Visual rhythms
Quotes and Black Art | Thursdaysº
Quotes and Black Art
Your Curated Art Museum
“Come for the art, stay for the quotes.”
“Harmony, radiance, and simplicity, all the essentials of spiritual beauty in the race they had marked for destruction.” — Nella Larsen, Quicksand, 1928
A Snippet:
Did you know that first editions of Nella Larsen’s works are rare, as she mysteriously disappeared from Harlem’s literary and arts community after publishing two successful novels and becoming the first African-American woman to win a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930?
Learn more . . .
Quotes and Black Art
Thursday, March 5, 2026 (week 29)
“If I groove hard enough, I can play any note and you will like it.”
— Victor Wooten
85. “Ladies Night” by Frank Morrison
New Jersey artist Frank Morrison (b. 1971)—who started his journey tagging walls with spray paint as a graffiti artist—on showcasing art, music, and the culture:
“I seek to both highlight and preserve the soul of the city through the lens of hip-hop culture and urban iconography. I want people to experience the visual rhythms that choreograph life for the average, everyday person.”
86. “Harriet and Leon” (1941) by Allan Rohan Crite
Boston artist Allan Rohan Crite (1910 - 2007) on making art accessible:
“I was making studies of black people just as ordinary human beings, because the usual picture that one had -- at least that’s my impression -- was that the artist was strongly influenced by, you might say, the jazz person up in Harlem, or of the sharecropper in the deep South. There was nothing in between -- of just the ordinary middle-class person who goes to church, does the work, etc. What I decided to do back in those days -- and as a matter of fact I’m still doing it -- was just simply to record the life of black people as I saw them in the city where I lived, which happened to be Boston.”
87. “The Princess” by JaeMe Bereal
Painter and illustrator JaeMe Bereal (c. 1970)—who daylights as a hair stylist in Oakland—on not being defined by where you’re from:
“I grew up amid the tumultuous 1970s of the south central Los Angeles area, but luckily, with excellent grades and scholarships, I attended and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1981, in Fine Art, with the world renowned Peter Voulkos.”
The Silver Lining?
The more I travel, the more I marvel at how big the world is -- yet how small it often feels. Everywhere you go got a beat.
(Breathe In . . . Breathe Out)
Visual rhythms
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