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In 1967, ArtsCanada convened seven men for a one-hour telephone discussion on the multiple meanings of “black”:

"as spatial concept, symbol, paint quality; the socio-political implications of black; black as stasis, negation, nothingness and black as change,

impermanence and potentiality"

A debate ensued between Cecil Taylor, the only black discussant, and Ad Reinhardt. In a recent conversation with fellow artist Kerry James Marshall, Charles Gaines recounted their conflict and its continuing significance for contemporary art:

"For Reinhardt of course, the word ‘black’ referenced a universal idea because black and absence were for him trans-lingual...For Taylor, black was steeped in language; it couldn’t be considered except as a metaphor because of his experience of dealing with it politically. One idea that came out of this debate was that the term provoked a binary that ultimately placed constraints on our thinking: how the meaning of the term is informed by one’s experience. Even though Ad was making the argument that it was trans-linguistic, only a white person could entertain such a pure notion. The suggestion was that its racial connotation is irrelevant to ideas of art. Cecil found in Ad’s commentary the kind of ideological thinking that perpetuates racism."

Our session seeks to re-stage the 1967 roundtable discussion on “black”, with especial focus on the problematic raised by the Taylor-Reinhardt debate –– specifically, how the significance of “black” is informed by “white.” Practicing artists, curators, and critics especially welcome.