African American Art

Click on the image or artist name to view the artists portfolio

Kadir Nelson

Everett Spruill

Albert Mukasa Wilson
 

Click on the image or artist name to view the artists portfolio

WAK

Dwight "Juda" Ward
 

Edward Clay Wright
 

Glossary of Art Terminology

Lithograph

The term lithograph is defined as an image created from a drawing made by an artist on a stone. Some artists creates their original stone lithographs in the classical methodology.  The artist draws on a series of very smoothly ground Bavarian limestone's with a grease-based pencil, a liquid with brushes, and with sharp objects which permit her to scrape away the ink she has drawn onto the stone.  Each stone is millions of years old, and has a texture that is seen through the ink on the paper.

The artist draws a key stone (or major) image, and then background and additional details are drawn on other stones. Most artists generally uses one stone for each color in the resulting art work.   It's possible to create lithographs with as many 32 colors.
 

Serigraph

Serigraphy, also called silk screen printing, occurs when an artist draws with ink on a series of screens, each of which allows inks to be squeezed through their mesh onto paper.  Bold colors, more striking than stone lithography, are often the result.  Some serigraphs are often created with sixty screens and have more than 90 colors.
 

Reproduction

A reproduction, print, or offset lithography, is created by a photomechanical process in which a photograph of an art work, such as a painting, is used to create four basic colors (red, blue, yellow, and black), which are printed together to create dot patterns that give the illusion of many colors.  A reproduction is not an original art form,              although many artists will often limit the amount of each print, and number each one.  Some artists will also sign these non-original prints, although many rarely signs their reproductions. Some artists will not create reproductions from their lithographs.  They prefer to have their reproductions made from their paintings.
 

Giclee

Giclee (pronounced zhee-clay) is the French word for spray.   It is used to describe the creation of a print, often made by the artist on a computer screen, or a painting that the artist then changes on the computer screen, by spraying very fine droplets of ink onto various surfaces, such as paper or canvas.   The fidelity of color and line on   this kind of image is many times finer than what can be created by offset lithography. In fact, the results can be easily confused with an oil painting on canvas, which is why some artists number each giclee on one of the lower corners of the image.
 

Multimedia

Multi-medias are created by using more than one medium in making a work of art. For example, some artists use lithography and serigraphy to make an image. Some also use an overlay in gold created by serigraphy on top of an image made by the medium of giclee.

The numbers on the bottom of art works

The numbers on the bottom of a lithograph or other graphic signify which number the image is, and how many such images are in the entire edition. For example, 17/248 means that this is image number 17 out of a total edition of 248 images.  A Roman numeral, when there is one, indicates the section of the image.   Each section has a different color scheme, but the key image (e.g., a specific mother and child, flower, or landscape) is the same for each section.  For example, II 35/48 ed. 197 means that this is image 35 out of 48 images in section II, and that there are 197 images in the entire edition.

Artist's Proof

An artist's proof is the first trial images made by an artist.   With each proof, the artist can make changes and make other proofs, until he or  she is satisfied with the results.  Then the edition is made.  Instead of numbers on the bottoms of these images, the artist will write the words "artist's proof."