August 2, 2001
PRESS RELEASE
ALBRIGHT-KNOX ART GALLERY COLLECTS THE WORK
OF THREE NOTABLE AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS
Buffalo, NY--- Albright-Knox Art Gallery Director Douglas G. Schultz has announced that the Gallery has acquired 31 new works of art this year, including 10 gifts and 21 purchases. "As a museum of modern and contemporary art, it is our mission to actively collect the artwork of our time," said Schultz. "This year’s acquisitions represent the work of some of the most important artists working today, including works by African–American artists Robert Colescott, Ellen Gallagher, and Martin Puryear."
Feeling His Oats, 1988, is a large-scale acrylic on canvas by Robert Colescott, whose work is characterized by incisive, often witty, and complex social commentaries that deal with racial issues. The central figure in this painting, a well-dressed African-American man, sits at a table surrounded by symbols of his success while in the lower part of the painting the figures call to mind the barriers of racism that cloud any successes African Americans achieve in this country. Colescott represented the United States in the 1997 Venice Biennale.
Ellen Gallagher’s paintings are abstractions layered with metaphorical, literary, and racial references. In Bubbel, 2001 she created a grid by applying sheets of lined paper to the canvas, used pen and ink to reinforce the faint blue line and then painted doodle-like shapes in pale pastel shades. Her shapes represent stereotypes of eyeballs and lips from minstrel shows resulting in an elegant abstraction with racially charged subject matter.
The third work is a unique artist’s book entitled Cane, by author Jean Toomer and artist Martin Puryear. Toomer first published Cane, a literary masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance, in 1927. It is a collection of stories and poems that deal with African-American life of the rural south and urban north. The deluxe edition designed by Puryear in 2000 is enclosed in a wooden slipcase and includes a suite of seven woodblock prints that are haunting evocations of the female characters in the book.
To see the paintings by Colescott and Gallagher as well as other recent acquisitions, please be sure to visit the upcoming special exhibition Fresh: Recent Acquisitions, which features works of art acquired over the past five years. It will be on view at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery from September 8 through October 14. This exhibition will be accompanied by an e-publication with texts by Associate Curator Claire Schneider at www.albrightknox.org.