African American Art History Initiative

Multi-Project Initiative

Making African American art history more visible to the public and accessible to the scholarly community worldwide

Black and white photograph of a shirtless Alvin Ailey wildly dancing with Carmen De Lavallade in striped costumes

Choreographer and activist Alvin Ailey in motion with dancer and actress Carmen De Lavallade, ca. 1950. Photograph by Howard Morehead. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Made possible by the Ford Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Smithsonian Institution

About

Goal

The African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI)—a program of the Getty Research Institute—focuses on the history, practices, and cultural legacies of artists of African American and African diasporic heritage. AAAHI aims to provide a more robust and accurate history of American art, one that will have a decisive impact on the narrative of global culture.

Outcomes

The initiative's major areas include archive and library acquisitions, research projects and academic outreach, interpretive programming, education, and cataloging.

Background

About this Initiative

The African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI) was established by the Getty Research Institute to create a center for the study of African American art. The initiative has several major areas of activity, including acquisitions in Special Collections and the Library, as well as newly-created oral histories. It supports the generation of new knowledge through institutional research projects, internships, and fellowships in the Scholars Program. The initiative’s work is disseminated through exhibitions, publications, and public programs, and through partnerships with institutions across the country.

Scholars Program

The Getty Scholars Program supports innovative research about art, conceived in the broadest terms, and its histories, by providing a locus for international scholars to forge collaborations across disciplines and professional practices. Each year the program accepts applicants under an annual theme, and under the umbrella of that theme, dedicated grants are available via the African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI). This residential program, which welcomed its first cohort of AAAHI scholars in fall 2021, provides financial support and housing to scholars who are expanding critical inquiry of African American art and its frameworks. As part of the scholar year cohort, AAAHI scholars have opportunities to present their research and receive feedback from an interdisciplinary group of peers. AAAHI scholars can also expect programming with Getty staff supporting the study of African American art.

Past Scholars of the AAAHI:

2024–2025
Christa Noel Robbins, associate professor at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Heritage and History: the paintings of William T. Williams, 1968 to present

Tara Aisha Willis, lecturer at the University of Chicago
Indescribable Moves: Improvised Experiments in Dancing Blackness

2023–2024
julia elizabeth neal, assistant professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Benjamin Patterson: Theory and Praxis

James Smalls, professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Féral Benga: African Muse of Modernism

2022–2023
Bernida Webb-Binder, assistant professor at Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
Generative Blackness in African American and Pacific Art

2021–2022
Cherise Smith, professor at the University of Texas, Austin
Healing Old Wounds: Affect, Appropriation, and Trauma in Contemporary African American Art

Tobias Wofford, assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
Black California: African American Contributions to the Visual Culture of the American West Before 1950

Oral Histories

These oral histories for the African American Art History Initiative include long-form interviews with individual artists facilitated by the Oral History Center (OHC) at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as shorter group conversations conducted by Getty Research Institute staff with artists and art historians on various topics in the scope of African American art history. The subjects were determined in consultation with the AAAHI Advisory Committee. The creation of oral histories began in 2018 and continued for the duration of the research initiative.

Projects in This Initiative

  1. Blondell Cummings: Dance as Moving Pictures

    Black and white photograph of person wearing light colored jumpsuit jumping in air with one leg bent and both arms up near head.

    Interdisciplinary look at the innovative work of choreographer and video artist Blondell Cummings

  2. Samella Lewis: World Building in African American Art History

    Black and white photograph of a female figure sitting on a chair in front of a chalkboard with a complicated line drawing of a color wheel, and various art works

    Bringing critical focus to the groundbreaking work of artist, curator, and scholar Samella Lewis

  3. Paul R. Williams: I Am an Architect

    Williams sits behind a table and points something out on a 3D model of a house to another person sitting with his back to the camera.

    Bringing the work of this groundbreaking Southern California architect to the broader public

  4. Johnson Publishing Company Archive

    A woman wearing white shorts and t-shirt sits on the diving board of a backyard swimming pool.

    Celebrating and safeguarding a unique and precious record of American experience in the 20th century

  5. Mavis Pusey: Printmaking and Painting Practice

    A person kneels in front of a large abstract painting of a tall city building in red, white, blue, and brown tones

    Scientific analysis of Pusey's work and conservation treatment of 22 works on paper

Resources

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