South of Pico
Subtitle: African American artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s
By: Kellie Jones
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 396
ISBN-13: 9780822361459; 9780822361640
Subjects: Artists and community; Race relations; African American artists; African American arts; African Americans; History
Description: In 'South of Pico' Kellie Jones explores how the artists in Los Angeles's black communities during the 1960s and 1970s created a vibrant, productive, and engaged activist arts scene in the face of structural racism. Emphasizing the importance of African American migration, as well as L.A.'s housing and employment politics, Jones shows how the work of black Angeleno artists such as Betye Saar, Charles White, Noah Purifoy, and Senga Nengudi spoke to the dislocation of migration, L.A.'s urban renewal, and restrictions on black mobility. Jones characterizes their works as modern migration narratives that look to the past to consider real and imagined futures. She also attends to these artists' relationships with gallery and museum culture and the establishment of black-owned arts spaces. With South of Pico, Jones expands the understanding of the histories of black arts and creativity in Los Angeles and beyond.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction. South of Pico : migration, art, and Black Los Angeles; title: Emerge : Putting Southern California on the art world map; title: Claim : assemblage and self-possession; title: Organize : Building an exhibitionary complex; title: In motion : the performative impulse; title: Conclusion. Noshun : Black Los Angeles and the global imagination.