‘Soul of a Nation’ showcases the timeless power of black art at the Brooklyn Museum until February 3rd, 2019.
Curated by Ashley James, the show includes over 150 works by more than 60 artists, the show covers the tumultuous years of national change from 1963 to 1983. The background spans the years of protests against the Vietnam War, the height of the Cold War, the space race and moon landing, second-wave feminism, Watergate and the erosion of trust in a wide range of institutions. The foreground is the response of black artists asserting themselves with striking diversity in painting, sculpture, photography, prints and assemblages.
In what is now a second age of Black Power, the fecundity of the artists in “Soul of a Nation,” not to mention their courage and commitment, is both bracing and beautiful. How effective were the alarms they rang about the depth of racism in America? The recent police violence against black men that has resulted in the Black Lives Matter movement, not to mention the ingrained segregation of major cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Baltimore, make the use of the language of progress and equal justice seem not simply evasive but offensive to many.
The essential question now is how to cultivate such a community, or at least a community of communities — open, in equality and freedom, to all, with dignity and opportunity for all. It is not merely, I think, a matter of “inclusion,” or even “integration.” Reconciliation and rebirth would be better words.
Indeed, the time is now.