The Studio Journal

Harriet Powers's Pictorial Quilt, made around 1895, a grid of appliqued cotton blocks showing figures, animals and celestial events.

The Story Quilt Tradition in Black American Art

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Story quilts turn fabric into narrative history. Trace the tradition from Harriet Powers' 1880s Bible quilts to Gee's Bend, Faith Ringgold, and Bisa Butler.
Paper collage of a small Southern town with a porch, a water tower and a rail line layered at mismatched scales.

Romare Bearden: Collage of Black Southern Life

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Romare Bearden cut up photographs and paint to hold Southern memory and Harlem streets in one frame, building migration-era Black life through collage.
Mixed media painting of a woman seated on a low couch in a 1970s living room of layered wallpaper and upholstery patterns.

Mickalene Thomas: Patterned Portraits of Black Women

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Mickalene Thomas builds portraits of Black women from rhinestones, acrylic and enamel, restaging Manet and 1970s interiors so the sitter owns the room.
Painting of a neighborhood garden courtyard with figures rendered in deep black tones among bright flower beds.

Kerry James Marshall: Black Presence in the Canon

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Kerry James Marshall paints Black life at history-painting scale, using unmixed black pigment to argue his subjects' absence from museums was a choice.
Oil portrait of a young man in contemporary clothes seated in a formal pose against a deep plain background with a draped curtain.

Kehinde Wiley: Heroic Black Portraiture

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Kehinde Wiley paints Black subjects into the poses of Old Master portraiture. Here's how street casting, Rumors of War, and the Obama portrait fit together.
Oil painting of a shopkeeper seated on a stool in the open doorway of a small neighborhood shop.

Jordan Casteel: Intimate Community Portraits

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Jordan Casteel paints life-size portraits of people she has actually met in Harlem, turning street photographs into oil paintings built on real relationships.
Henry Ossawa Tanner's 1893 painting The Banjo Lesson, showing an older Black man seated with a boy on his lap, guiding the boy's hands on a banjo.

Henry Ossawa Tanner and The Banjo Lesson

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Henry Ossawa Tanner painted The Banjo Lesson in 1893, turning a minstrel-show stereotype into a dignified genre scene of teaching between generations.
Edmonia Lewis's 1876 marble sculpture The Death of Cleopatra, showing a seated queen carved in white marble on a throne.

Famous Black Artists and Painters: A Roster

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Meet the famous Black artists who shaped three centuries of American painting, from Henry Ossawa Tanner to Kehinde Wiley, verified against museum records.
Story quilt with a painted scene of people gathered around a supper table, framed by pieced bands of patterned fabric.

Faith Ringgold: Story Quilts of Black Life

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026 • Updated August 14, 2026
Faith Ringgold turned rejection by New York galleries into painted story quilts that carried Black history, protest, and text no publisher would print.
Paper collage of a seated figure and a simple room, assembled from torn paper and fabric pieces at mismatched scales.

Collage in African American Art, Bearden to Thomas

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026
Black collage art runs from Romare Bearden's 1964 Projections through Wangechi Mutu, Mickalene Thomas, Deborah Roberts, and Lorna Simpson working today.
Life size portrait of a person made entirely from layered patterned cotton fabric, with skin pieced in purples, ochres and teals.

Bisa Butler: Quilted Portraits in African Textiles

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026 • Updated August 14, 2026
Bisa Butler builds life-size portrait quilts from African wax prints and archival photos, turning a craft once dismissed as women's work into museum art.
Painted portrait of a Black man in a long overcoat standing against a plain cream background, with open space beside him.

Barkley L. Hendricks: Cool, Empowered Portraits

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 31, 2026 • Updated August 14, 2026
Barkley Hendricks painted ordinary Black Philadelphians life-size, giving 1960s and 70s street style the scale and finish of aristocratic portraiture.
Afrofuturism artist sketching futuristic designs

Afrofuturism Artists: Who Shapes Black Speculative Art

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 16, 2026 • Updated July 19, 2026
Discover influential afrofuturism artists shaping Black speculative art. Explore their creativity and impact on culture and identity.
Painter working in Harlem Renaissance era studio

Harlem Renaissance Artists: 10 Pioneers Who Changed Art

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 15, 2026 • Updated July 19, 2026
Discover the groundbreaking Harlem Renaissance artists who transformed Black culture through art. Explore the pioneers who changed the creative landscape.
A painterly night scene of a 1920s Harlem street, warm window light on wet pavement and figures in period coats

Art of the Harlem Renaissance: A Painter's Guide

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published July 8, 2026 • Updated September 6, 2026
Robert Lawrence walks through the painters, the music, and the visual language of the Harlem Renaissance, and how it shows up in his own jazz-era canvas prints.
Black female artist painting in art studio

Contemporary Black Artists Shaping Modern Art Today

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published June 16, 2026 • Updated August 11, 2026
Discover how contemporary black artists are reshaping modern art today. Explore their diverse mediums and unique voices that matter in today's art world.
Artist painting detailed Black skin tones

Melanin Painting: Techniques, Artists, and Cultural Power

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published June 4, 2026 • Updated August 11, 2026
Explore melanin painting techniques that celebrate Black skin. Discover artists redefining Afrocentric art with depth and cultural power.
Roadside sweetgrass basket stand in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, with handmade coiled baskets displayed under live oaks draped in Spanish moss

Mary Jackson Learned Basket Sewing at Four. The MacArthur Foundation Noticed.

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published April 11, 2026 • Updated July 19, 2026
Mary Jackson learned sweetgrass basket sewing at four in Mount Pleasant, SC. In 2008 the MacArthur Foundation named her a Fellow.
A quiet intimate original painterly scene of a Black woman seated at a kitchen table under a hanging light, contemplative, not a photograph.

The Kitchen Table Series, Explained: One Woman, One Table, Everything

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published March 21, 2026 • Updated July 19, 2026
What Carrie Mae Weems's Kitchen Table Series actually shows, where it lives in museums today, and why one table still says so much.
An original elongated expressive painting of Black figures dancing joyfully in a warm juke joint, full of movement.

The Sugar Shack: The Most Famous Black Painting You Grew Up With

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published March 18, 2026 • Updated July 19, 2026
The story behind Ernie Barnes' Sugar Shack, from a segregated Durham dance hall to Marvin Gaye's album cover to a $15.3M sale.