...Sarah Nuttall Copyright © 2008 Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 2008 ABOUT BEAUTY tk bout Beauty was a summer exhibition held S3 fa h N U tta 11 M\ in December 2007 and January 2008...

...Elizabeth Harney Recent readings of El Anatsui’s metal wall hangings celebrate their sheer beauty and grandiosity, marveling at their clever quotations of modernist tropes. However, these readings tend to miss the spiritual drama and melancholy informing his transformation processes; they overlook...

...Joy L. Bivins Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair was a costume exhibition that debuted at the Chicago History Museum in March 2013. The project explored and examined the history and impact of Ebony Fashion Fair, a traveling fashion show produced by Chicago’s Johnson Publishing Company...

... Wilde Yinka Shonibare BLACK QUEER DANDY THE BEAUTY WITHOUT WHOM WE CANNOT LIVE Monica L. Miller f blackness itself is a “sexual crime,” if “the col- ored is thought to be more prone to sexual per...

... vociferously against nationalism in politics and art, both locally and regionally. In doing so, they shifted the audience of modern Egyptian art and created a new, transnational public. For these reasons, the author calls this movement the “Beautiful Black Cloud” of modern Egyptian Art. It was violent, stormy...

.... Based on my previous research on black women and the politics of beauty culture in the twentieth century, I examine the ways that online natural-hair communities provide a rich archive for those who wish to take seriously the concerns of black women. Specifically, this essay discusses the ways in which...

... gious procession in Lalibela—the colors, the sounds, the to his birthplace and grabbing a couple of fugitive interviews heat, the dust, the brocades, the crosses, and the umbrel- for the brief minutes he conceded after much insistence. It las. The overall beauty and excitement of that wonderful...

... about Africa today. Helen Jennings is a London-based journalist, consultant, author, and editorial director of new-media platform Nataal. She is also  author of New African Fashion (Prestel, 2011), a book about contemporary African style, beauty...

... of the collision between identity standards of beauty, whether vexed or not. In short, and race in the African diaspora. There, black fash- this volume makes clear how and why black fashion ion has identified and continues to identify wear- means and matters. ers as part of political, cultural, or social...

... and beauty. by developing refined tastes in European suits The legacy of slavery, coupled with the fight for and bourgeois accessories—like their masters. political and social equality, was channelled into After Congo’s independence in 1960, economic the politics of dressing the body to symbolize...

... from the ragged, yet beautiful, threads of daily life as influenced by the long-term effect of history and its implications on what plays out in the present. These narratives are punctuated by an abundance of words, text, and literary references that are written, spoken, sung, recited, projected...

...Joost Bosland Despite his stated lack of interest in beauty, the lines and surfaces of Simon Gush’s works reveal a deep concern with aesthetics and its conceptual potential. How light reflects and refracts in Sidestep, Gush’s latest solo exhibition, mirrors the way that his work refracts...

... caps into a new kind of luxury, Anatsui presents the viewer with an impressive visual coup. Part of the sensation of luxurious beauty is due to the viewer’s awareness of the intensive manual labor that went into making the works. The review also examines the tendency of Anatsui’s recent sculpture...

...: American Runway Revolution, which revisits the famed fashion battle at Versailles and examines the dynamics of race, economics, beauty, history, and the epic results of that legendary night in 1973 at the Chateau de Versailles. When five American designers enjoy victory against their French counterparts...

... works. The review examines how the exhibited works highlight Mutu’s ongoing interrogation of beauty, femininity, the environment, and the perceptions and depictions of Africa and “Africanness” in Western media. Copyright © 2010 Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 2010...

... by the beast with a beautiful Black woman’s face. This article argues, instead, that the woman represents violated and polluted Earth, a victim of carnivorous birds, who, in turn, represent the devastating agents of industrial pollution and rampant consumption. This work testifies to the artist’s interest...

... of cosmopolitan societies and selves; and the changing representation of blackness, desire, and beauty across time and space. His archive thus not only constitutes a rare document of the black experience in postwar Britain during the Swinging Sixties, but also provides an important frame of reference, overlapping...

... to reflect on juxtapositions of the sacred and profane, the beautiful and ugly, in Ofili’s earlier work and to consider the implications of his strategic shift. Copyright © 2010 Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 2010 FROM riot to austerity Chris Ofili’s Retrospective at the Tate...

.... An heiress with exquisitely decorated homes and chauffeured cars and hostess of music-filled soirees, she personified the spirit and flamboyance of the era. Always stylish, her blend of regal, statuesque African beauty and haute couture served as an inspiration to poets, painters, and novelists. Among those...

... capitalism. Their bodies are made of a collage of dazzling jewels cut from glossy magazines that have rendered them invisible. Drawing on beauty politics, this article maps the visual repertoire of Newsome’s aesthetic and its geopolitical implications. A formal and contextual analysis highlights how the use...