The Black Art Depot Today

Featured Black Art Print (03/04/2009)

Title: Malcolm X
Artist: Jay C. Bakari
Size: 21×22 inches
Price: $12.00

Availaible in our: Jay C. Bakari Art Gallery

The Black Art Depot’s Photo of the Week
03/04/2009 – 03/11/2009

Our African American Prayer Art Collection has currently been discounted by up to 30% off of the publisher’s suggested retail price.  This promotion will run until April 4, 2009.  We have also added fifteen new prints to the gallery and will be adding a fifteen more prints by the end of the week!

This gallery features art prints by a variety of ethnic artists of African Americans engaged in praising the Heavenly Father.  Below you will find some samples of the new prints that we have added to the gallery.

Black Art Calendar Specials

The Black Art Depot has recently reduced the pricing on all of it’s African American Calendars to $10.00 or less!  This discount will remain in effect while supplies last.  We have a large variety of African American calendars featuring art by prominent and emerging ethnic artists.  So tell your family, friends, church members, sorors, frat brothers and lodge members and get your 2009 calendar today!

The Black Art Depot’s Photo of the Week
02/16/2009 – 02/22/2009

If you are a photographer that has images featuring people of African descent and would like to have your work considered for our photo of the week please contact us at: sales@blackartdepot.com.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Plates

Our newest commemorative plates featuring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama are now in inventory and ready to ship.  All customers who pre-ordered the item should have their Dr. King / Barack Obama Collectible ship out no later than early next week.  If you are interested in this beautiful, limited edition plate please purchase as soon as possible.  We only have 18 remaining in inventory after we fullfill our pre-orders and we do not anticipate getting any more of these plates anytime in the near future.  To purchase please visit our Barack Obama Collectible Plate Collection or call us at: 678-916-6545 so that we may take your order over the phone.  Below you will find a sample of the historical commemorative plate featuring Martin Luther King and Barack Obama:

Learn More About Hot Tea & Biscuits

African American Art Glossary

This post we will continue to define and explain various art terms in a clear and concise fashion and direct you to additional resources where you can learn more about the technique.  Today, the art term we will discuss is: “Gallery Wrapped Canvas”.

The best definition I’ve found online came from the Shannon Studios website.  They define Gallery Wrapped Canvas as:

“A canvas where the print covers the edges (no border). A gallery wrapped canvas is stretched and is ready to hang. Gallery wrapped canvases are beautiful and a great value. It gives you the option of framing or not framing.”

Videos

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkToBRa-O-U[/youtube]

How to Stretch Your Fine Art Canvas Using A Gallery Wrap

Links

Making Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Below you will find an additional example of what Gallery Wrapped Canvas looks like:

Justin Bua will be bringing his paintings and drawings to life as he performs his one man show at ArtExpo in New York City from February 28, 2009 until March 1, 2009.  The performances are scheduled to take place everyday at 2:00pm.

ArtExpo is the one of the country’s best trade shows for the fine art industry as a whole.   There are always tremendous opportunities to network and to meet and discover new artists and publishers.  This year the ArtExpo will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center which is located at: 655 W. 34th Street – New York City, NY 10001.

Article: Black Art Collection Aims To Educate

Source: Tuscaloosa News
Author: Ashley Boyd
Link: View Article By Clicking Here

When I first pulled this article up online I was very surprised to learn that the University of Alabama was the institution that was displaying this tremendous collection of Black Art and using it as a teaching tool for students at the institution. Not being from Alabama or ever have been a student at the University of Alabama I had a lot of preconceived notions that made this article a shock to the system but also an inspiration at the same time.

Who would have thought that the University of Alabama would have an African American Art Professor by the name of Amalia Amaki, be hosting lectures featuring prominent African American Artists regularly and currently be one of the sites hosting Paul R. Jones’ Art Collection!  This just goes to show the respect and reach of Black Art and one can only hope that art created by African American and other Ethnic artists would continue to garner the kind of respect, prestige and recognition that it has deserved for decades yet has been so elusive and hard to achieve.

Below you will find some photos and bios of Paul R. Jones and Amalia Amaki.

Paul R. Jones Bio
(courtesy of Wikipedia)

On June 1, 1928, Will and Ella Jones were blessed with a baby boy, Paul Raymond Jones. Jones grew up with his four sisters and caring parents in the town of Bessemer, Alabama. To the Jones family, education was the key to success, so it was decided that Paul R Jones would attend school somewhere in the North to pursue the best education possible at that time. After a trip to the World’s Fair in New York City, Ella Jones knew her son would attend school in New York.

By high school, Paul R Jones moved back home with his family. Jones used his athletic skills, self-discipline, and competitive nature to compete in track and football. Along with athleticism, Paul R Jones was an intelligent young man in high school. His intellect and athleticism landed him two separate scholarships for college.

Following high school, Paul R Jones enrolled in Alabama State University aspiring to earn a law degree. Unfortunately, because of the racial discrimination there, Jones was not encouraged to pursue a degree in law. Instead, he continued his education at Howard University, and afterwards he decided to return home again.

The first job Paul R Jones encountered at home was the position of Executive at the Interracial Committee of the Jefferson County Coordinating Council for Social Forces, allowing him to realize his political aspirations. After his first job, Jones worked in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service. Later, he served as a deputy director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand.

During the early 1960’s, Paul R Jones decided to purchase his first three paintings that formed the beginning of his collection. They were by artists, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Chagall. After collecting for a couple of years, Jones realized that African-American art was “abundant and affordable” yet hardly ever represented in the collections of museums. As the years passed, his collection of African-American art and his reputation grew. Jones’ collection has been featured at several different museums over the course of his lifetime.

Amalia Amaki Bio
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Dr. Amalia K. Amaki is currently a curator of the Paul R Jones Collection, a professor of Black American Studies at the University of Delaware, and an artist herself. She divides her time between Atlanta, Georgia and Newark, Delaware.

Born Linda Faye Peeks, Amalia Amaki changed her name due to her passion for writing and art at an early age. She majored in psychology and journalism at Georgia State Universityand received her B.A. in photography and art history at the University of Mexico. Dr. Amaki studied as an Emory University Foreign Study Fellowand achieved her M.A. degree in modern European and American art and a Ph.D. in Twentieth-century American art and culture from Emory University in the Institute of Liberal Arts. She is also a member of the College of Art Association,American Association of University Professors, Emory University Alumni Board of Governors,Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts,High Museum of Art, Georgia Museum of Art, and Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts.