ABSTRACT
In the hit television sitcom The Cosby Show, scenes of black life by African American artists hang in the home of the Huxtables’ New York brownstone. In their elegantly appointed living room Ellis Wilson’s Funeral Procession hangs above a fi replace, and near the front door Brenda Joy Smith’s Madonna hangs. If any viewers thought that this fi ctional black uppermiddle-class family had lost touch with their racial identity, the black art in their home subtly indicated otherwise. The intimate connection between middle-class blacks’ racial identity and their consumption of black art has been documented in this number one show and noted in major newspapers and magazines.1 The goal of this book is to describe in depth how uppermiddle-class blacks construct black identities through consuming black visual art. I draw on fi eldwork in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia. In these cities with large black middle-class populations and rich histories of black cultural production and consumption, I interviewed more than 100 upper-middle-class blacks, photographed the art in their homes, and attended black arts events.
