Darby English, author of such important books as How to See A Work of Art in Total Darkness (MIT Press, 2007), engages in a discussion on the topic of his most recent book 1971: A Year in the Life of Color (University of Chicago Press, 2016), with Mark Gibson, Yale School of Art’s Assistant Dean for Student Relations. English’s book explores the role that a political movement can play in an artistic movement, specifically speaking to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and how that influenced the “Black Art Aesthetic” of the 1970’s. Discussion will also explore the role that abstraction plays in describing the Black Experience, and what roles institutions play in curating the “Black Art Aesthetic.”
Darby English is the Carl Darling Buck Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago and Consulting Curator at MoMA.