Film: “Black Is the Color: A History of African American Art”

This film highlights key moments in the history of African American visual art, from Edmonia Lewis’s 1867 sculpture “Forever Free” to the work of contemporary artists such as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher and Jean‐Michel Basquiat. Art historians and gallery owners place the works in context, and contemporary artists discuss individual works by their forerunners and their ongoing influence. Both comprehensive and lively, “Black Is the Color” is a much‐needed survey of great work by artists whose contributions were neglected by the mainstream art world for far too long. 52 minutes.