2024 NAACP Image Awards Nominee: Outstanding Non-Fiction

A fun and fact-filled introduction to the dismissed Black art masters and models who shook up the world.

Elegant. Refined. Exclusionary. Interrupted. The foundations of the fine art world are shaking. Beyoncé and Jay-Z break the internet by blending modern Black culture with fine art in their iconic music video filmed in the Louvre. Kehinde Wiley powerfully subverts European masterworks. Calls resonate for museum diversity and the resignations of leaders of the old guard. It’s clear that modern day museums can no longer exist without change—and without recognizing that Black people have been a part of Western art since its beginnings. Quietly held within museum and private collections around the world are hundreds of faces of Black men and women, many of their stories unknown. From paintings of majestic kings to a portrait of a young girl named Isabella in Amsterdam, these models lived diverse lives while helping shape the art world along the way. Then, after hundreds of years of Black faces cast as only the subject of the white gaze, a small group of trailblazing Black American painters and sculptors reached national and international fame, setting the stage for the flourishing of Black art in the 1920s and beyond. Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place in the mainstream art canon. From the hushed corridors of royal palaces to the bustling streets of 1920s Paris—this is Black history like never seen before.

This essential work of art criticism reveals:

Art History Interrupted: An unflinching look at how the foundations of the fine art world are being shaken by modern culture, from Beyoncé and Jay-Z in the Louvre to the subversive masterworks of Kehinde Wiley.
Beyond the White Gaze: The quietly held, unknown stories of the hundreds of Black men and women whose faces appear in museum collections, from majestic kings to a young girl named Isabella in Amsterdam.
Trailblazing Artists: A celebration of the small group of trailblazing Black American painters and sculptors who broke through to achieve international fame, setting the stage for the 1920s flourishing of Black art.
The Mainstream Canon: A necessary and captivating elevation of a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place, showing Black history and its impact on the Western art world like never before.