Exploring the art and legacy of the AfriCOBRA, the artist
collective founded in Chicago in 1968, this fully illustrated
volume documents two exhibitions curated by Jeffreen M.
Hayes—“AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People” at the Museum of
Contemporary Art, North Miami (2018-19) and “AfriCOBRA:
Nationtime,” an official collateral event of the 58th Venice
Biennale in 2019. More than 80 works are featured by co-founders
Jeff Donaldson, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu
and Gerald Williams, as well as subsequent members Sherman Beck,
Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Omar Lama, Carolyn Mims Lawrence and
Nelson Stevens.
*Culture Type*
These visionaries, and a committed band of associated artists,
helped develop the Black Arts Movement’s aesthetic with their
outpouring of paintings, textiles, fashion design, sculptures, and
posters.
*Bookforum*
This exhibition acts as a celebration of the Chicago-based artist
collective AFRICOBRA, which "helped define the visual aesthetic of
the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s." Work from the
founding artists and other early members will be shown
together.
*Nylon*
All of these works in “AfriCobra” tie in African roots with modern
black culture, making the exhibit both a historical and artistic
journey with contemporary resonance [...] because of course, black
activism didn’t die; it has morphed and gained new life.
*Miami Herald*
AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People” revisits the large and rich, if
neglected by the mainstream, world of 1960s black aesthetics and
its legacy. It also appears at a time when the inability of
contemporary cultural institutions to respond to the demands of a
new activism and scholarship—as gaffe after gaffe evinces—has
strengthened a desire to explore politicized cultural movements
that rose from the ground up in the past. In this way, while
looking back, the exhibition serves the needs of our turbulent
moment.
*ARTnews*
During the civil rights era of the 1960s and 70s, a group of black
artists in Chicago created vibrant and provocative art as a
powerful form of peaceful protest ... [they] used the aesthetic of
black art and imaging to fight the the media's perception of their
own communities.
*WLRN*
“AfriCOBRA: Messages to the People” is a standout... Adding an
important historical and artistic page to the American experience.
These artists, who’d been formally trained, wanted to present a
positive image of the black community, using colors and expressive
techniques grounded in that community, during an era where the
broader world was often more exposed to negative imagery of riots
and street struggle.
*Biscayne Times*
Standing for the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists,
Africobra’s raison d’être is to create art that, in founding member
Jeff Donaldson’s words, “preach[ed] positivity to the people”
throughout the African diaspora. Over the years, the graphic
qualities and Kool Aid colour palette of the 15-person collective’s
work has brought recognition and provided mentorship to artists of
colour, influencing the likes of Kehinde Wiley – who painted the
presidential portrait of Barack Obama – along the way.
*Vogue*
The Chicago-based art collective’s humanistic depictions, vivid
colors and pro-Black subject matters would define the visual
aesthetic of the Black Arts movement of the late 1960s and early
1970s and continue to have a significant impact on contemporary
artists. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, the exhibition at
MOCA features the works of original and current members that
incorporate such diverse processes as painting, printmaking,
textile design, photography and sculpture.
*Observer*
When five black artists from Chicago formed AfriCOBRA (the African
Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) in 1968, they sought “to address
conditions we were experiencing in our lives, in our positions in
the world, and the politics of the nation,” says Jae Jarrell, one
of the collective’s co-founders. “There was much we could do as
artists to give a voice to that" [...] AfriCOBRA’s goal was to
“bring uplift to the community”, Jarrell says. And they set about
this by using what was to become the group’s visual calling
card—bright “cool-ade” colours— and by creating positive
representations of the Black community. “[We] needed a correction
of our people seeing themselves in the art,” she says.
*Art Newspaper*
The artists’ output defined a black aesthetic that would become
familiar and part of the mainstream — the gestural markings, the
bright color schemes, the distinctive textile designs, the
expressive and positive depiction of black people and power. The
exhibit focuses on 10 artists, both men and women, and their
philosophy...
*Miami Herald*
Pioneers known for [their] neon-colored work that depicted text and
images of famous black figures.
*Luxe*
The group’s distinct combination of text, bright Kool-Aid colors,
and an overall jubilant graphic celebration of black life continues
to impact contemporary artists.
*Artnet*
AfriCOBRA is more than a collection of art, it speaks to the social
and political challenges Black people still face today...
*Forbes: Media*
It’s twofold: part of it is about where we are socially and
politically, and the other part is the commemoration of the 50th
year anniversary of AfriCOBRA’s founding. These commemorative
moments come to the fore because we realize that though times have
changed that we are still not very far from these historical
moments. We are in a moment where we are trying to rewrite and
expand art history to include those who have been overlooked in the
mainstream art world. AfriCOBRA is still very much an active
collective, so it’s more about the art world catching up to the
work of a collective that has been ahead of the curve.'
*Sugarcane*
Using their black identity, its style, attitude and worldview,
these artists sought to foster solidarity and self-confidence
throughout the African diaspora. Their art reflected the revolution
of the mind, body and spirit, creating a vision that went on to
define a visual aesthetic of the Black Arts Movement [...] Even
though these artists came together to help each other, many of them
were largely ignored by the art world. As people were reluctant to
a work by a black artist with a political agenda, these were never
offered at auctions or exhibited in big art museums, but only at
institutions that focused exclusively on African American artists.
Their immense influence was only recently acknowledged.
*Widewalls*
The AfriCobra movement — African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists —
was founded by a group of African-American artists in Chicago fifty
years ago to shine a light on work by artists of color.
*New York Times*
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