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artherstory.bsky.social
A rose by #SarahMappsDouglass, for #RoseDay in #BlackHistoryMonth

#Blackwomenartists
artherstory.bsky.social Art Herstory @artherstory.bsky.social · Sep 9
I love a flower!, c. 1833, by #SarahMappsDouglass (American, 1806-82), who was born #otd, Sept 9. From the Amy Matilda Cassey Album, The Library Company of Philadelphia, digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/ob...

#artherstory #womenartists #hernaturalhistory
Album page containing a watercolor drawing of a wild pink rose above eight lines of allegorical verse about the beauty of flowers. Shows the rose with a stem, five green leaves surrounding the petals, and two buds. The eight lines of verse read: I love a flower! it ever brings/ A warmth of feeling to my heart,/ Unlike those gay and gilded things/ That flatter coldly, coldly part./ But flowers! – Oh they are eloquent/ They speak when lips would still be dumb/ When by the hand of friendship sent,/ Her price interpreters they come.
February 8, 2025 at 2:35 AM
alma-and-hilma.bsky.social
History and Resistance: Quilts as Protest Art

Prepare to be blown away by the Renwick Gallery’s exhibition, "We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists." #SmithsonianAmericanArt #Blackwomenartists
Sylvia Hernandez, Flint Water (2017)
April 12, 2025 at 11:22 PM
psycheternal.bsky.social
Here are some #WIPs since I haven't posted here in a while #art #illustration #aa #soulaanart #blackart #blackartist #africanamerican #digitalart #blackwomanart #blackwomenartists #blackwomanart #blackgirlart #blackgirl
June 27, 2025 at 4:04 PM
tehanu28.bsky.social
Woman artist of the day: Betye Saar (1926-)
#womenartists #blackwomenartists
March 11, 2025 at 7:36 AM
mdstamper.bsky.social
"Afro Goddess Looking Forward" by Mickalene Thomas (American) - Rhinestones, acrylic, and oil on wood panel / 2015 - Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) #WomenInArt #MickaleneThomas #BarnesFoundation #artText #BlackArt #womensArt #WomenArtists #art #arte #SelfPortrait #BlackWomenArtists
In this self-portrait, American artist Mickalene Thomas casts herself as an “Afro Goddess,” centering Black feminine power, beauty, and self-possession. With collaged eyes (photographs inserted into a painted body) which insist that we meet her gaze, she turns centuries of art-history to a contemporary piecing looking back at us. Rhinestones and saturated patterning amplify her presence, refusing the idea that adornment is superficial. Sparkle functions as armor, halo, and spotlight all at once. She depicts herself as a Black woman reclining across a low sofa, her body angled diagonally while her face turns towards us. Her skin is rendered in warm brown tones, edged with tiny rhinestones that catch the light along her jaw, lips, and hands. A dense, glittering Afro forms a halo around her head with its surface sparkling like a night sky. Across her eyes, a narrow black-and-white photographic strip interrupts the painted face, showing the artist’s own gaze staring directly outward. She wears a lush green robe patterned with flowers and purples, draped over crossed legs, the fabric pooling into the foreground. Behind her, overlapping panels of wallpaper, cushions, and collage with oversized daisies, pink and green swirls, muted creams and browns create a patchwork interior that feels both domestic and stage-like. A hint of tabletop greenery and still-life objects flickers at the left edge, deepening the sense of a lived-in room. The overall effect is sumptuous, layered, and unapologetically glamorous. Created in the middle of her career, while Thomas was living in New York and gaining international recognition, the work extends her project of reimagining modern interiors and reclining nudes through a Black feminist lens. The self-portrait aligns with the artist’s commitment to love as a radical practice that honors queer Black womanhood, everyday glamour, and the right to take up space with confidence, tenderness, and joy.
December 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
adoraadoreher.blacksky.app
🔍 Techniques:
Always working dark to light and thin to fat. Progression photos used to be really helpful to me when watching other artists work.

