Terms of the Day and Videos for November 26

• In Living Color -  a sketch comedy television series, which originally ran on the Fox Network from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994, created and written by and staring the Wayans brothers. The title of the series was inspired by the NBC announcement of broadcasts being presented "in living color" during the 1950s and 1960s, prior to mainstream color television. It also refers to the fact that most of the show's cast was predominantly African-American, unlike other sketch comedy shows whose casts were usually mostly white.
• Spike Lee Joints – a term which refers to the films of African American filmmaker Spike Lee.  These films often explore American race relations and the closing credits always end with the phrases "By Any Means Necessary", "Ya Dig" and "Sho Nuff".
• Bigger & Blacker - an album by Chris Rock, originally released on July 13, 1999, on the Dreamworks label. The album features live stand-up comedy tracks recorded for an HBO special at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and studio-recorded comic sketches.

School Daze

Spike Lee

1988

In Living Color: Introducing Homie D. Clown

Damon Wayans

June 17, 1990

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Written by  Shawn & Marlon Wayans

Directed by Paris Barclay

1996

Scary Movie

Written by  Shawn & Marlon Wayans

Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans

2000

White Chicks

Written by  Keenen Ivory, Shawn & Marlon Wayans

Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans

2004

Bigger & Blacker

Chris Rock

1999

Terms of the Day and Images from Lecture November 21

• Bricolage - the construction or creation of a work of art from a diverse range of things which happen to be available.
• Generation X - the generation born after the Western post–World War II baby boom, with birthdates from the early 1960s to the late 1970s.  This generation’s cultural outlook was influenced by several events, including the election of Ronald Reagan, Black Monday, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the election of George H.W. Bush, the election of Bill Clinton and the United States 1990s economic boom.
• Installation Art - an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces.

 Old Mole

Martin Puryear

1985

 Ladder for Booker T. Washington

Martin Puryear

1996

 Brotherhood, Crossroads and Etcetera

Lyle Ashton Harris

1994

Hottentot Venus 2000

Lyle Ashton Harris (with Reneé Cox)

1995

 Hot-en-tot 

Reneé Cox

1994

The Liberation of Lady J. and Uncle B.

Reneé Cox

1998

 Black Chalkboards

Garry Simmons

1993

 Fertile Ground

Alison Saar

1993

Lost and Found

Alison Saar

2003

Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as it Occurred b'tween the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart

Kara Walker

1994

Final Exam Study Guide

CORRECTION: I accidentally uploaded Adrian Piper's Cornered when I meant to upload the episode of In Living Color.  I just fixed that issue.

The final exam will be Thursday, December 6, from 9:00-11:00 AM.  The exam will cover the introduction and chapters 1-7 of Black Art: A Cultural History and this  is how it will be constructed:

• 1 essay question comparing and contrasting two videos from class worth 15 points.
• 25 vocabulary terms (match the term to its definition) worth 1 point each.
• 40 multiple choice questions worth 1 point each
• 1 essay question focusing on conversations and/or lectures we've had in class  worth 20 points.

For the first essay question, we will watch two short clips that you have seen in class and then you will be asked to write a short compare & contrast essay.  The question will be phrased as follows:

• Identify the sources of the clips you have just seen (title, artist/director, and date).  Then compare and contrast these two video clips.  What is the historical/cultural/artistic importance of each video clip that was discussed in class or found in the book?  What similarities do you see in these two videos?  How do these two video clips relate to one another?

I will choose the two videos from the following six:

 Cakewalk

The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company

1903

 Sur un Air de Charleston 

Directed by Jean Renoir

1926

 Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar Acceptance Speech

Hattie McDaniel

1940

 Foxy Brown

Jack Hill

1974

In Living Color: Introducing Homie D. Clown
Damon Wayans
June 17, 1990

Bigger & Blacker

Chris Rock

1999

The 20 vocabulary terms will be pulled directly from the "Terms Of The Day" lists I have given you at the beginning of each class period. Study these lists well enough to be able to match each term on the left side of the page with its particular definition on the right side of the page.

