"Photography and the Black Arts Movement" at the Getty
Jeffrey Henson Scales, In a Time of Panthers 14, Bobby Seale, Chairman of the Black Panther Party, Speaking to Media, Oakland, CA , 1969 (negative) and 2022 (print). National Gallery of Art, Washington The Getty is hosting a large, ambitious photography show organized by the National Gallery of Art. Building on recent acquisitions by the NGA and Getty, "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985" conjoins photojournalism, agitprop, and advertising as well as photography-as-art. Its point of departure is the Black Arts Movement, a literary and political zeitgeist centering on poet, playwright, and essayist Amiri Baraka and his circle, c. 1965 to 1975. The exhibition expands that timeline to a full three decades and of course, centers on visual expression. Many of the activists, writers, and performers of the era recognized the importance of photography in crafting public personas and promoting social change. Anthony Barboza, Watts, Los Angeles , 1970s. Getty Mus...