#art #painting #sketch #oilpainting #paintingprocess #paintingtutorial #blackwomenartists #artprogress #oilpaintingtechnique
Still life progress oil painting photos by Adora Rose Horton
February 5, 2025 at 12:42 AM
pheauxtogenic.bsky.social
Tschabalala Self, Out of Body, 2015. oil on fabric collage on canvas. 82x60".

#blackart #tschabalalaself #blackwomenartists
March 1, 2025 at 2:17 AM
mdstamper.bsky.social
“Self-Portrait” by Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence (American, born Barbados) - Oil on canvas / 1991 - Seattle Art Museum (Washington) #WomenInArt #GwendolynKnightLawrence #artText #SeattleArtMuseum #SelfPortrait #GwenKnight #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #BlackArt #AmericanArtist #BlackWomenArtists
This self-portrait depicts artist Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence around age 78, after decades spent painting, teaching, and supporting the career of her husband, Jacob Lawrence, while her own work was only beginning to receive wide recognition. The tight cropping and stark background strip away setting and status, leaving us with a Black woman whose life has been devoted to art and community. The painting shows Knight Lawrence as a close-up bust-length figure turned slightly to her left, meeting us with a steady, appraising gaze. Her brown skin is modeled in thin, translucent layers of beige, green, and rose, emphasizing planes of cheekbone, brow, and jaw rather than smoothing them away. A cap of short, pale gray hair is brushed back from her forehead, threaded with faint streaks of blue and yellow. Her dark eyes sit in softened sockets, ringed by shadow that suggests age and intensity rather than fatigue. The lips are closed and unsmiling, edged with a muted red. She wears a high-collared navy top, creating a solid vertical shape anchoring the lower half of the canvas. Behind her, a field of saturated red on the left presses against a cooler violet-brown on the right, so her head seems to emerge from a charged, uncertain space instead of a clearly defined room. The high collar recalls a studio coat, aligning her with working painters rather than with the glamorous sitters in many traditional portraits. Her expression looks quietly resistant … alert, skeptical, and self-possessed … as if she is measuring how history has seen her and how she sees herself. Created when she began receiving major retrospectives and awards, the work insists on the presence of an elder Black woman artist whose vision never dimmed. Via exhibitions such as “Lives Connected: Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight” and “Never Late for Heaven: The Art of Gwen Knight,” this portrait anchors her legacy. She is not merely the partner of a famous painter, but a formidable artist in her own right.
November 24, 2025 at 5:35 PM
mdstamper.bsky.social
“Self-Portrait” by Howardena Pindell (American) - Oil on Masonite / 1962 - Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, New York) #WomenInArt #art #artText #artwork #HowardenaPindell #Pindell #TheMet #SelfPortrait #BlackArt #BlackWomenArtists #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #AfricanAmericanArtist
In this vertical oil painting, a young Black woman, the artist herself, fills a small Masonite panel from chest up, turned slightly to her left while facing us with a steady, unsmiling gaze. Her medium-brown skin is modeled in bold planes of yellow-tan, olive green, and rosy shadows, so the face feels both sculpted and vulnerable. Thick, visible brushstrokes build the high bridge of her nose, full lips, and her wide, pale eyes that seem to catch light without sharp pupils, intensifying her watchful expression. Her dark hair is parted and swept back close to the head, forming a compact cap of paint. She wears a deep green top with a warm coral-pink collar wrapping snugly around her neck, adding a band of color that echoes the tones in her face. Behind her, loosely painted greens and creams suggest a studio interior or landscape glimpsed through a window, leaving the setting deliberately indistinct so that our attention stays on her searching, self-defining stare. Painted in 1962, when Howardena Pindell was studying painting at Boston University, this early self-portrait shows her working through figuration before the abstract, hole-punched canvases that would later make her famous. Rough, layered brushwork and deliberately exaggerated color signal an artist testing how paint can register both likeness and emotion. The yellow-green mask of her face may suggest the tension of being seen and mis-seen as a young Black woman in predominantly white art institutions. Seen in hindsight, the work quietly anticipates Pindell’s lifelong engagement with racism, feminism, and the politics of visibility, even as it remains a straightforward exercise in looking hard at herself. This modest panel stands as an important record of an emerging artist who would go on to become a trailblazing curator at MoMA, a co-founder of A.I.R. Gallery, and a vital voice in contemporary art and criticism, insisting that Black women artists be visible on their own terms.
December 7, 2025 at 7:39 PM
mdstamper.bsky.social
“Flower Sniffer” (Self-portrait) by Emma Amos (American) – Oil on canvas / 1966 – Brooklyn Museum (New York) #WomenInArt #EmmaAmos #BrooklynMuseum #artText #art #BlackWomenArtists #arte #AfricanAmericanArtist #BlueskyArt #selfportrait #BlackArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #ContemporaryArt
Painted in 1966, this early self-portrait shows Emma Amos asserting herself within an art world that largely centered white male abstraction. By placing her own image at the heart of a modernist, geometric composition, she insists that Black women’s lives and pleasures belong inside the canon, not at its margins. Inside a wide circular frame that feels like both window and mirror, a young Black woman, Smos herself, with medium-brown skin sits in profile, her body turned while her head tilts toward us. She wears a vivid red dress with a blue collar, her straight black bob cut neatly framing her face. Her gaze meets ours, steady and thoughtful, even as she bends slightly over a small bouquet of green, yellow, and red flowers cradled in her hands. The circle is edged with warm browns, set against a flat field of saturated blue. Within the circle, the background is divided into soft off-white and pale yellow planes, with a sliver of magenta tabletop and stacked color blocks at the lower right. Broad, visible brushstrokes, simplified shapes, and bold contrasts flatten the space, turning this quiet act of smelling flowers into a striking, graphic image. The artist’s posture, rich color, and framing convey a sense of contemplation, sanctuary, and self-possession. The circular “portal” can be viewed as a mirror, a studio window, or even a halo-like emblem of self-regard, echoing Amos’s belief that, “For me, a Black woman artist, to walk into the studio is a political act.” The small bouquet suggests both everyday joy and self-care, as if she has gathered these flowers for herself in the midst of struggle. Decades later, she would insert this painting inside “Sandy and Her Husband,” literally weaving her younger self into a narrative of Black love and intimacy. Born in segregated Atlanta and later the only woman in the Spiral collective, Amos used color, pattern, and figuration to challenge racism and sexism in art history.
December 5, 2025 at 6:11 AM
martyhoran144.bsky.social
Fabulous #RenwickGallery tour by #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum docent, Melissa Clark! 🤩🖼️👏 The highlight was definitely #WeGatherAtTheEdge ~ Contemporary #Quilts by #BlackWomenArtists ‼️🤎🎨

