The Studio Journal

Black couple seated close on a porch bench at dusk with a guitar, painting on canvas, flat ochre, indigo and rose shapes

Black Artists Who Paint Black Love: Bearden's Serenade, Sherald, Casteel and Marshall, and Where a Print Buyer Goes From There

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published September 10, 2026
Black artists who paint Black love: Bearden's Serenade, Sherald, Casteel and Marshall, what the museums say about each, and where a print buyer goes next.
Crowded 1940s Black cabaret with dancers and seated patrons, jazz-age style painting on canvas, hot magenta and violet club lighting

Archibald Motley Canvas Prints: Why Nightlife Isn't Free to Copy, and What to Hang Instead

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published September 9, 2026
Archibald Motley canvas prints of Nightlife are still under copyright until 2038. Here's what that means for shoppers, and what to hang instead.
Black woman jazz singer in a 1940s satin gown at a vintage ribbon microphone, painting on canvas, single spotlight against deep shadow

Billie Holiday Wall Art and Ella Fitzgerald Prints: Why the Famous Photos Are Free but the Paintings Aren't

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published September 9, 2026
Billie Holiday wall art and Ella Fitzgerald prints: Gottlieb's photos are free to use per the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian's Van Vechten isn't.
Black railroad worker swinging a hammer at a mountain tunnel face, folk-art style painting on canvas, dawn light in ochre and slate

Palmer Hayden Prints: The John Henry Painter Who Straddles the Public-Domain Line

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published September 8, 2026
Palmer Hayden prints span two copyright eras. How to tell his Paris period from his John Henry decade, and why the difference matters before you buy.
Black couple in 1920s evening dress posed beside a wooden view camera, sepia-toned portrait studio scene, soft diffused skylight

James Van Der Zee Prints: Why Every Photograph Now Runs Through the Met

Written by Robert Lawrence | Published September 8, 2026
James Van Der Zee prints run through one copyright holder, the Met. What the 2021 archive deal means before you buy a "vintage" reproduction.
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.