Next up in our Top 2018 Moments is the Opening Celebration of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. Coming in as #3, the sold out event featured a daylong symposium that brought together many of the revolutionary artists in the exhibition. Afterwards, we closed out the night at our horn-infused dance party with @soulinthehorn.

We want to know your favorite 2018 Museum moment and why it was so memorable! Comment below or take it one step further by posting a photo on your feed for a chance to be featured on ours—just give us a tag and be sure to include #mybkm.

As one of the co-founders of the Black Arts Movement collective AfriCOBRA, fashion designer Jae Jarrell made one-of-a-kind clothing using the bright hues the collective called “Coolade” colors. Jarrell’s vibrant garments exalt black families and culture and were worn by the artist in her daily life. She wrote that her Ebony Family dress “always got good vibes from our members, no doubt, because my political stance on nurturing the strong loving Black family is real, and personally experienced. We regarded the members as extended family.” 

This weekend we’re celebrating our brand new exhibition to We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85) with a jam-packed weekend of programming. After our opening on Thursday, join us all day Friday for a day-long symposium that delves deep into the revolutionary artistic practices on view in the exhibition. Hear from the show curators and leading art historians on the importance of new modes of artistic production employed by artists and gain greater insight on the context of art-making in this critical time period from the artists themselves. Expect to hear brand new scholarship about art from the period and hear directly from some of the most important living black women artists about what it was like to create art at the intersection of various political movements. Participants of the symposium include:

We Wanted a Revolution artists:

Linda Goode Bryant

Maren Hassinger

Janet Henry

Jae Jarrell

Lisa Jones

Dindga McCannon

Lorraine O’Grady

Howardena Pindell

Faith Ringgold

Alison Saar

Lorna Simpson

Curators and scholars:

Catherine Morris, Sackler Family Senior Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum

Rujeko Hockley, Assistant Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art

Dr. Aruna D’Souza, Art Historian and Critic

Dr. Kellie Jones, Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology and the Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia University

Dr. Uri McMillan, Associate Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles

We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 opens tomorrow but we're kicking off our four-day celebration tonight with a public reception from 7-10pm with DJ Reborn. Come for an early look at the show and stay for the revolutionary music of black women, and cash bar. 

Tomorrow we're delving into black revolutionary art practices at our daylong Symposium with curators, scholars and artists Linda Goode Bryant, Maren Hassinger, Janet Henry, Jae Jarrell, Lisa Jones, Dindga McCannon, Lorraine O’Grady, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Alison Saar, Lorna Simpson, and more. 

Then Saturday, enjoy a Julie Dash Film Marathon including a panel discussion with director Julie Dash, cinematographer Arthur Jafa, and actress and We Wanted a Revolution artist Alva Rogers. 

Revolutionary (Angela Davis) by Wadsworth Jarrell is an artwork that both dominates a room and rewards the close observer. In this powerful tribute to political activist Angela Davis, vibrantly colored lettering delineates Davis’s features as well as bursts with messages related to the Black Arts Movement, such as “seize the time,” “resist,” and “I have given my life to the struggle, if I have to lose my life in the struggle that’s the way it will have to be.” In the portrait, Davis wears a Revolutionary Suit, designed by the painter’s wife Jae Jarrell.

This artwork is composed of more than paint; the artist created the entire structure, from the wooden strainer supporting the canvas, to the 3-dimensional cartridge strap, to the frame. He even repaired damages to the painting himself in the 1990s. The concentrated effort Jarrell put into the wooden structure can be seen in an x-ray image of the lower right corner (nails and staples appear white).

Jarrell provided the Conservation department with details of his working process in 2012. From this we learned of creative tidbits such as the use of a soft drink can tab as the buckle on the cartridge strap. The rest of the strap is composed of leather and colorfully painted wooden dowels. Text on a collaged paper identifies the Revolutionary Suit as inspiration.

Conservators strive to preserve all of these unique artistic choices, even when they present physical challenges. For example, until recently the canvas was sagging from the weight of the paint and collage elements. Instead of using a traditional method of restoring tension to the painting, which would have required altering Jarrell’s elaborate corner construction, conservators created a specialized insert that passively supports the weight of the canvas from the reverse. Every conservation treatment must be tailor-made, responding not just to the materials but also to the purpose and context of the artwork, so that the artist’s intended message can endure.

Come see Revolutionary (Angela Davis) in person when We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85 opens at the Brooklyn Museum on April 21.

We're so excited for our newest exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 that we're celebrating its opening with four days of programming. Join us for the opening festivities as we celebrate these groundbreaking black women artists! 

Click through for details, schedules, and tickets, and join us for the revolution!

If you ask someone to name five artists, they will likely name prominent male artists, but how many people can list five women artists? Throughout March’s Women’s History Month, we will be joining institutions around the world once again to answer this very question posed by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NWMA). We will be featuring artists from our upcoming exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85 which examines the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic priorities of women of color during the emergence of second-wave feminism. The show will be on view April 21-September 17, 2017.  

Together we hope to draw attention to the gender and race imbalance in the art world, inspire conversation and awareness, and hopefully add a few more women of color to everyone’s lists.

As one of the co-founders of the Black Arts Movement collective AfriCOBRA, fashion designer Jae Jarrell made one-of-a-kind clothes using the bright hues the collective called “Cool Ade” colors. Her vibrant garments exalt black family and culture and, when worn by the artist in her daily life, became powerful statements in which the artist literally embodied a goal or message of the Black Arts Movement.