Brooklyn Museum, New York
September 2018
September 14, 2018–February 3, 2019
Roy DeCavara is among the artists whose work is included in Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Brooklyn Museum in New York. The show, which originated at London’s Tate Modern in 2017 and traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas earlier this year, focuses on black artistic practice from 1963 to 1983, and features the work of over sixty artists active during the movement. In a review of the show for Art in America, Elizabeth Fullerton concluded, "Soul of a Nation is an electric exhibition that attests to how significantly racial biases have limited the canon." David Zwirner announced exclusive worldwide representation of the Estate of Roy DeCarava in June 2018.
As part of the museum’s related programming, art historian Sherry Turner DeCarava will give a talk celebrating the new edition of Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes’ The Sweet Flypaper of Life—a collaboration between photographer and poet that captures daily life in Harlem through a combination of words and pictures. First published in 1955, the book, which is widely considered a classic of photographic visual literature, was reprinted by public demand several times. This fourth printing is the first authorized English-language edition since 1983, and includes an afterword by Turner DeCarava tracing the history and ongoing importance of the publication.
November 8, 2018, 7–9 PM Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn Museum