African American art and artists /

At its first appearance in 1978 as Art: African American (CH, Jul'79) and especially with the second, revised edition, African American Art and Artists (1990), Lewis's topical and biographical survey became a classic. This new edition continues the format and high quality of its predecessors, includes a new and very fine introduction by Mary Jane Hewitt that provides much information on Lewis (Scripps College) and her significant contributions to this area of study, an expanded conclusion, a longer bibliography, and, most significantly, a new 35-page section, "From Painting to Technology: Art before and into the New Millennium," treating 1990-2002. Some 12 new artists and 28 new images are included in this section: four painters, three sculptors, two installation artists, two mixed-media artists, and one digital/computer artist. A spot-check of numerous pages suggests that there are no revisions to the five sections from the 1990 edition that are repeated here,: 1610-1865, "Cultural Deprivation and Slavery"; 1865-1920, "Emancipation and Cultural Dilemma"; 1920-1940, "New Americanism and Ethnic Identity"; 1940-1960, "Social and Political Awareness"; and 1960-1990, "Political and Cultural Awareness." Since there is little new material, those interested in purchasing this latest edition may wish to acquire the paperbound version at lower cost. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. J. Weidman Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

This book belongs on the art reference shelf of every major library. A revised and updated edition of the 1978 work Art: African American, it presents short biographies and illustrations of the work of 176 artists of African descent working in the United States from the Revolution to the present. The strongest section covers artists, almost all of them painters, working from 1865 to 1960. Descriptions of artists after 1960 are a jumble of thoughtful three-page essays and uninformative three-sentence citations. Because this scholarly but readable work will be the starting point for so much research, the lack of annotations in the bibliography and the overall variability in the quality of citations is a major disappointment. Despite these flaws, this will be the book to reach for when African American art reference questions arise. Recommended for fine arts collections.-David McClelland, Temple Univ. Lib., Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.