African American artists have made monumental contributions to the world of art, producing an influential body of work informed by the Black experience. Celebrated here is the art of Emma Amos, Grafton Tyler Brown, Keshida Layone, Loïs Mailou Jones, Whitfield Lovell, Dominique Ramsey, Charles White, Laura James, Charles Ethan Porter, Romare Bearden, Laura Wheeler Waring, and Aaron Douglas?some of whom are very well known and others who aren?t but should be. Working in diverse styles, techniques, and media, many of these artists have created memorable images laced with social commentary, cultural affirmation, myth and history, and simple love for people in all their beauty, folly, and nobility. Others have discarded the constraints of representational imagery for a semi-abstracted language that challenges viewers to consider the familiar and the unknown from new perspectives. Twelve superb works of art have been selected for this calendar.
