Meaning Matter Memory

Selections from the extraordinary Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, accompanying the highly anticipated opening of the institution’s first-ever purpose-built museum

Meaning Matter Memory is a keepsake extension of the Studio Museum’s collection of artwork by artists of African descent. Beautiful illustrations of significant works by more than 250 artists are accompanied by original texts from more than 100 voices in the art world, including writers, scholars, artists, and critics.

Celebrating myriad voices and artistic media, styles, and eras, this handbook glimpses into the profound and manifold artistic achievements made by Black artists for over 200 years. The book exhibits and carries forward a principal tenet of the Studio Museum’s mission: to serve as the stewards of the work – old, new, and still to be created – by artists of African descent.

Featuring work by: Derrick Adams, Emma Amos, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Jordan Casteel, Elizabeth Catlett, Nick Cave, Samuel Fosso, Theaster Gates, Cy Gavin, Barkley L. Hendricks, Arthur Jafa, Rashid Johnson, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Gordon Parks, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Augusta Savage, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, and Carrie Mae Weems, among many more.

Thelma Golden is Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Connie H. Choi is Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Mary Schmidt Campbell, PhD, is President Emerita of Spelman College, Dean Emerita of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, former NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner, and former Executive Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Kinshasha Holman Conwill is Deputy Director Emerita of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and former Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Lowery Stokes Sims is a curator, art historian, and social catalyst who has been dedicated to bringing diversity and plurality to the art world for over five decades, and former Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

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