Black Women Artists Visibility during the Black Arts Movement: Shaping Actions and Values through Black Art

The Black Arts Movement played a pivotal part in promoting Black art to advocate political consciousness through the Black community and the western art world. In developing the arts during the Black Arts Movement, it was mainly Black male artists who were helped, with a few exceptions. Meanwhile, the Feminist Art Movement in the United States that began shortly after primarily promoted White women artists. Many Black women artists faced the intersecting challenge of being Black and being a woman, which offered different perspectives on their role as artists. To fully understand the role of Black women during the Black Arts Movement, we must explore Black feminism and art. The scarcity of art by Black women artists, and their reduced visibility in visual art disconnects the historical, gendered, and lived experiences of Black women. This paper argues that Black women artists, despite the Black Arts Movement, challenged a patriarchal and racist system in which their experiences were often missing. Through interviews with lesser-known Black women artists, this presentation highlights their narratives during the 1970s and the effects of the Black Arts Movement. Discussed in this presentation is how for Black women artists Black feminist art became a movement in conjunction with the Black Arts Movement. A consideration of the significance of the Black Arts Movement identifies how gender and race shaped many Black women artists’ actions and values, and impacted their artistic practice.