Clark Atlanta University Art Museum Spring '25 Exhibition Season

The American conception of blackness is bound to the inherent limits of their figurative depictions. As the Civil Rights Movement emerged, Black artists began to shift to create new forms of artistic expression and visual representations of African American culture, identity, social issues and perception of reality. This process ushered in the Abstract expressionist movement, which motivated Black artists to question the quintessential Black image while creating visual commentary based on the multifaceted experiences within Black culture, furthering the development of the Black aesthetic. Abstract expressionism transitioned to non-figurative concepts while including geometric elements to create patterns or motifs, gestural brush strokes, and flattened abstract forms. These artists embraced the model that black artists could create politically charged work and art that is purely aesthetic. Infusing African art forms, influences of modern jazz through improvisational techniques, or creating work that is conceptual or minimalistic. Innervisions, refers to Black artists visual presentation of their internal perception or understanding of themselves, their own thoughts, feelings, and motivations on a metaphysical landscape. Revealing that the Black experience itself is abstract, and although these artists are working from different points of innovation their thoughts merge at similar points. This exhibition features loaned works and pieces from the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum permanent collection exploring the lineage of pioneering Black abstract expressionist artists including Norman Lewis, Romare Bearden, and Felrath Hines, who influenced contemporary black abstract artists such as Sharon Barnes, Dante Hayes, and Nanette Carter. Innervisions iuxtaposes the past with the present and shows how Black abstraction created a space for alternative visual self-exploration.

The Clark Atlanta University Art Museum has been collecting African American art and artof the African Diaspora since the Atlanta University Art Annuals competition began in 1942. Since then, the collection has continued to evolve and grow, it has become a representation of a comprehensive African American art history. As the museum continues to develop exhibitions, the permanent collection will remain the priority. Rediscovery emphasizes the importance and relevance of the collection within the American art historical narrative. It also acknowledges that the permanent collection has never been seen in its entirety but will exhibit works that have remained unseen or exhibited in recent years, new acquisitions, undergone conservation, pieces that travel. This exhibition includes works by Samella Sanders Lewis, Henri Linton, Radcliffe Bailey, John Rhoden, and John Woodrow Wilson among others.

Host or Publisher Clark Atlanta University Art Museum