In the period of radical change that was 1963-1983, young black artists at the beginning of their careers in the USA confronted key questions and pressures. How could they make art that would stand as innovative, original, formally and materially complex, while also making work that reflected their concerns and experience as black Americans? This significant new publication, accompanying an exhibition at Tate Modern, surveys this crucial period in...

"This book originates from a major group exhibition curated by Glenn LIgon, one of the most influential American artists of his generation. It features forty-five artists who he refers to in his art and in his writings, or who have been of significance to him more generally, including Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Adrian Piper, David Hammons, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Lorna Simpson, Steve McQueen and Zoe Leonard. Literature is a frequent stimulus for...

"Much of Joseph Elmer Yoakum's story comes from the artist himself--and is almost too fantastic to believe. At a young age, Yoakum (1891-1972) traveled the globe with numerous circuses; he later served in a segregated noncombat regiment during World War I before settling in Chicago. There, inspired by a dream, he began his artistic career at age seventy-one, producing some two thousand drawings over a decade. How did Yoakum gain representation in...

"Queenie follows the life of Stephanie Saint-Clair-the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in Harlem in the 1930s. Born on a plantation in the French colony of Martinique, Saint-Clair left the island in 1912 and found success in New York, rising up through poverty and battling extreme racism to become the ruthless queen of Harlem's mafia and a fierce defender of the Black community. A racketeer and a bootlegger, Saint-Clair dedicated her wealth...