National Black Fine Art Show: No Apologies

I long for a visual feast to match any food festival or antique show that I've ever attended -- an expansive arena where every inch of wall space is covered with African-American art. It would be more lively and interactive than a museum exhibit and more inclusive than a gallery opening, but it would maximize the benefits of both. It would be vibrant; it would be educational; it would be populated by artists and curators--experts who are willing not only to talk to me, but even to negotiate. What I wish for already exists in the National Black Fine Art Show (NBFAS), which is held each year in New York City. But is it all fine art? Critics of the show have raised that question, and some art administrators have refused to participate because of the mixture of art presented.

One New York art professional who doesn't participate in the show (and who does not wish to be named) says that she finds the range of work presented detrimental to the cause that the fair is trying to promote: "I would think that their aim is to allow people to understand the depth and diversity of African-American art, but to have amazing, wonderful work by some of the best African-American artists--like Bearden, Bannister and Duncanson--and then to look across the aisle at masks made out of corkscrews is an absolute travesty." This art professional is also appalled that there could be a $15,000 abstract painting by Richard Mayhew next to a $500 abstract painting, with no explanation for the difference.

Sande Webster, the owner of Sande Webster Gallery in Philadelphia, has participated in the last two NBFASs. Her beef is that there shouldn't be any reproductions in the show: "If what we are trying to promote is fine art, it should be just that."

Joscelyn Wainwright, the former New York City police detective-sergeant who conceived the NBFAS and who produces it every year, responds to his critics with the level calm of a man who picks his fights judiciously: "Not everyone who appreciates art or who is a neophyte with the genre can afford Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence or Elizabeth Catlett. By making available a range of art in terms of costs, we're providing a service that can satisfy all. I think it is important that people are able to come and acquire work."

Webster agrees that many people attending the show may be of modest means or may be first-time buyers, but she maintains that they should nevertheless have access to quality original artwork. She has developed a special product for the January 1999 art show: a Blox Box, which is a six-sided cube on which artists have created masterpieces.

Each of her participating artists was provided with a handcrafted wooden block to use either as a canvas or as a sculptural surface to carve or alter. Some artists chose to create their own blocks in marble, clay or bronze. The Blox Boxes represent the artists' talent and ingenuity when given specific constraints. Webster will offer Blox Boxes by James Brantley, Nanette Carter, Al Loving and Charles Searles at prices ranging from $200 to $1,100. "Ordinarily, those artists' work runs from $2,000 to $20,000 per artist," she explains, "but collectors are still getting an original piece of artwork."

Similarly, there are up-and-coming artists whose work sells for far, far less than the masters, and their work, too, is of value. "Many of these emerging artists will become the masters of the next two generations," Wainwright says. "We're providing exposure to those artists who have talent and are building on that talent."

Exposure is the name of the game, especially for Thomas Erben, whose Thomas Erben Gallery in New York City displays international contemporary art. Erben's special interest is African-American avant-garde art of the 1970s, which he promotes in an international context. He laments that most of his sales at the NBFAS have been of established, traditional artists, when he'd rather be selling David Hammons, Lyle Ashton Harris, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O'Grady and Adrian Piper.

"It's a compromise," Erben says. "In order to participate, I have to show Bob Thompson and Beauford Delaney and Norman Lewis. Collectors don't sufficiently support significantly younger and more adventurous artists. The show meets a need. It's a laudable enterprise, but I would like to see it evolve into something more artistically interesting."

As in the past two years, the NBFAS, sponsored by Stedman Graham & Partners, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and American Visions, will again feature the works of contemporary and historic artists from the United States, Africa and the Caribbean. There will also be a body of work from Suriname. Among the more prominent dealers exhibiting are ACA Galleries, Essie Green Galleries, G.R. N'Namdi Gallery and Merton D. Simpson Gallery.

According to Wainwright, the show has two important markets: the African-American community, which is least aware of this work due to a lack of museums in black communities, and mainstream art collectors. "There is a growing interest in black art across the board," he says. "We're helping to encourage and support that interest."