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The artist behind Barack Obama's presidential portrait, Kehinde Wiley is known for his larger-than-life classical paintings of Black men. In \"An Economy of Grace,\" Wiley sets out to create his first portrait series centering Black women.

Clarence Major is an award-winning painter, fiction writer, and poet-as well as an essayist, editor, anthologist, lexicographer, and memoirist. He has been part of twenty-eight group exhibitions, has had fifteen one-man shows, and has published fourteen collections of poetry and nine works of fiction. The Art and Life of Clarence Major is the first critical biography of this innovative African American writer and visual artist. Given the full cooperation of his subject, Keith E. Byerman traces Major's life and career from his complex family history in Georgia through his encounters with important literary and artistic figures in Chicago and New York to his present status as a respected writer, artist, teacher, and scholar living in California. In his introduction, Byerman asks, \"How does a black man who does not take race as his principal identity, an artist who deliberately defies mainstream rules, a social and cultural critic who wants to be admired by the world he attacks, and a creator who refuses to commit to one expressive form make his way in the world?\" Tasking himself with opening up the multiple layers of problems and solutions in both the work and the life to consider the successes and the failures, Byerman reveals Major as one who has devoted himself to a life of experimental art that has challenged both literary and painterly practice and the conventional understanding of the nature of African American art. Major's refusal to follow the rules has challenged readers and critics, but through it all, he has continued to produce quality work as a painter, poet, and novelist. His is the life of someone totally devoted to his creative work, one who has put his artistic vision ahead of fame, wealth, and sometimes even family. A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication.

Painter, muralist, teacher of at-risk youth, key organizer involved in community projects - Hershell West is a black man brought up in the rural South in the days before the end of segregation. Neither his family nor his community, nor the larger society expected him to become a professional artist. Defying these expectations, he triumphed over the odds and in this hour-long documentary, we examine both his art and the ways in which artists contribute to society - through their artistic creations, and also through their teaching and advocacy for the arts.

This article investigates the extent to which economic markets have incorporated mainstream artistic acceptance of African American art. Prices of oil paintings sold at auction from 1972 to 2004 for African American artists are compared to their contemporaries. Gross means between the two groups reveal averages significantly lower for African American artists throughout the time period. Hedonic regressions, used to refine the statistical analysis by controlling for factors characterizing the painting and auction environment, also reveal that African American artists fetch lower prices. The hedonic regressions, however, reveal a narrowing gap between the two groups since price appreciation has been higher for works by African American artists. The high investment returns have made investment in paintings by African American artists a relatively profitable niche in recent years comparing well with traditional investments such as stocks and bonds. This profitability may continue since painting prices for African Americans have not completely caught up to those of contemporaries.

Raised in West Virginia, self-taught artist Carolyn Norris (b. 1948) moved as a young woman of twenty-one to Cleveland, Mississippi, a quintessential Delta railroad town on the famous blues Highway 61. To create one of her first paintings, she tore the wooden back off a dresser to use as a canvas. She painted with available house paint and completed the painting with face makeup. Thus began the realization of a passionate need to paint. Eventually, Norris came to serve as the visual griot of Cleveland. She has used a variety of media, painting on canvas, wood, paper, cardboard, glass, plates, tiles, sheets, floor covering, and mirrors. She also uses her garage door as a giant mural chronicling community events. In her extraordinary images, Norris shows daily black life in the modern Delta. Spirit of the Deltacontains 115 color images pulled from Norris's twenty-five years as a painter. Her existing artwork has been photographed by noted local photographer Kim Rushing and copies of the works that no longer exist have been found whenever possible. The book features a biographical essay on Carolyn Norris by Dorothy Sample Shawhan and an essay on her artwork by critic Patti Carr Black, who places Norris within self-taught traditions. In an interview with folklorist Tom Rankin, which took place in 1991, Norris explains the centrality of art in her life.

\"Laura Wheeler Waring was a Black American painter and teacher. She is known for her powerful portraits and picturesque landscapes of Europe and northern Africa. Her best-known portraits are of key figures in the struggle for civil rights...Her paintings are soft and colorful, with her portrait subjects appearing to glow through the canvas.\" (World Book Online Behind the Headlines) Read more about Laura Wheeler Waring.

\"Until recently, tracksuits, flatbill hats, jeans, Nike T-shirts, and puffer jackets did not appear in many portraits in museums. Now in the National Portrait Gallery and galleries across the world, American painter Kehinde Wiley has livened up modern-day portraits. Wiley is known for his large, highly detailed, brightly colored portraits. His style has been called urban Baroque, a reference to the Baroque art movement of the 1500's and 1600's. Baroque art is large in scale and filled with dramatic details.\" (World Book Online Behind the Headlines) Read more about the life and art of Kehinde Wiley.