Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

The most comprehensive volume devoted to the life and work of pioneering African American artist Robert Colescott, accompanying the largest traveling exhibition of his work ever mounted.

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.

This volume surveys the entirety of Colescott's body of work, with contributions by more than ten curators and writers, including a substantive essay by the show's cocurator, the renowned Lowery Stokes Sims. It provides a detailed stylistic analysis of his politically inflected oeuvre, focusing on Colescott's own consideration of his work in the context of the grand traditions of European painting and contemporary polemic. In addition, the book features reminiscences and thought pieces by a variety of family, friends, students, curators, dealers, and scholars on his work as well as a selection of writings by the artist himself. Relying on previously unpublished transcripts of lectures, reviews, and archival materials provided by institutions and individuals, the book will provide a fuller story of the artist's life and career.

Raphaela Platow is the Alice & Harris Weston Director and Chief Curator of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. Lowery Stokes Sims is a dedicated advocate for diversity and inclusion in the art world. She is an independant curator after working for the Museum of Arts and Design, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Matthew Weseley is an independent art historian. He is currently working on an academic monograph on the work of Robert Colescott.