Earnestine Lovelle Jenkins – författare

Exploring how artists at midcentury addressed the social issues of their day—from Jacob Lawrence to Elizabeth Catlett, Rose Piper to Charles White  This timely book surveys the varied ways in which Black American artists responded to the political, social, and economic climate of the United States from the time of the Great Depression through the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision. Featuring paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by artists including Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippin, Augusta Savage, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Norman Lewis, Walter Augustus Simon, Loïs Mailou Jones, and more, the book recognizes the contributions Black artists made to Social Realism and abstraction as they debated the role of art in society and community. Black artists played a vital part in midcentury art movements, and the inclusive policies of government programs like the Works Progress Administration brought more of these artists into mainstream circles.  In three chapters, Earnestine Jenkins discusses the work of Black artists during this period; the perspective of Black women artists with a focus on the sculpture of Augusta Savage; and the pedagogy of Black American art through the art and teaching of Walter Augustus Simon.  Published in association with the Dixon Gallery and Gardens  Exhibition Schedule:  Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis(October 17, 2021–January 2, 2022)

The second book in a three-volume series on Black American artists, featuring work from the 1950s to the 1970s that responded to the cultural, political, and social concerns of the eraDuring the turbulent 1950s to 1970s, Black American artists, responding to increasing civil rights activism, challenged inequities in the art world. Artists created works that celebrated their racial identity, connected with Black audiences, and participated in the struggle for political, economic, and social equality. The establishment of artist collectives, such as Spiral, and museums devoted to Black art, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, alongside the emergence of art historians and critics such as David Driskell and Linda Goode Bryant, marked early steps to bring Black art into broader artistic discourse.  The book features 140 color illustrations of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by such celebrated artists as Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Howardena Pindell, and Alma Thomas, as well as by under-recognized artists. Essays provide an overview of the period and in-depth examinations of James A. Porter, an artist and art historian credited with establishing the field of African American art history, and Merton D. Simpson, an abstract painter, member of the Spiral group, and one of the most important dealers of African art in the United States.Published in association with the Dixon Gallery and GardensExhibition Schedule:Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis(October 22, 2023–January 14, 2024)  Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento(February 4–May 19, 2024)

This third and final volume in the Black Artists in America series features work from the transitional moment of the late 1970s to the dawn of the twenty-first century  In the 1980s and 1990s, Black artists in the United States who came of age during the civil rights activity of the preceding decades began experimenting with new media and innovative approaches to artmaking, often as a way of questioning long-held inequities in the art world and in American society. Artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Glenn Ligon, Faith Ringgold, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, and many others created works that celebrated their racial identity and fought exclusion and prejudices in the establishment. This book considers the ways that the artists of this generation challenged cultural, environmental, political, racial, and social issues of the last decades of the twentieth century.  Black Artists in America: From the Bicentennial to September 11 is the final volume in the three-volume series that traces how Black artists have responded to the social issues of their time. Beautifully illustrated with 150 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, this volume completes the story of a century of artmaking.  Published in association with the Dixon Gallery and Gardens  Exhibition Schedule:  Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA(October 5, 2025–January 11, 2026)  Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN(January 25–March 29, 2026)

Race, Representation & Photography in 19th-Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Crow presents a rich interpretation of African American visual culture. Using Victorian era photographs, engravings, and pictorial illustrations from local and national archives, this unique study examines intersections of race and image within the context of early African American communities. It emphasizes black agency, looking at how African Americans in Memphis manipulated the power of photography in the creation of free identities. Blacks are at the center of a study that brings to light how wide-ranging practices of photography were linked to racialized experiences in the American south following the Civil War. Jenkins' book connects the social history of photography with the fields of visual culture, art history, southern studies, gender, and critical race studies.

Race, Representation & Photography in 19th-Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Crow presents a rich interpretation of African American visual culture. Using Victorian era photographs, engravings, and pictorial illustrations from local and national archives, this unique study examines intersections of race and image within the context of early African American communities. It emphasizes black agency, looking at how African Americans in Memphis manipulated the power of photography in the creation of free identities. Blacks are at the center of a study that brings to light how wide-ranging practices of photography were linked to racialized experiences in the American south following the Civil War. Jenkins' book connects the social history of photography with the fields of visual culture, art history, southern studies, gender, and critical race studies.