Special Book Excerpt: African American Art

In honor of Black History Month, the About Art History site has very kindly been given permission to publish an excerpt from Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition (edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah; excerpt written by Richard Powell). The excerpt is a wonderfully concise overview of art created by African Americans from the Colonial, Federalist, and Antebellum periods in American history to the present. It's also full of pertinent artists' names, dates and six lovely illustrations. Enormous gratitude and thanks to Oxford University Press (who will be releasing the second edition in April of 2005) and, particularly, to publicist Yolanda Carden (a gracious and hardworking woman). Were I ever to be in need of a publicist, I would beg her to take on my project. Thank you so much for filling a gap here, Yolanda. Much appreciated!