FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 7, 2003
LIVING WITH ART: Modern & Contemporary African American Art from the collection of Alitash Kebede will premiere at the Museum of Texas Tech University on Sunday, January 19, 2003 through March 30.
The exhibition presents a variety of works by many of the most important African American artists from the modern and contemporary periods. Norman Lewis, Charles Alston, Palmer Hayden and Lois Mailou Jones are from the period of the Harlem Renaissance (1920s and 30s), while artists Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Charles White, and Elizabeth Catlett, are included in the group who were active during the period of the WPA (1940s). Artists included in the contemporary period are Herbert Gentry, Richard Mayhew, Ed Clark, Mel Edwards, Al Loving, Bill Hutson, Betye Saar and her daughters, Alison Saar and Lezley Saar, and many others.
Alitash Kebede's interest in art began in her early teens when she first attended an exhibition opening for the painter Skunder Boghossian at Addis Ababa University in her native Ethiopa. After attending college in the United States she began to collect art and now owns more than 100 works. It is Kebede's love of art and her desire to expose young people and others to the joy she has experienced collecting and living with the art that has inspired her to make her collection available for exhibition.
Included are 77 works by 35 different artists. Informational material includes an introductory essay about the collection by African American art historian Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins, Ph.D., a statement by Alitash Kebede, and detailed wall labels with information about each artist.
"The art collection of Alitash Kebede is both comprehensive and impressive. The works offer viewers a variety of styles, subjects, and media," comments Samella Lewis, Ph.D., and Professor Emerita of Art History at Scripps College, Claremount College, CA.
"Alitash Kebede's African American art collection is one of the finest private collections in the US. This well chosen collection ranges broadly and reflects some of the key themes and styles of the artists' careers," remarked Professor Paul Van Blum of the Center for African American Studies at UCLA.
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