Black Pulp!

Curated by Artists William Villalongo Lecturer, YSA) and Mark Thomas Gibson (YSA MFA ‘13), the exhibition features rare print media, comics and contemporary art exploring the black popular imagination and experiences of the Black Diaspora. Showcasing the creative use of highly disseminated media to leverage limited notions of black subjectivity and humanity.

Black Pulp! showcases Harlem Renaissance era periodicals such as The Crisis and Opportunity Magazines, and rare art journals such as Fire!! and Ebony & Topaz. Other print culture objects include illustrations and artwork by Aaron Douglas, Lois Mailou Jones, Laura Wheeler, E. Simms Campbell, Eleanor Paul, Gwendolyn Bennett, Miguel Covarrubias, Winold Reiss, Charles Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, Owen Middleton, Elton Fax, Ollie Harrington, Billy Graham, Charles White, Emory Douglas, Jackie Ormes and Jacob Lawrence. Rare comics such as Lobo #1, Negro Romance and others will be on view.

Contemporary artists include: APT artist Hank Willis, Thomas Derrick Adams, Laylah Ali, Fireli Baez, Nayland Blake, Robert Colescott, Renee Cox, William Downs, Ellen Gallagher, Deborah Grant, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Lucia Hierro, Isaac Julien, William Pope L., Kerry James Marshal, Wangechi Mutu, Lamar Peterson, Kenny Rivero, Alexandria Smith, Felandus Thames, Kara Walker and Fred Wilson.

“The pulp attitude is to take the tragic and painful points of history, like Jim Crow and the Vietnam War, and challenge them through biting humor, satire, and wit,” says Villalongo. “Many works on view offer up windows into the darker, erotic, satirical, and more absurd recesses of the black popular imagination, while underscoring important debates around personhood and identity.”

Black Pulp! is an unprecedented overview of over 90 years of Black image production by Black publishers, Black artists and by non-Black artists and publishers allied with foregrounding the Black experience. Many works on view offer up windows into the darker, erotic, satirical, and more absurd recesses of the

Black popular imagination; while underscoring important debates around personhood and identity.