The Leonard A. Lauder Distinguished Scholar Lecture—Blackbeats: Cubism Reimagined

Join scholar Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University, as he rethinks the art of Cubism through the historical and aesthetic lens of African American art. Artists such as Dudley Murphy, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Mickalene Thomas, and Nina Chanel Abney use angular and fractured forms that resonate with the cultural effects of ragtime, jazz, hip-hop, and other Black performing arts traditions. They plumb Cubism’s strategies and theoretical formations, weighing the value of universal signs and imaging systems and probing art’s contested identities.

This program is presented by the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art.