The Parrish Art Museum, in collaboration with Hamptons Doc Fest, will present a premiere of HBO’s newly released film, “Black Art: In the Absence of Light.” The documentary was inspired by the late David Driskell’s landmark 1976 exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” that first opened at LACMA.
The film offers an illuminating introduction to the work of some of the foremost Black visual artists working today. A pre-recorded conversation between the director, Sam Pollard, and the Parrish’s Senior Curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects Corinne Erni will follow each screening.
“Black Art: In the Absence of Light” focuses on the extraordinary impact of Driskell’s exhibition featuring generations of Black artists who have staked a claim on their rightful place within the 21st century art world. The documentary explores contributions of Black American artists to the contemporary art world by interweaving insights and context from scholars and historians. In addition, it presents interviews from a new generation of working African American curators and artists including Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald, Carrie Mae Weems, and Theaster Gates, whose work “Monument in Waiting” is currently on view in the museum’s outdoor sculpture installation, “Field of Dreams.”
“It is an honor that the Parrish will be the first venue to host in-person screenings of Sam Pollard’s imperative film, which speaks of the relentless work and struggle of Black artists to be recognized in both the historical and present day art canon, and the key players who support them — from the Studio Museum in Harlem to Michelle and Barack Obama’s portrait commissions by Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley, to Theaster Gates’s investment in his own community through the Rebuild Foundation — and so many more,” said Erni.
To maintain socially distanced seating in the Lichtenstein Theater, the Museum will present two limited capacity screenings. The screenings take place on Friday, April 9, at 6 PM and 8:15 PM. The cost is $20, or $10 for Parrish members, and free for students.
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