ABSTRACT
The most cursory examination of African American art of the twentieth century would be enough to rebut James Elkins’ claim, given the centrality of religious expression in the art ranging from Archibald J. Motley Jr. and Aaron Douglas to Charles White and Jacob Lawrence. To an extent, hegemonic constructions of African American art are perhaps a consequence of the ways in which, in United States academia, many subjects with African American as a prefix are regularly regarded, taught, and constructed as entities in and of themselves. African American art is, in effect, kept at arm’s length from a range of relevant and highly pertinent contexts, which leads to it being presented, time and again, in relative or absolute isolation. Even before the arrival of the term postblack, African American art practices had a pronounced elasticity, that complicated and challenged duller notions of African American art. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