#art #SkyArt #DCart #Smithsonian #DMVart #SAAM #WashingtonDC #VisualArt #MustSee @smithsonianmag.bsky.social
May 5, 2025 at 10:37 PM
silverpixieworx.bsky.social
💫Tea Parties never looked so magical💐
Our Black Lady Tea Party scene is coming alive-rich pastires, glowing teas, and all the elegance of Black feminine energy.
#blackladyteaparty #digitalart #blackwomenartists #magicalgirlenergy
November 4, 2025 at 4:45 AM
mdstamper.bsky.social
“Self-Portrait” by Jordan Casteel (American) - Oil & paper collage with ink, graphite, and colored pencil on canvas / 2012 - Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze, Denver Art Museum (Colorado) #WomenInArt #art #artText #DenverArtMuseum #SelfPortrait #BlackArt #BlackWomenArtists #Casteel #JordanCasteel
This self-portrait shows American artist Jordan Casteel seated in a vinyl hospital-style chair, body angled slightly toward us while her gaze meets ours head-on. Her medium-brown skin is modeled with saturated strokes of orange, crimson, plum, and purple, giving her face a restless, shifting light. White glasses frame the artist’s steady eyes. A simple shirt and hospital IV emphasize vulnerability more than fashion as an IV line snakes from the upper edge of the image to her exposed forearm, where tape fixes the needle in place. Around and behind her, collaged drawings and handwritten notes from children crowd the wall with things like dinosaurs, hearts, and portraits labeled “Ms. Casteel” to create a halo of student voices. A patterned blanket spills across her lap, its concentric circles and bright yellows, reds, and greens echoing the layered textures of her paint. One parch of the blanket spells the word “hope” no lowercase. This self portrait chronicles a period when Casteel was managing a chronic health condition while teaching in Denver, Colorado just before going to graduate school at Yale. The medical setting makes illness visible, but the composition refuses to reduce her to a patient as she sits upright, centered, and monumental, surrounded by evidence of care from her students. Those collaged letters turn a clinic into a temporary classroom, insisting that her identities as artist, teacher, and Black woman remain intact even under fluorescent hospital lights. The thick, gestural brushwork and unconventional skin tones anticipate the portraits of family, neighbors, and Harlem community members that later made her well-known. Here, she tests that language on herself. By inviting us into an intimate, unglamorous moment, Casteel “returns the gaze” long before her breakthrough museum shows, asserting that Black women’s everyday struggles, tenderness, and resilience are worthy subjects for a large-scale contemporary painting.
December 6, 2025 at 7:45 PM
alwca.bsky.social
#blackart #blackwomenartists
February 1, 2025 at 5:01 PM
pheauxtogenic.bsky.social
in September '83 for Harlem's African American Day Parade artist Lorraine O' Grady put on a performance piece after being told "avant garde art doesn't have anything to do with Black people". #blackart #blackwomenartists #bhm
March 1, 2025 at 2:23 AM
rtronblue.bsky.social
#WisdomWednesday