The 40 multiple choice questions come from both the class lectures and from the book. There will be a few questions on the test that we never addressed in class; they come directly from the book.  The questions in this section will range from those that test how well you understand the definitions of terms to questions about specific artworks that you have seen, to questions about the cultural, religious, and political environments that contributed to the work.

Let me give you four example questions (yes, these will be on the test just as you see them here):

By the early 1900s, many traditions of African American culture were becoming a part of popular culture.  Among these traditions were ragtime music, _______________, religious oration, and the “the cakewalk”.

A. Hip-Hop

B. Negro spirituals

C. Funk music

D. None of the above

The New Negro Arts Movement was inspired greatly by which New York civil rights activists who pressured young black artists to create a new "black aesthetic" that would serve to “uplift” the race
A. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X

B. Booker T. Washinton and Frederick Douglas

C. Susan B. Anthony and Helen Keller

D. W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke

Jeff Donaldson and Jae Jerrell were members of what organization whichs pecifically took on the goal of creating a new revolutionary black aesthetic?

A. The Washington Color School

B. AfriCOBRA

C. Spiral

D. The Black Panthers

The best advice I can give you on how to study for this portion of the exam is to comb through all your notes you've taken in class, remind yourself of all the main concepts you've learned, familiarize yourself with all the "Terms Of The Day," and to make sure you have read the material in the book. Pay special attention to how each artwork serves as an example to illustrate a concept. Don't just depend on what I have told you in class. Yes, 80% of these questions will come directly from lecture. But you don't want to be thrown off by the questions that are based on the book alone.

The second essay topic focusing on conversations we had in class will require you to write a paragraph or two in response and will be chosen from the three topics listed below:

1. What is "double consciousness"?  Who was the Harlem Renaissance leader who developed the concept of double consciousness?  Name at least two works of art/music/film/performance (from any time period we have discussed) and tell how you see the concept of double consciousness displayed in those works.
2. When speaking of darkey iconography and stereotypes of African American women, what is the "Jezebel Archetype"?  Name three female artists/performers who have addressed the Jezebel Archetype in their work.  Remember that the "Hottentot Venus" was viewed as a Jezebel.  How did each woman appropriate the Jezebel Archetype and for what purpose?
3. Much of African American art of the 20th century after 1940 is created in reaction to many of the expectations or "rules" placed on artists during the Harlem Renaissance.  Name at least three of these "rules" that we discussed in class and explain how these rules were broken by these groups: African American Abstract Expressionists, AfriCOBRA, and African American Postmodernists of the 1980s.

The best way to study for this essay is to carefully read each of these questions and think about what you might write in response.  Each of them is based on lectures or a group discussion from class, but they are phrased to make you think critically about certain concepts. This is meant to test how well you have been paying attention to the concepts you've been learning in this class. If you understand the topics and concepts we've been going over in class well enough to apply them to questions that were never directly asked in class, then you have made good use of your time in this class. Consult your notes and the book.  Maybe practice what you would write for each question.

Study hard, and good luck to everyone. If you have taken good notes, if you have read the chapters, and if you have spent some time really trying to understand the "Terms Of The Day" then this exam shouldn't be difficult for you.

Terms of the Day and Images for Lecture November 19

• Postmodern Art - a movement in Western art, spanning from the late 1970s until the present, which rejects the key ideas of modernism. 
• Pluralism - a Postmodern movement in art that assumes the cultural context of art should be all-encompassing in its respect for the art of the world's wide variety of cultures and artistic styles, and that diverse cultural and stylistic influences can coexist in a work of art.
• Appropriation - an artistic concept in which an artist uses an image already in existence and places it in a new context in order to give it new meanings.
• Graffiti - images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property.  Generally regarded as vandalism, the Postmodern era has recognized it as a legitimate artform.
• Pastiche - a literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that imitates the style of previous work or an artistic composition made up of selections from different works.
• Bricolage - the construction or creation of a work of art from a diverse range of things which happen to be available.

