ABSTRACT
A significant number of African American artists have, over the course of the past several decades, been recipients of awards from the MacArthur Fellows Program, colloquially referred to as “Genius” awards. In considering the fortunes of African American artists, and the state of African American art history, distance affords perspective, and in this regard, Richard Hylton’s text, “Status and Presence: African-American Art in the International Arena,” is one of many invaluable contributions to this Companion. From schools to healthcare, from housing to worship, from employment to the cultural industries, from politics to constructions of the country’s history itself, African American, as an adjective or noun, has, it seems, an ongoing, impregnable application and manifestation. Impressive numbers of African American artists are achieving successes, to be sure, but the spectacular successes of a limited number of these artists arguably do much to frame, and potentially skew, a bigger picture.