Art is resistance. Art is liberation. And when it’s made by those historically silenced, it becomes a force that refuses to be ignored.

#AvaDuVernay #BlackWomenArtists #DisruptTheNarrative
July 23, 2025 at 10:44 AM
thesaartjiejournal.bsky.social
We respond to all submissions within 24 hours (we promise!). All responses are personalised. There is no fee to submit and there never will be. Visit saartjiejournal.org/submit for more information.

#literarymagazine #blackwomen #blackwomenwriters #blackwomenartists #poetry #fiction #art
An invitation for elligible writers and artists to submit to The Saartjie Journal. Submissions are free, and a personalised response will be given in 24 hours guaranteed. More information can be found at saartjiejournal.org/submit.
April 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
thesaartjiejournal.bsky.social
Send your boldest, strangest, most unclassifiable writing and art to submissions@saartjiejournal.org today. We read year round and respond in 24 hours!

Visit saartjiejournal.org/submit for more information.

#literarymagazine #fiction #poetry #art #blackwomenwriters #blackwomenartists #blackwomen
A flyer detailing a Call for Submissions to The Saartjie Journal, a journal for black women writers and artists. Experimental poetry, fiction, visual art, and hybrid pieces are welcome. Submissions should be sent via email to submissions@saartjiejournal.org. More information can be retrieved from saartjiejournal.org/submit.
July 12, 2025 at 10:27 PM
tuckerdemps11.bsky.social
🖌️ Step inside the world of TuckerDemps — where each brushstroke tells a story of creativity, heritage, and transformation. I create #art that speaks to the spirit and respects the Earth. 🌍💫
Veteran. Artist. Visionary. Based in New Orleans. #BlackWomenArtists #EcoDecor #Upcycled #IndependentArtists
May 30, 2025 at 2:23 AM
august-peach.bsky.social
Here is a photo of a painting I made (SOLD) • Inspiration: I purchased these satsumas at the market, they came with leaves attached. I’ve come to love using gouache paints for their vibrancy, layering and texture. #blackwomenartists #food #artist #blackcreatives #gouache #painting #foodstyling #art
Photo shows a finished painting of vibrant oranges with a light blue and yellow background. There are three whole oranges and two slices, as well as orange leaves. The painting was made with gouache paint so the texture is scratchy. This painting has sold.
November 21, 2024 at 8:21 PM
glasgowprintstudio.bsky.social
Free and open to all — seated, wheelchair accessible.
📍 Glasgow Print Studio, First Floor Gallery
🕑 Saturday 24 May, 2pm
🎟 Free | No booking required

