Arianna Issa

The questions these artists wrestled with not only reflect the tumult of the 1960s, but also provide the foundation for innumerable works of art made since. Are aesthetic sensibilities specific to racial identity? What relationship should artists have with the social and political concerns of Black Americans?

Spiral was a New York–based collective of African-American artists that came together in the 1960s to discuss their relationship to the civil rights movement and the shifting landscape of American art, culture and politics. The group included artists Charles Alston, Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Calvin Douglass, Perry Ferguson, Reginald Gammon,... See more