 Eat Dem Taters

Robert Colescott

1975

 Graffiti with the tag SAMO©

Jean-Michel Basquiat

c. 1977-1980

 Flexible

Jean-Michel Basquiat

1984

 Mona Lisa

Jean-Michel Basquiat

1983

 Horn Players

Jean-Michel Basquiat

1886

Guarded Conditions

Lorna Simpson

1989

 You’re Fine

Lorna Simpson

1988

 Self-Portrait Exaggerating My Negroid Features

Adrian Piper

1981

 My Calling (Card) No. 2

Adrian Piper

1986

Vanilla Nightmares No. 8

Adrian Piper

1986

 Cornered

Adrian Piper

1988

Terms of the Day and Images from Lecture November 14

• AfriCOBRA – (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) a collective of AfricanAmerican artists in Chicago that specifically took on the goal of creating a new revolutionary black aesthetic. 
• Exploitation Film –  an informal label which may be applied to any film which is generally considered to be both low budget and of low moral or artistic merit, and therefore apparently attempting to gain financial success by "exploiting" a current trend or a niche genre or a base desire for lurid subject matter.
• Blaxploitation Film –  a film genre which emerged in the United States in the 1970s aimed at an urban black audience.  These films were often low-budget, had majority African American casts, and used funk music and urban slang of the time.  They were often criticized for perpetuating stereotypes.

The Passion of Muhammad Ali (cover of Esquire)

Carl Fisher & George Lois

1968

Aunt Jemima and the Pillsbury Doughboy

Jeff Donaldson

1963

Revolutionary Suit

Jae Jarrell

1970

Blaxploitation 

Superfly

George Parks, Jr.

1972

Foxy Brown

Jack Hill

1974

Scream Blacula Scream

Bob Kelljan

1973

Flag for the Moon: Die Nigger

Faith Ringgold

1969

 Injustice Case

David Hammons

1970

 How Ya Like Me Now?

David Hammons

1988

 The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

Betye Saar

1972

 Black Girl’s Window

Betye Saar

1969

Homage to My Young Black Sisters

Elizabeth Catlett

1968

 I Like Olympia in Black Face

Larry Rivers

1970

Family Jules: NNN (No Naked Niggahs)

Barkley L. Hendricks

1974 

Brilliantly Endowed (Self-Portrait)

Barkley L. Hendricks

1977

Terms of the Day and Images for Lecture November12

• Spiral – a collective of AfricanAmerican artists initially formed by Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, and Hale Woodruff on July 5, 1963. The artists in the group were moved to come together and discuss their own engagement in the struggle for civil rights, even though each found engagement in a different way. 
• Minimalism – a movement in various forms of art and design where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features, such as material and the basic elements and principles of art.
• Washington Color School – a Washington, DC-based visual art movement of the late 1950s through the mid-1970s which was related  to abstract expressionism but made attempts to be much more minimal and structured than abstract expressionism.  Members of the movement referred to themselves as “Colorists”.

 The Problem We All Live With

Norman Rockwell

1964

 The “Little Rock Nine” students integrated into the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, escorted by soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division

1959

 Cover of Time Magazine

September 27, 1963

 Marting Luther King, Jr.

1929-1968 (assassinated)

Malcom X

1925-1965 (assassinated)

 Prevalence of Ritual: Mysteries

Romare Bearden

1964

 Three Folk Musicians

Romare Bearden

1967

 Rockket to the Moon

Romare Bearden

1971

 Jack Johnson

Raymond Saunders

1972

 The Dance

Emilio Cruz

1962

 Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music

Alma Thomas

1976

 Swing

Sam Gilliam

1969

Arch

Sam Gilliam

1971