Kwame Brathwaite

Kwame Brathwaite (b. 1938, New York, d. 2023) revolutionized how Black culture, beauty, and wealth were photographed while capturing some of the greatest icons of the 1960s and 1970s. His influential portraits began in 1956 and spanned decades until his final commission in 2018; his work captured the true essence of a Black community through photography. Taking inspiration from the writings of Marcus Garvey and the teachings of Carlos Cooks, Brathwaite centered economic independence and highlighted the cultural richness in the African American community, creating a space for the celebration of Black beauty in both local and global contexts. Brathwaite assisted in creating the visual overture for the “Black is Beautiful Movement” which took place during the late 50's and early 60’s through the organizations he co-founded: the African Jazz Art Society & Studio (AJASS) (1956) and the Grandassa Models (1962), two organizations set on furthering the Black is Beautiful Movement and the artistic community surrounding it.

 

In 2021, Brathwaite had his first major retrospective, Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful that premiered at the Skirball Cultural Center and organized by the Aperture Foundation. This exhibition traveled to the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, Columbia Museum of Art, Blanton Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, The New-York Historical Society and University of Alabama. A monograph of the same title, produced by the Aperture Foundation, was released May 2019 with essays by Deborah Willis, Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts of New York University and Tanisha C. Ford, Professor of History at The Graduate Center, CUNY. Brathwaite's work is in the collections of such institutions as Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Pérez Art Museum Miami, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Museum of the City of New York, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, MIT List Visual Arts Center, and Sharjah Art Museum. Brathwaite’s work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vogue, New York Post, New York Magazine, National Geographic, Aperture, and other publications. Current exhibitions include Infinite Hope at Jenkins Johnson Gallery San Francisco, Giants: Art From the Dean Collection of Swizz Beats and Alicia Keys at the High Museum, Re/Presenting at Amherst College and Project A Black Planet at the Art Institute of Chicago.