was an American artist, scholar, and curator recognized for his efforts to establish African American Art as a field of study and champion Black artists and their role in the broader narrative of American art. Maurice Berger, an art historian, shares, “What David did was he said, this is Black art. It matters and it’s been going on for 200-years. Deal with it.”
Inspired by David Driskell’s landmark 1976 exhibition, Two Centuries of Black American Art, the documentary Black Art: In the Absence of Light introduces some of the foremost Black artists working today. The feature-length documentary interweaves insights from historians, scholars, and interviews from African American artists, including Theaster Gates, Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald, and Carrie Mae Weems. “I think there are changes that are being made in diversity, in inclusion etcetera, in the art world, but it is still limited to those who want to see change,” said Driskell. “For us to say Black artists are doing something so special that the world is going to want means that there has to be a world of Black people out there who are interested because the average white audience isn’t.”
The first-ever major exhibition of David Driskell’s career is now on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The exhibit: Icons of Nature and History and corresponding book (Rizzoli Electa), showcases 60 of the artist’s works over seven decades. Driskell was long recognized for his paintings of the American landscape and printmaking practice. His subjects include the Black Christian church and the Southern Black experience. The exhibition features his work from public and private collections, including rarely seen works from Driskell’s collection.
David Driskell: Icons of Nature on view at the High Museum of Art through May 9, 2021
Black Art: In the Absence of Light is now streaming on HBO Max.
