Welcome to Reconcile Digest #28. I’m so glad you’re here.
Today’s digest is part narrative literature review, part personal photo diary from last month's art week in London. I am always intrigued by the polished persuasiveness of art fairs like Frieze in Regents Park and 15-4 African Art Fair in Somerset House. The way it seeps into the language of artists, art educators and cultural practitioners.
Every conversation I have with friends around this time ends in ‘oh and will I see you at Frieze?’ (& the answer is always ‘yes! I am heading there after 15-4’).
Who decides what makes an artist valuable, whose work deserves attention, and which stories become part of our cultural history?
This digest explores how artistic value is constructed through the networks of people and institutions that shape the contemporary art world. I start by examining the role of prestigious art fairs like Frieze London in introducing and educating us on emerging artists, then explore an intriguing connection between Black artists and elite taste culture, and finish with an iconic (!) historical symposium on the portrayal of Black people in art from 1926, written by WEB Du Bois. These three research papers come together to ask what has changed, what remains contested, and who gets to shape the stories we tell in the contemporary art world.
Download the WEB Du Bois symposium ‘The Negro in Art: how shall he be portrayed?’, published in The Crisis Magazine in 1926 here.
full access to today’s reference + questions for reflection
How can we recognise artistic value beyond institutional recognition?
What would a more generous and expansive art world look like?
