Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

The Contemporary Arts Center is proud to open their 2019 – 2020 exhibition season with Art and Race Matters, the first comprehensive retrospective of one of America’s most compelling and controversial artists, Robert Colescott (1925-2009). 

Robert Colescott (1925-2009) was a trailblazing artist, whose august career was as unique as his singular artistic style. Known for figurative satirical paintings that exposed the ugly ironies of race in America from the 1970s through the late 1990s, his work was profoundly influential to the generations of artists that have followed him, such as Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, and Henry Taylor, among many others.

The exhibition will reveal 85 total works throughout 53 years of his career that both bring to the surface and challenge diversity and racial stereotypes. Art and Race Matters is organized by Lowery Stokes Sims, a long-time Colescott scholar, and CAC’s Alice Weston & Harris Director, Raphaela Platow, with assistance from Matthew Weseley. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue highlighting Colescott’s extensive career published by Rizzoli Electa and will be touring several museums around the United States all facilitated by the CAC.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website