#ChristianNoelleCharles #WaitAMinute #GlasgowPrintStudio #ArtistTalk #BlackWomenArtists #ContemporaryPrintmaking #ArtEventsGlasgow
May 23, 2025 at 1:23 PM
apanaki.bsky.social
5 YEARS, y’all!
Led my Mask Making Workshop again at #Sistabana today & reconnected with incredible women, incl. my sis @steelpanwithsuzette 💫

This space reflects ME — my journey, my purpose, my people.
So blessed to give back 💜

#BlackWomenArtists #HealingThroughArt #MaskMaking #TorontoArts
August 7, 2025 at 2:02 AM
apanaki.bsky.social
She sees you.
Final piece from my Eye of God Collection is DONE: Oju Olorun VI.
Ancestral threads. Divine geometry. A gaze that pierces time.

This ain’t just art. It’s sacred witness.
You are seen. You are held.

#OjuOlorunVI #BlackArt #TextileArtist #BlackWomenArtists #MentalHealthArt
June 11, 2025 at 3:49 PM
racialrec.bsky.social
Searching for Augusta Savage | Full Documentary | American Masters Shorts | PBS
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Augusta Savage: Pioneering Black Sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance
buff.ly/zJKwkdh

Artist Augusta Savage
buff.ly/NGGOa04

#BlackWomen
#BlackWomenArtists
#SchomburgCenter
Searching for Augusta Savage | Full Documentary | American Masters Shorts | PBS
Official website: http://www.pbs.org/americanmasters | #AmericanMastersPBS Augusta Savage was the first person in the U.S. to open a gallery dedicated to African American art. A Harlem Renaissance sculptor and art educator, she was also one of the first Black women art activists of her time and fought for the inclusion of Black artists in the mainstream canon. Art historian Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D. explores Savage's legacy, and why her artwork has been largely erased. Subscribe to the American Masters channel for more clips: http://bit.ly/1JmUCu5 Enjoy full episodes of your favorite American Masters films: http://www.pbs.org/americanmasters FOLLOW AMERICAN MASTERS: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americanmasters X: https://twitter.com/PBSAmerMasters #AmericanMastersPBS Instagram: https://instagram.com/pbsamericanmasters #AmericanMastersPBS TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbsamericanmasters FOLLOW PBS: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pbs/ X: https://twitter.com/PBS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PBS TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbs Shop: http://www.shop.pbs.org/ ___________________________________ Now in its 38th season on PBS, American Masters illuminates the lives and creative journeys of those who have left an indelible impression on our cultural landscape—through compelling, unvarnished stories. Setting the standard for documentary film profiles, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim: 28 Emmy Awards—including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special—two News & Documentary Emmys, 14 Peabodys, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards, an Oscar, and many other honors. To further explore the lives and works of more than 250 masters past and present, the American Masters website offers full episodes, film outtakes, filmmaker interviews, the podcast “American Masters: Creative Spark,” educational resources, digital original series and more. The series is a production of The WNET Group.
buff.ly
July 27, 2025 at 12:46 PM
pratibha.bsky.social
Posting for those who asked. The Second Annual #MaudSulter lecture I gave at Glasgow School of Arts organised by @womenslibrary.bsky.social #streetlevelphotography #blackwomenartists #blackartsmovement #womenartists www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYOP... (i come in at around 10mins)
'Maud Sulter: Shimmering Golden', lecture by Pratibha Parmar
YouTube video by Street Level Photoworks
www.youtube.com
February 26, 2026 at 11:22 AM