This retrospective volume celebrates five decades of Howardena Pindell’s art, including works on paper, collage, photography, film, and video. Born in middle-class Philadelphia in the 1940s, Howardena Pindell came of age during the Civil Rights movement. As an African-American woman artist, making her way in the world provided Pindell with source material to inspire her work. This book examines every facet of Pindell’s impressive career to date. Since the 1960s, she has used materials such as glitter, talcum powder, and perfume to stretch the boundaries of traditional canvas painting. She has also infused her work with traces of her labor, such as obsessively affixing dots of pigment and circles made with an ordinary hole punch tool. After a car crash in 1979 left her with short-term amnesia, Pindell’s work looked beyond the painting studio to explore a wide range of subjects, including the personal and diaristic as well as the social and political. This monograph also highlights Pindell’s work with photography, film, and performance. Excerpts from the artist’s writing, in particular her critique of the art world and her responses to feminism and racial politics, provide prescient commentary in light of conversations around equality and inclusion today. AUTHORS: Naomi Beckwith is Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Valerie Cassel Oliver is Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. SELLING POINTS: . Artist: Howardena Pindell is an American abstract artist. Her work explores texture, colour, structures, and the process of making art. It is often political, addressing the intersecting issues of racism, feminism, violence, slavery, and exploitation. She is known for her use of unconventional materials in her paintings including string, perfume, glitter, and postcards. . Topic: The book focuses on the impressive five-decades-long career of artist Howardena Pindell who struggled with finding her place as an African American female artist in the 1960’s. Illustrations: The book is generally illustrated with 250 color illustrations. . Essays: Features a number of essays, including: Lowery Stokes-Sims, broad overview of Pindell’s whole career, including historical and political context. Naomi Beckwith, on the theme of rearranging . Charles Gaines, on Pindell’s conceptual practices. Brian Wallis, on the political turn in art after modernism.
